This article was written by the Deutsche Bank.

According to a new study, two million animal and plant species are endangered – twice as many as previously assumed.
Klement Tockner, Director General of the “Senckenberg Society for Nature Research”, is working intensively on the consequences and solutions.

What’s gone is gone forever

Tockner is talking in particular about agriculture and pharmaceuticals production. “Half of all drugs come from or are inspired by nature, and without the genetic diversity of crops, we probably wouldn’t be able to survive,” he says.

“We have a huge responsibility here towards future generations. Because in nature, as a rule, what’s gone is gone forever.”  

According to a study from November 2023, two million species are considered endangered worldwide. This is around twice as many as assumed in the 2019 global inventory of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).

According to Josef Settele, co-editor of the IPBES report, new and more precise data substantiates this doubling within just a few years. By comparison, the number of animal and plant species worldwide is estimated at around eight million; some experts even believe it could be 15 million of which the majority has yet to be identified and described.

“So we are losing many species before we have even discovered them,” warns Tockner.

The reasons for the extinction of species are manifold. These include climate change, introduced invasive species and, last but not least, the intensive economic use of land and oceans, which leads to habitat loss. For Tockner, this development is worrying. “The decline in biodiversity in the Anthropocene – the period of history shaped by humanity – is about a hundred times faster than the natural changes we know about throughout earth’s history,” he says with a serious look. “We really have to take every measure we have at our disposal because we are running out of time.”

There is already some progress. In 2022, around 200 countries agreed at the UN Biodiversity Conference in Montréal that at least 30 percent of the world’s land and sea area should be protected by 2030. In addition, they agreed to reduce environmentally harmful subsidies amounting to 500 billion US dollars per year and to halve the risk to people and the environment from pesticides by 2030.

From Tockner’s point of view, these are important decisions, but now it is a matter of implementation. “If you designate protected areas, you also have to monitor their protection,” he says, leaning forward. “Even in Germany, we have protected areas that aren’t deserving of the name.” In addition, developments such as climate change or the consequences of pesticide use do not stop at the borders of the protected areas. As a result, biodiversity is declining just as sharply in some protected areas as outside, he points out.

In order to effectively counteract the loss, a wide range of innovative measures is needed. This is where Tockner becomes energetic. “We need effective species’ protection,” he says. “And we basically have to spend significantly more money on prevention instead of on repairing damage to nature. So far, only a very small part of the expenditure on environmental protection goes into precautionary measures – ones that protect healthy ecosystems.” At the same time, Tockner says we should be open to new solutions.

For him, this also includes the well-considered use of genetically modified plants. These are important if we are to halve the use of pesticides while still managing to feed the planet’s more than eight billion people. He calls on politicians to create new incentive schemes that reward positive action for nature. For agriculture, for example, this could mean reducing land subsidies and, instead, rewarding farmers who use less land, less fertilizer and less pesticides.

Klement Tockner is a member of Deutsche Bank’s Nature Advisory Panel, which was set up in October 2023. Among other things, the panel’s aim is to advise the bank on how it can focus its business more on financing conservation and so-called nature-positive solutions.

The Nature Advisory Panel comprises a number of renowned external experts who work together with specialists from Deutsche Bank. Co-chairs are Viktoriya Brand, Head of Group Sustainability, and Markus Müller, Chief Investment Officer for ESG of the Private Bank.

Picture: OECD

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