Nature loss 'to hurt global poor' - BBC

[Eugene]

Source: BBC News

Page last updated at 05:02 GMT, Thursday, 29 May 2008 06:02 UK

Nature loss 'to hurt global poor'
By Richard Black
Environment correspondent, BBC News website

Damage to forests, rivers, marine life and other aspects
of nature could halve living standards for the world's
poor, a major report has concluded.

Current rates of natural decline might reduce global GDP
by about 7% by 2050.

-snip-

"You come up with answers like 6% or 8% of global GDP
when you think about the benefits of intact ecosystems,
for example in controlling water, controlling floods and
droughts, the flow of nutrients from forest to field,"
said the project's leader Pavan Sukhdev.

"But then you realise that the major beneficiaries (of
nature) are the billion and a half of the world's poor;
these natural systems account for as much as 40%-50%
of what we define as the 'GDP of the poor'," he told
BBC News.

-snip-

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7424535.stm

---

Source: Reuters

U.N. experts warn of economic cost of species loss
Thu May 29, 2008 8:59am EDT

By Madeline Chambers

BONN, Germany (Reuters) - Mankind is causing 50 billion
euros ($78 billion) of damage to the planet's land areas
every year, making it imperative governments act to save
plants and animals, a Deutsche Bank official told a U.N.
conference.

A study, presented to delegates of the U.N.'s Convention
on Biological Diversity on Thursday, said recent pressure
on commodity and food prices highlighted the effects of
the loss of biodiversity to society.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSL2981194420080529