Scientists say that humans contribute most to loss of species and suggest more government intervention Environmental activists met with the public during the most recent instalment of the Bonn Dialogues series in order to discuss the importance of biodiversity and the alarming rate at which biodiversity is changing. Alarming reports by scientist state that the rapid loss of species due to human behaviour could eventually affect human livelihoods and the global food supply. Panellists from the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, the University of Cologne, and various branches of the United Nations (UN) credited human behaviour as one of the chief components for biological damage.
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„Diverse Futures or Future in Diversity?" Four top-class panelists confirmed their participation at the 3rd Bonn Dialogues event on the 6th May 2008: Helmut Hillebrand from University Cologne, Natarajan Ishwaran from UNESCO Paris, Flavia Pansieri from UN-Volunteers Bonn and Hans Peter Schipulle representing BMZ. The audience can look forward to answers on questions such as: Is a more diverse ecosystem more resilient to human-induced disturbances? Are more diverse systems more productive? For more information please download the flyer. |
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You can download the Bonn Dialogues Flyers for the 3rd Event "Diverse Futures or Future in Diversity?" to learn more about the public event here in English and German . |
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“Bonn Dialogues on Global Environmental Change”3rd Event – 6 May 2008 "Diverse Futures or Future in Diversity?”Following the outcomes of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment report, biodiversity is the foundation for human well-being. While biodiversity provides the basis for ecosystems, their development, maintenance and stability, it also provides a wealth of services upon which humanity is fundamentally dependant. These services include provisional services such as fish for food and unseen services such as climate control. However, unsustainable use of ecosystem services and increasing human activity, including demographic, political, cultural and economic factors, are placing immense pressure on ecosystems and driving biodiversity loss. Human perturbations such as changes in land use for food production, crop monoculture and increased development activities are degrading and changing habitats, overexploiting resources, creating pollution and promoting the spread of invasive alien species. It is still not understood how these many different factors such as globalisation, poverty and migration interact to shape and change biological diversity. However, ultimately, the loss of biodiversity not only interferes with essential ecological functions it threatens all dimensions of human society including, the provisions of food, medicine, energy, security, health, genetic diversity and freedom of choice. In addition, biodiversity loss increases the vulnerability of human societies to naturally occurring extreme environmental events.
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The 3rd Bonn Dialogues event will take place on the 6 May 2008, 6 pm at the Deutsche Welle and is focusing on the topic "Diverse Futures or Future in Diversity?". The conservation of biological diversity has become a global concern and is closely tied to global environmental change. It is increasingly clear that as a result of a complex response to human-induced environmental change, biodiversity is changing at an unprecedented rate. In 2007, there were 41,415 species on the IUCN Red List and almost forty percent of these species were threatened with extinction. According to a recent UN report human activity is causing the greatest mass species extinction since the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. The magnitude and rate of this change is so strongly linked to ecosystem processes and society's use of natural resources, that biodiversity is a prominent issue addressed by researchers and the stimulus for international policies such as the Cartagena protocol. |
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3 Event 
