Ecosystem destruction costing hundreds of billions a year | Environment | guardian.co.uk

• • John Vidal
  • guardian.co.uk,
  • Friday May 30 2008

• The steeply accelerating decline of the natural world is already costing hundreds of billions of pounds a year, say leading economists, in a review of the costs and benefits of forests, rivers and marine life. The losses will increase dramatically over the next generation unless urgent remedial action is taken, they say.

  An interim report presented to world leaders meeting in Bonn yesterday warns of the "severe consequences" to all economies if forests continue to be felled, seas overfished and if land is turned to intensive farming.

• The report says that the world has lost 40% of its forests in 300 years, and half its wetlands in just 50 years. More than one third of mangroves have disappeared in just 20 years and there is increasing soil loss, as well as severe erosion, and growing water scarcity. Details on how to estimate the costs associated with this environmental degradation will come in the final report, due by 2010.
• The new Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity review argues that biodiversity loss is already leading to wars and political destabilisation and international tension.
• The review is modelled on the UK government’s Stern review of climate change which in 2006 warned that the global economy would effectively collapse if countries did not address greenhouse gases, and that countries could not afford not to act.
• "With biodiversity loss we are not only considering long term horizons as we are with climate change," the authors write. "Ecosystem degradation is already extensive and observable and its effects are dramatic. Significant losses are happening right now."