When Man Does Not Live in Harmony with Nature

Finally, the French city of Marseille will host the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

The congress aims to stop the accelerating destruction of natural habitats and protect endangered species due to human activity. Senior international figures will attend the conference, including French President Emmanuel Macron. The conference will be held through “mixed-attendance” method, in-person and virtual, due to Covid-19.

The event, which has been postponed twice due to the widespread pandemic, is part of an important round of negotiations leading up to the Conference of the Parties (COP) on Biopersity to be held in China in April 2022.

During this conference, the international community should endorse a document aimed at “Living in Harmony with Nature” by 2050, with interim targets for 2030.

The entire world is facing unprecedented challenges, as it is undergoing a change in climate that has dire consequences for all cities and countries. It also witnesses the disappearance of biopersity with the epidemic hitting our economies, families, and health. Undoubtedly, we know that all of these challenges are linked to uncivilized and cruel human behavior.

In the same vein, the United Nations experts said biopersity is deteriorating, noting that up to one million species of animals and plants are threatened with extinction.

In early 2019, the experts warned that nature "is deteriorating faster than at any time in human history." This deterioration is often referred to as the "sixth mass extinction", which threatens the conditions of human existence on the planet.

This phenomenon can be clearly noticed in the multiplying disasters— associated with the climate change’s effects caused by human activities— such as storms, floods, droughts and fires.

In a nutshell, disappearance of species and destruction of ecosystems constitute existential threats, no less dangerous than the phenomenon of global warming that comes on green land, according to scientists and specialists participating in the IUCN conference.

In parallel with this fact, climate change negatively affects the future of many species, especially endemic animals and plants that live on small islands or in some biopersity hotspots. This is indicated by an update of the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

In this manner, the Indonesian Komodo dragon, trapped on island habitats made smaller by rising seas, was listed as "endangered". The wildlife Red List also warned that overfishing threatens nearly two-in-five sharks with extinction.

About 28 percent of the 138,000 species assessed by the IUCN are now at risk of vanishing in the wild forever. Five species of serrated shellfish or "carpenter sharks" that attach their noses to fishing gear, and the shortfin mako shark, are among the most threatened. Rising sea levels are expected to shrink its tiny habitat at least 30 percent over the next 45 years.

Chondrichthyan fish, a group made up mainly of sharks and rays, “are important to ecosystems, economies and cultures,” said Sonja Fordham, president of Shark Advocates International and co-author of the upcoming study.

“By not sufficiently limiting catch, we’re jeopardizing ocean health and squandering opportunities for sustainable fishing, tourism, traditions and food security in the long term,” Fordham added.

The Food and Agriculture Organization reports some 800,000 tons of sharks caught — intentionally or opportunistically — each year, but research suggests the true figure is two to four times greater.

What I liked about this conversation congress are two things. Firstly, it discussed the relationship between man and nature, stressing that the hypothesis of transmission of the Coronavirus from an animal to humans is a key point in order to explain the source of the epidemic

Secondly, Indigenous organizations, whose role in protecting nature is increasingly recognized, will be able to vote. There is also a section for the general public, which is an unprecedented move. “Public awareness is much greater” than it has been for years and in the business world as well.

But unfortunately, the participation of developing countries in the conference is very weak due to the unequal distribution of vaccines globally, which suggests another catastrophic ethical failure.

Contributed by Omnia Ahmed