Biodiversity On Earth Plummets, Despite Growth in Protected Habitats

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/30/richness-of-life-on-earth_n_913958.html Global population is expected to pass 7 billion in October, according to new estimates from the population division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs at the United Nations. That’s an increase of 1 billion people in about a dozen years. Other challenges include the size of protected areas — which are often too small for larger species to survive — and the lack of connectivity between protected areas, which is needed for healthy genetic dispersal. The authors of Thursday’s analysis suggest that reversing biodiversity losses will require a vast rethinking of conservation strategy — one that redirects limited resources toward more holistic solutions. This would include efforts to reduce human population growth — and its attending consumption patterns — as well as the deployment of technologies that would increase the productivity of agriculture and aquaculture to meet human needs. Also needed, the authors wrote: a continued “restructuring of world views to bring them in line with a world of finite resources.” Dr. Sale said, “In the final analysis, we have to recognize that we are pushing up against limits set by the way the biosphere functions. Biodiversity loss is one sign of this.”