Biodiversity in the wider landscape must be sustained too

Saving Asia's threatened birds, is a guide for governments and civil society to conserve habitats for birds and other biodiversity in Asia Zoom In

The great majority of lands and seas are outside the network of sites that can be safeguarded. It is in this wider environment – where most people live and work – that sustainable development must be achieved, if current levels of biodiversity are to be maintained.

To conserve biodiversity, we must conserve the wider environment

Complex and biodiverse natural habitats continue to undergo sweeping human transformation, into simplified .man-made. ecosystems designed for agriculture, forestry and aquaculture. Safeguarding a global network of key biodiversity areas (including Important Bird Areas) will do much to protect biodiversity – but we must also attend to the wider fabric of nature that surrounds these sites. Key sites need to be linked and buffered to maintain a set of dynamic ecological processes, such as migration and dispersal. But even site networks that are well designed and managed are susceptible to damage from human-driven disturbances in the wider environment – for instance, watershed degradation, air- or waterborne pollution and, in the longer term, climate change. Many species, whether declining or not, have populations that are simply too dispersed or nomadic to be conserved adequately by a fixed system of sites that cover only a small part of their range and population. The biodiversity in our productive landscapes is itself important: when we create sterile agricultural monocultures lacking in birds and insects, we lose significant ecological services, as well as much of aesthetic and cultural value.

To conserve the wider environment, we need social, economic and political solutions

Recognising the real importance of biodiversity in the wider environment is a first step towards solving these problems. Solutions will focus on broad-scale approaches to maintaining or restoring the biodiversity value of transformed habitats (see box 1) and on the detailed planning needed to connect sets of key biodiversity areas within degraded or intensively used landscapes, in ways that benefit nations and peoples (box 2).

For instance, effective inter-governmental agreements are needed for the conservation and management of shared natural resources, against a background of increasing competition in the global economy (see pp. 66–67). At both domestic and international levels, the reform of subsidies and taxes is vital, particularly the removal of financial incentives that promote environmental damage. Positive objectives for the environment need to be genuinely integrated into broad policies, plans and programmes, with suitable targets and indicators concerning biodiversity and sustainability.

Managing landscapes means involving the whole of society

There are many ways that civil society can support these structural and technical changes in governance. An enabling and encouraging environment is needed to promote creative responses in the form of community-based and business-driven initiatives and partnerships. These could include, for example, NGO formation and development, cooperation in the management of privately owned land, shareholder activism, eco-labelling, elaboration of best practice, innovation and investment in green technology, eco-efficiency and greater adoption of sustainability within the corporate sector.

Boxes: case studies and scientific analyses

Download SOWB pp.64–65 (PDF, 643 KB) containing the following:

1. A guide for governments and civil society to conserve habitats for birds and other biodiversity in Asia

2. For birds and people in the Jordan Valley: a landscape approach