Monitoring Threats to Biodiversity

Much can be done to avert loss of biodiversity in specific regions if adequate information on potential threats is available. If a development project is planned for a remote valley, non-governmental organizations or government institutions can arrange to collect traditional varieties of crops or wild relatives before the ecosystem is disturbed, or collaborate with local farmers to better conserve their traditional varieties. The environment ministry and national or international non-governmental organizations can speed up biodiversity assessments to determine if certain areas deserve protected status. And, in some cases, advance notice of project plans may bring to light new data that triggers a change in those plans.

A Biodiversity Early Warning Network should be set up to monitor urgent threats to biodiversity, disseminate information about those threats, and mobilize action against them. Within countries, the network would make use of governmental and non-governmental data sources, channeling information either formally through institutions and data collection networks or informally to the Early Warning Network secretariat. An International Panel on Biodiversity Conservation could help set criteria for evaluating the urgency of threats, and disseminate information.

What to Look For

An Early Warning Network should monitor:

• traditional crop or livestock varieties threatened by planned or ongoing development projects or the introduction of new varieties;

• genebank facilities with germplasm at risk due to lack of funding for recurring costs;

• protected areas in urgent need of financial, technical, or other support;

• communities that lost access to resources when protected areas were established;

• increasing genetic uniformity of crops;

• climatic threats to biodiversity--including desertification, floods, drought, and global warming;

• introductions of exotic species;

• pollutant discharges presenting immediate threats to biodiversity or chronic pollution that might pose longer-term threats;

• rapid habitat loss; and,

• evidence of the over-exploitation of species.

Information Sources

Non-governmental organizations and scientists working in the field are the best sources of early warning information; the challenge is to make this information widely available to enforcement authorities, advocacy gorups, and the general public, so that appropriate actions are swiftly mobilized. A number of existing environmental data reports and evaluations, notably Global Biodiversity: Status of the Earth's Living Resources (WCMC), World Resources reports (WRI), the Environmental Data Report (UNEP), and the UNEP Biodiversity Country Studies can provide valuable baseline information, as well as a vehicle for monitoring longer-term trends. Some of the organizations that produce these reports might also serve as focal points for data collection and dissemination in the Early Warning Network.

These institutions do not, however, provide a mechanism for "real time" alerts to impending threats to biodiversity. The Early Warning Network should be constructed to meet this need. It should be able to verify reports of threats rapidly, and communicate its findings in a fashion that is most likely to help avert the threat. The Secretariat of the Network could release "Action Alerts" to governments, conservation agencies, conservation organizations, the media, or individuals who have volunteered to serve as members of the Network. Such individual members could then press action on those responsible. Funding for the Network could come from individual memberships and donations as well as corporate and institutional sources: what is important is that the Network would not be constrained in its operations by its funding sources.