...BUT A HUMAN IMPERATIVE

Depletion of natural habitats, reduction and extinction of animal and plant species, and disruptions to inter and intra-species interactions, among other forms of biodiversity loss, disrupt the delicate balance of ecosystems and compromise the vital services they provide to humans.

Biodiversity loss – such as the destruction of mangrove forests in coastal areas around Asia – can reduce ecosystem’s ability to buffer these events, and in turn increase community vulnerability to these disasters and erode their right to a healthy environment.

  • 225.3 million people in Asia-Pacific were displaced between 2010-2021 due to natural disasters
  • 95% of which were weather-related displacements
  • 80% were due to floods and storms
ReliefWeb, Climate displacement & migration in South East Asia, 2023.

USD

5500000000000

(5.5 TRILLION)

SUPPORTING SERVICES AND HUMAN RIGHTS

Disruptions to supporting services, which have a direct or indirect role in upholding all other ecosystem services, could adversely hit Asia’s collective GDP by more than USD 5.5 trillion.

For instance, insect pollination is a supporting service essential for maintaining genetic diversity in plants, which has implications on crop productivity, disease regulation and maintaining an ecosystem-wide food chain.

ECOSYSTEMS AND BIODIVERSITY

The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) defines biodiversity as “the variability among living organisms,” including “diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems” An ecosystem, according to the CBD, is “a dynamic complex of plant, animal and micro-organism communities and their non-living environment interacting as a functional unit”

ECOSYSTEMS AND BIODIVERSITY

Ecosystems are under threat from a spectrum of pressures,most of them related to business practices. The primary drivers of ecosystem collapse are:

  1. Land-use change
  2. Climate change
  3. Resource exploitation
  4. Pollution and
  5. Invasive species.

ECOSYSTEM SERVICES AND THE ECONOMY

Disruptions to ecosystems services could adversely hit Asia's collective GDP by more than USD 5.5. trillion and lead to severe food security issues

ECOSYSTEMS and HUMAN RIGHTS.

Vulnerable populations, especially indigenous communities, experience profound human rights implications of losing ecosystem services.

Approximately 260 million of the world’s 370 million indigenous inhabitants live in Asia and yet they face the gravest human rights implications.

POVERTY
DISCRIMINATION
LOSS OF LAND
LOSS OF NATURAL RESOURCES
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