A research project by:
Sophie Chow (14)
Understanding Biodiversity Loss : Causes, Consequences and Solutions
Executive Summary
Currently, our world faces the issue of a loss of biodiversity and a high amount of species (plants and animals alike) are threatened with extinction. This loss of biodiversity has significant implications for human health, well being and development, not to mention our ecosystems as a whole leading to reduced food security, decline in health, economic loss and decline of cultural values. Biodiversity is crucial for ecosystem resilience to climate change and loss of biodiversity can reduce the capacity of ecosystems to adapt to changing climate conditions, potentially exacerbating the impacts of climate change on human societies.
The loss of biodiversity and endangered species is primarily caused by human activities, including pollution, climate change, habitat destruction, invasive species, and overexploitation of the natural environment. To address this issue, a solution must target these primary divers, focusing on habitat protection, reducing human impact and supporting conservation efforts. This can be done in a number of ways such as preserving existing ecosystems and restoring degraded habitats, diminishing carbon footprints and prioritizing sustainable products. Support for conservation organisations is crucial to solving this issue. A global effort is needed to address the biodiversity crisis, which can be achieved through public education, incentives for sustainable behavior, and robust environmental policies and enforcement.
Growing public concern and awareness around these issues provides a unique opportunity to put some of these systems in place. The shift toward nature-positive strategies —with corporations integrating biodiversity targets alongside net-zero climate goals-signals a turning point in environmental responsibility and resource investment
With international initiatives such as the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030) and the 30 by 30 biodiversity target, these global strategies provide a clear way to organize large-scale restoration and conservation work, with set goals and broad support.
There are many benefits in pursuing more biodiversity such as enhanced food security, job creation in conservation industries, better water purification and flood control, preservation of medicinal resources and Increased carbon sequestration helping to manage climate change.
Introduction
Biodiversity measures the rich variety of life found on Earth, encompassing the multitude of different species, their genetic variation and the ecosystems they inhabit. This diversity provides for our world with places of rich variety being better at recovering from natural or human related disasters. It provides us with medicine, food, energy and the breaking down of waste. Without it, the environment couldn’t provide us with the resources needed for survival. Currently, biodiversity is declining worldwide at an alarming rate, mainly due to human activities such as land use and climate change. In a UN report, published in 2019, it warned that out of eight million species, one million were threatened with extinction. If this continues, biodiversity loss can accelerate climate change, disrupt food chains and can have many health, economic and cultural impacts on society.
This report will explore the causes for biodiversity loss and review possible solutions, organised into sections covering methodology, results, discussion and conclusion.
Methodology
This report is based on secondary research using publicly available sources, including news articles, official government websites, environment focused platforms and project websites. Priority was given to sources that were detailed and factual related to biodiversity loss.
To look at real world solutions, the official website for the Kasigau project was evaluated as were different environmental news outlets and government websites.
Results
This section outlines the primary causes for biodiversity loss and highlights the most effective strategies used in real world examples from recent case studies. The main drivers of biodiversity loss are habitat destruction, climate change, pollution, overexploitation and invasive species. According to the European parliament, the top cause for this issue is habitat destruction and changes in land use – deforestation, intensive mono-culture, urbanisation. Some successful conservational strategies for this have been Costa Rica’s reverse deforestation solution.
In the 1940s, 75% of Costa Rica was covered in rainforests but following the arrival of loggers, much of the land was cleared for livestock and between a half and a third of rainforest cover was destroyed by 1987. However, in 1996, through a mix of policy, community engagement and economic incentive, the Costa Rican government made it illegal to chop down trees without approval and in the next year introduced the Payments for Environmental Services (PES) Program.
Today, close to 60% of the land has been restored to forest and is home to around half a million of plant and animal species. Thousands of rural families began earning steady income from conservation instead of clearing land and PES gave farmers an alternative to logging or intensive farming. Due to this movement having strong governmental support and innovative financial incentives (the PES program paid landowners to conserve forests, tying income to ecosystem protection) this strategy was effective in regaining the forest and addressing one of the main drivers – habitat destruction. Costa Rica’s early environmental awareness enabled timely action against the issue.
Another solution used was Kenya’s Kasigau Corridor Project, a REDD+ project based in Rukinga, Kenya. It protects an expanse of over 200,000 hectares of dryland Acacia-Commiphora forest home to over 2,000 elephants. Led by Wildlife Works, it is the world’s first and longest-standing certified REDD+ initiative, protecting over 200,000 hectares of dryland forest that serves as a vital wildlife corridor between Tsavo East and West National Parks. By selling carbon credits on the voluntary market, the project generates sustainable community revenue, funding education, clean water, health infrastructure, and local employment— especially for women and rangers-while combating poaching, deforestation, and subsistence agriculture. Spreading awareness through benefits was one of the enablers that allowed this project to be launched effectively. Kasigau has safeguarded biodiversity (including elephants, Grevy’s zebras, lions, cheetahs, wild dogs, and many bird species) and avoided approximately 1.6 – 1.8 million tonnes of COz emissions per year.
Discussion
From these results, we can see that these strategies primarily target habitat destruction, the leading cause for biodiversity loss. The Costa Rica and Kasigau projects demonstrate that effective conservation relies on strong government support, community involvement, and financial incentives. Costa Rica’s success mainly centred around establishing new policies such as banning unapproved tree cutting and the PES program, which paid landowners to protect forests. This gave locals an economic incentive to conserve land. Similarly, Kasigau used carbon credits to fund education, healthcare and jobs which simultaneously helped conservation and local development. Both of these cases highlight the importance of incentives and push and pull factors to assist the conservation effort. When people benefit from protecting nature, conservation becomes more sustainable. However, these solutions may work differently in other locations so more research is required in order to adapt this strategy to different regions.
Conclusion
In conclusion, biodiversity loss remains a major global issue, primarily driven by habitat destruction, climate change, and unsustainable land use. However, case studies like Costa Rica’s reforestation efforts and Kenya’s Kasigau Corridor Project show that well-supported strategies can make a significant impact.
These examples highlight the importance of strong government support, financial incentives and local community involvement in creating lasting change. In the future, conservation efforts should focus on adapting these successful models to different regions while ensuring both environmental and social needs are addressed.
References
https://www.iberdrola.com/sustainability/biodiversity-loss
https://www.ft.com/content/4d12f8d1-cOdf-4ab6-b374-741e9517448b
https://earth.org/how-costa-rica-reversed-deforestation/
https://www.europarl.europa.eu/topics/en/article/20200109STO69929/biodiversity-loss-what-is-ca using-it-and-why-is-it-a-concern#:~:text=Biodiversity%2C%20or%20the%20variety%20of%20all%20li ving,land%20use%20changes%2C%20pollution%20and%20climate%20change.
https://www.wildlifeworks.com/redd-projects/kasigau-kenya?utm