Retaining the 'nature' linkage

Our world is experiencing a lot of chaos and tragedy on account of our broken relationship with nature. A virus that spilled over from wildlife to humans, has caused a global pandemic. It is expected that the COVID-19 crisis will enhance extreme poverty globally. Climate change is fuelling weather events of unprecedented scale and devastation, leading to drastic alterations to our natural, built and social environments. The erosion digging away at our coastal beaches and river bends is a serious threat to the people living in coastal areas. Earth's ecosystem that supports our life, is in a severe state of degradation. The significant achievement of economic growth over the past few decades has been accompanied by large amounts of pollution, with significant impacts on human health and ecosystems and the ways in which some of the major Earth system processes, such as the climate, are functioning.

With advancement in technologies and management strategies, we have been able to control some forms of pollution, but approximately 19 million premature deaths are still estimated to occur annually as a result of the way societies use natural resources and impact the environment to support production and consumption. The existing pattern of consumption and production — the linear economic model of "take-make-dispose" — will seriously burden an already polluted planet, affecting current and future generations.

Presently, the degradation of land and marine ecosystems destabilizes the well-being of 3.2 billion people, and costs about 10 per cent of the annual global gross product in species loss and ecosystem services. Of the estimated eight million species on Earth, around a million face extinction. Many of these are now threatened to face extinction within decades, which may lead to a biodiversity collapse. The average abundance of native species in major land-based habitats has fallen by at least 20 per cent, mostly since 1900. More than 40 per cent of amphibian species, almost 33 per cent of reef-forming corals and more than a third of all marine mammals are now under threat. All over the world, the first priority is to provide more food, energy and materials to people to improve their lifestyle by exploiting nature's ability without considering adverse impacts on nature and human health. Researchers have ranked the five direct drivers of change in nature with the largest relative global impacts so far. In descending order of importance, they are: changes in land and sea use; direct exploitation of organisms; climate change; and pollution and invasive alien species. As key ecosystems that deliver services essential to food and agriculture (e.g., freshwater supply, protection against hazards, and provision of habitat for species such as fish and pollinators) rapidly decline, we are clearly living out of harmony with nature.

Millions of young people in many countries demand climate action but there is no easy cure for what ails the environment. No silver bullet can restore the natural world overnight. But preventing the ongoing loss of natural ecosystems must be the first priority for limiting future emissions and the loss of vital biodiversity. In parallel, the restoration and sustainable management of degraded regions (natural or assisted) can then contribute to the drawdown of additional carbon and the recovery of local species. At the same time, we must avoid perverse negative consequences such as the loss of natural ecosystems or re-vegetation of degraded lands with non-native species, which could risk them becoming invasive. Such cases are not restoration and should not be tracked as progress toward restoration goals. Restoration is an inherently local challenge, requiring intricate knowledge of the specific social and ecological context. It encompasses a range of land-management strategies, including the conservation of existing ecosystems, the protection of land to support natural recovery, assisted restoration in degraded regions, sustainable ecosystem management, and holistic agricultural practices (e.g., agroforestry) to promote local biodiversity and human well-being. Providing unifying social and ecological insights to inform local land-management decisions —assessing the trade-offs and synergies among different land-use approaches — will be a major scientific challenge in supporting restoration efforts over the coming decade. Restoration targets need to be formulated as contributions to biodiversity (e.g., reduced risk of species extinction) and climate (e.g., carbon sequestration) and not a percentage of area. In addition to these, restoration targets need inclusive scope beyond restoring the vegetation structure of forest ecosystems. They should therefore also encompass other ecosystems (e.g., wetlands and coral reefs), biodiversity elements (e.g., species reintroduction and conservation translocation), and drivers (e.g., pollution remediation and eradication of invasive alien species). Above all, there is an emergent need to ''bend the curve'' of both biodiversity loss and climate change, and restoration must be targeted hand in hand with threat abatement. Averting loss now is easier, cheaper, faster, and less uncertain than restoration. Indigenous peoples' knowledge and practices are important to increasing the effectiveness of restoration activities in degraded ecosystems. Such contributions can be amplified, ensuring their full involvement in the co-design of restoration activities affecting their territories, and recognizing their visions of healthy and productive ecosystems. Many examples demonstrate that indigenous peoples' active involvement in restoration activities substantially increases the success and legitimacy. Most glorious example is the sacred forest in Meghalaya that I have visited many times.

In view of the above, it may be mentioned that ecosystems are unique capital assets for humankind. If properly managed, they yield a flow of vital services. These include the production of goods, such as food and raw materials, and support for economic activity and welfare through pollination, recycling pollutants, natural protection, and other important processes. Most importantly, the ecosystems are not only fixed in supply and subject to irreversible loss; they are prone to abrupt collapse if sufficiently disturbed or degraded. On a global scale, the uncertainty about unforeseen future impacts, coupled with irreversible and substantial environmental losses, is exacerbating global environmental risks —from climate change to biodiversity loss to natural disasters. We need to ensure that the rising scarcity of ecosystems and their services is reflected in our market, business, and public decisions. These decisions must recognize that the benefits — or the valuable goods and services — that are generated by ecosystems are wide ranging but generally unmarketed. This is why they are frequently misused or overused, and such irreversible conversion can increase the risk of ecological collapse. Only by taking on the economics of ecosystems will we be on the path to global restoration.

The writer is a former Senior Scientist, Central Pollution Control Board. Views expressed are personal