The report presented in Rome
The latest IPBES report "Assessment Report on the Different Value and Valuation of Nature" presented in Rome for human causes. At least 680% of all mammalian species kept for food or agriculture have been driven to extinction and at least 9 are threatened. According to theIPBES extension – the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, the leading scientific authority on biodiversity – nature is declining globally at rates unprecedented in history, and the rate of species extinction is accelerating. Biodiversity and nature's contributions to people are our common heritage and the most important 'safety net' supporting human life.
A sustainable future
Diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems, as well as many fundamental contributions of nature to us, from food to wood and carbon sequestration, are declining rapidly, although we still have the means to ensure a sustainable future for people and the planet. The different values of nature and some key challenges for the future of biodiversity conservation were discussed in Rome, in a conference organized by Ispra at the Italian headquarters of the European Parliament in the conference for the presentation of the latest IPBES publication entitled " Assessment Report on the Different Value and Valuation of Nature”, written by 82 experts in social sciences, economics and humanities. Ispra, at the request of the Ministry for the Environment and Energy Security represents, together with the Ministry, Italy at IPBES, participates in the definition of the work programs and indicates and stimulates the participation of Italian experts in the drafting of the reports. IPBES claims that around 1 million species (a quarter of those known) are at risk of extinction. Of these species, 50% could become extinct by the end of this century.
Habitat destruction
The authors of the report coined the expression "dead species walking" for the approximately 500 species not yet extinct, but which, due to the destruction and degradation of the habitats available to them and to other factors linked to human activities (over-exploitation, pollution, climate change and the spread of invasive alien species) see their chances of survival reduce in the long run. 25% of animal and plant species are threatened with extinction. More than 40% of amphibian species, nearly 33% of reef-forming corals and marine mammals are threatened with extinction. Also according to IPBES, the biomass of wild mammals has decreased by 82% and a recent study calculates that 94% of the biomass of terrestrial mammals living today is represented by humans (36%) and domestic animals (58%). For insects, available data suggest that at least 10% of species are threatened. Over the last hundred years, the average abundance of native species in most terrestrial habitats has decreased by at least 20%.
Extinction rates
The scenarios developed by many scientists, based on the data available today, indicate that the current rates of extinction of species in nature are one hundred to a thousand times higher than the average extinction in the history of the planet. These numbers lead us to refer to the time we are experiencing as the sixth mass extinction, after the previous ones caused by cosmic and planetary events, among which everyone knows the one that led to the extinction of the dinosaurs, 65 million years ago. To help policy makers better understand the very different ways people understand and appreciate nature, the Report provides a new and more comprehensive classification of nature's values. The new classification highlights how different worldviews and knowledge systems influence how people interact with and appreciate nature and presents four general perspectives: living from nature (nature's ability to provide resources to sustain livelihoods, people's needs and desires, such as food and material goods; living with nature (focus on life “other than human”); living in nature (the importance of nature as an environment for people's sense of place and identity );live as nature (sees the natural world as a physical, mental and spiritual part of oneself) (source: ISPRA).