An article in The Guardian reports on a call by researchers for a fund for nature loss in the same way as for climate impacts.

Researchers state: “Global biodiversity loss has been disproportionately driven by consumption of people in rich nations. The concept of ‘loss and damage’ – familiar from international agreements on climate breakdown – should be considered for the effects of biodiversity loss in countries of the global south.”

EU fleets overfishing in west Africa to feed consumers in Europe is an example, with researchers saying this has caused “considerable negative impacts on local communities who are reliant on fish for income and for food, resulting in poverty, unemployment, declining health and social stress in the local communities”. In the UK, a recent government report calculated that our domestic consumption of crop, cattle and timber commodities was associated with 35,977 hectares (88,863 acres) of tropical deforestation in 2018.

“It’s the most vulnerable, poorest people that are the hardest hit by biodiversity loss and need extra support in dealing with its impacts. That’s the issue,” says the lead author, Dr Dilys Roe, from the International Institute for Environment and Development in London. “There are these additional losses and damages which aren’t linked to climate change, and aren’t currently taken into account.”

The read the full review in The Guardian click here.

To read the comment piece published in Nature Ecology & Evolution click here.