Straits Times 9 Feb 08;
With the world in the grip of urbanisation, United Nations biodiversity chief Ahmed Djoghlaf, who visited Singapore last month, tells ARTI MULCHAND that the threat to biodiversity is tremendous. This makes the need to embrace the notion of sustainable development more urgent
There seems to be a heightened sense of urgency in the conservation movement now. Why?
The world is becoming more urbanised, and a third of humanity will live in cities in the coming years.
This growth of urbanisation is taking place in developing countries like China, India, Brazil and Africa, and that is where we have biodiversity that needs to be protected.
If development there is done wrongly, the expansion of cities will contribute dramatically to the loss of biodiversity.
How much of the world's biodiversity is under threat, and what will the impact be?
We have so far recorded two million species but, according to experts, we could have 10 or 100 million species...which we are already losing at a tremendous rate.
Eighty-five per cent of all the biodiversity is in the tropical forests and, every year, 13 million hectares of tropical forests are disappearing.
According to some experts, in one square metre of tropical forest, you can find up to 500 species, and that does not even count micro-organisms.
So we don't know how much we are losing, and how that will affect the global web of life, because there is a domino effect. It is all interconnected.
We have a moral responsibility and an inter-generational responsibility, to give our children a planet that is as healthy as the one we inherited from our ancestors.
Unfortunately, the current generation has done a fantastic job of destroying nature.
The Asean Centre for Biodiversity recently signed an MOU with the Convention on Biological Diversity. What is its significance?
Biodiversity knows no boundaries. Malaysia is right next door and the birds will go where they want. They do not need passports to cross the border.
Similarly, plants and other animals move as well. So you need some regional collaboration to approach conservation.
The MOU means that the centre can act as an implementation arm at the regional level for decisions taken at the international level.
As we go forward, what would your advice to Singapore be in terms of its conservation efforts?
I am extremely impressed by Singapore and never imagined that you would have such greenness and nature in the heart of one of the most populated cities in the world.
Singapore is already going in the right direction. But my plea is that the experience that you have accumulated...you share with the world and your neighbours.
What has happened in Singapore mirrors what will happen in other Asean countries as they grow and become more urban.
You have made some mistakes and you have repaired them, so you have a moral responsibility to help your neighbours avoid the same mistakes.
