Among the findings of the WWF Living Planet Report 2014 was a particularly sobering fact: the global Living Planet Index (LPI), which measures more than 10,000 representative populations of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish, has registered a 52% decline in wildlife between 1970 and 2010.



In the report Marco Lambertini, director general of WWF International, outlines how serious this is: “In less than two human generations, population sizes of vertebrate species have dropped by half. These are the living forms that constitute the fabric of the ecosystems which sustain life on Earth ... We ignore their decline at our peril.”

With global species decline showing no sign of slowing down, this is a time for urgent reassessment with regards to how humans interact with the planet. What in particular is the role of business in creating this decline and can businesses be convinced to act for the good of the biosphere?

The WWF states in its report that there are three main threats to wildlife, the first is habitat loss and degradation, the second is exploitation through hunting and fishing – for food, sport, or as accidental bycatch. The third threat is climate change.

Trade

Examples of habitat destruction by businesses are plentiful. From oil companies devastating rainforests and oceans to mining companies dumping toxic waste.

Industrial development means only an estimated 300 Sumatran Tigers remain in the wild. As Indonesia undergoes fast economic and social change, precious habitats are being lost. “Over half of Indonesia’s forests which are home to these tigers, and many other animals, have vanished in the last 40 years”, says Sarah Christie, head of regional conservation programmes at the Zoological Society of London (ZSL). “Over half of the lost forests have been replaced by palm oil plantations.” Poaching is also a problem with approximately 40 Sumatran Tigers being killed each year.

As habitats are replaced by palm oil plantations, tigers are forced to move into human populated areas in search of food. ZLS is working “with the Indonesian government to protect tigers from poaching, and with the government and industry to foster sustainable palm oil production for the future,” says Christie. “The aim is to ensure future plantations are not sited on the remaining forests.”

Illegal trade

It is not just legal trade that is taking its toll on wildlife. “Rhinos are currently facing the possibility of extinction as soon as 2026 due to the escalating poaching crisis,” says Susie Offord, deputy director of Save the Rhino International. “Poaching in South Africa has increased over 6,000% from 13 in 2007, to over 1,004 in 2013.” There are now just 5,000 black rhinos and 20,000 white rhinos left in the wild.

The market for rhino horn exists mainly in Vietnam and China, fuelled by beliefs in its medicinal use (despite rhino horn being merely the same substance as human fingernails) and more recently its purchase and display by wealthy business men as a status commodity. “It is used as a status symbol displaying an individual’s wealth and success, the same way someone may park a Ferrari outside their house,” explains Offord.

Campaigners are now targeting consumers in Vietnam with the aim of addressing what Offord calls “the emotional and functional drivers that influence them to choose rhino horn”. The campaign aims to persuade men - and men are the main customers - that virility and good luck come from internal character rather than an animal horn.

Alternatives

When companies participate in conservation projects there is a great deal of cynicism about whether they are merely engaging in ‘greenwash’. In Ecuador, however, there is a very real attempt to align entrepreneurship with the conservation of the Ecuadorian Amazon – the world’s most biodiverse tropical rainforest.

The key is the establishment of the Socio Bosque (Forest Partners) programme to conserve forests. “Socio Bosque is a pioneering scheme signed between communities, private landowners and the state,” explains Fidel Narvaez, first secretary at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. “As well as participants agreeing to end the hunting of wildlife, they also sign up to protect Ecuador’s precious forests, ensuring the habitat of thousands of species remains intact.”

Socio Bosque runs on similar principles to the UN’s Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+). Ecuador’s Ministry of Environment (MAE) offers 20 year contracts of yearly payments to landowners in exchange for them not cutting down or damaging forest land.

Resulting in the conservation of over 1.1m hectares of forest, Socio Bosque has protected wildlife habitats and provided alternative economic options to indigenous communities and businesses. “The communities have a source of income from the scheme, so they do not depend on hunting animals for survival,” Narvaez explains. “In working together to make the scheme work, all the parties involved have become more conscious of the need to preserve our environment and wildlife.”

In the fight to protect wildlife, the needs of impoverished humans and animals are often depicted as being in competition. However this approach hides the interdependency of humans and wildlife. The WWF point out that not only are habitats like forests needed to regulate the climate, but that 2 billion of the poorest people depend directly on forests: for shelter, livelihoods, water, fuel and food.

It is vital therefore that reversing global species decline is undertaken as a means of being a lifeline not just for animals but for people and planet too.

This article was amended on 9 October. Rhinos are facing the possibility of extinction as soon as 2026, not 2016 as previously understood



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