'Major biodiversity hotspots under threat'

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON, MAY 12. Two influential international environment groups have expressed ``alarm'' over the rapid erosion of natural wildlife reserves, particularly in the Third World, where increasingly the land meant for protecting biodiversity is being put to agricultural use to feed a growing and impoverished population.

In a joint report released here, the World Conservation Union (IUCN) and the Washington-based Future Harvest said that nearly half of the world's 17,000 major natural reserves were threatened because of farming.

They warned that wildlife was at risk in as many as 16 of the world's 25 key biodiversity ``hotspots'' because of local compulsions driven by poverty and hunger, rampant in these areas.

Many plants and animals faced extinction as protected land was cleared for agricultural use to feed the local population.

``Many plants and animals will go extinct unless ecosystems are managed in such a way as to feed people and protect wild species simultaneously'', the report said outlining a new strategy to strike a balance between protecting biodiversity and meeting the food requirements of the local population.

The new approach called ``eco-agriculture'' is intended to help farmers living in the proximity of biodiversity ``hotspots'' to grow more food without destroying habitats crucial to the survival of wildlife.

It is claimed to be the first attempt of its kind to create a synergy between wild biodiversity and agriculture. ``Our report shows that agriculture and biodiversity are inextricably linked'', said Mr. Jeffrey A.McNeely, chief scientist at IUCN and co-author of the report, stressing the need to make preservation of biodiversity a part of agricultural enterprise.

Eco-agriculture, he said, was being applied successfully in many parts of the world.

Another co-author, Ms Sara J. Scherr of the University of Maryland, said eco-agriculture recognised the fact that endangered species and the ``desperately poor'' occupied the same ground as they struggled to survive.

``Eco-agriculture could transform agriculture and environmental protection - protecting wildlife biodiversity while addressing the realities of human hunger and population growth'', she said.

Extracts from the report ``Common Ground, Common Future: How Eco- agriculture Can Help Feed the World and Save Wildlife Biodiversity'', indicated that almost 20 per cent of the world's population lived within the 25 most threatened, species-rich areas - identified as ``biodiversity hotspots'' by IUCN.

``The majority of these hotspots are located in areas with very high malnutrition - home to fully one-quarter of all the undernourished people in the developing world'', it said warning that the pressure was likely to grow, posing greater threat to biodiversity.

It quoted researchers as saying that if forest- clearing continued at its present rate, the world's forests could lose more than half of their remaining species in the next 50 years.

``Biodiversity is more threatened now than at any time since the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago'', it said, dramatising the effect of deforestation.

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