Egypt participated in activities held to commemorate World Wildlife Day (WWD) on 3 March, with the global event held under the theme of “recovering key species for ecosystem restoration” and intended to raise awareness about the importance of conserving some of the most critically endangered species and step up the fight against wildlife crime and human economic, environmental, and social impacts.
Activities related to WWD are in line with UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 15 on “life on land”. The goal is meant to “protect, restore and promote the sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss.”
Yasmine Fouad, the minister of environment, said WWD is an opportunity to celebrate the diversity and richness of global wildlife and to highlight its value for humanity on the environmental, social, scientific, educational, cultural, and economic fronts.
The celebrations sought to drive discussions towards imagining and implementing solutions to conserve wild plants and animals, she noted, adding that all the conversations are inspired by and seek to inform efforts towards the achievement of UN SDG 1 “no poverty”, SDG 2 “zero hunger”, SDG 12 “ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns”, SDG 13 “climate action”, SDG 14 “life below water”, and SDG 15 “life on land”.
At the same time, the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration is continuing activities to urge action for the protection and revival of ecosystems. The UN Decade, launched on World Environment Day 2021, runs from 2021 through to 2030, also the deadline for the SDGs and the timeline identified as the last chance to prevent catastrophic climate change.
According to data from the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, “over 8,400 species of wild fauna and flora are critically endangered, while close to 30,000 more are understood to be endangered or vulnerable. Based on these estimates, it is suggested that over a million species are threatened with extinction.”
On 20 December 2013 at its 68th session, the UN General Assembly (UNGA) proclaimed 3 March, the day of the signature of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) in 1973, as UN WWD to celebrate and raise awareness of the world’s wild animals and plants.
According to the Geneva Environment Network, a global information hub, CITES “is an international agreement between governments. Because the trade in wild animals and plants crosses borders between countries, the effort to regulate it requires international cooperation to safeguard certain species from over-exploitation. CITES was conceived in the spirit of such cooperation with the aim to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival.”
“In 2022, WWD will drive the debate towards the imperative need to reverse the fate of the most critically endangered species, to support the restoration of their habitats and ecosystems, and to promote their sustainable use by humanity,” the UN said.
Meanwhile, CITES works with other concerned UN bodies and 183 UN member states to come up with solutions for wildlife conservation. It remains one of the strongest tools to preserve biodiversity by regulating trade in wild fauna and flora.
Ahmed Wagdi, head of the Third Capacity-Building (CB3) project at Egypt’s Ministry of Environment, said that one global and local climatic development is the danger of the accelerating rise of surface temperatures. The challenge facing the world is to maintain the expected increase in temperature within 1.5 degrees Celsius until 2050, knowing that it has already increased by 1.1 degrees Celsius from the period 1850 to 1900.
The rise, Wagdi explained, was the result of human activities and the emission of greenhouse gases. If the temperature rises by more than two degrees Celsius, it will threaten life, 14 per cent of coastlines will be eroded, and biological diversity will be at risk. About 80 per cent of organisms on the planet could become extinct, epidemics and chronic diseases will appear, along with increased desertification and erosion of agricultural resources and fish stocks, he added.
Wagdi said that this was not the first time the Earth has experienced climate change. Several climatic changes have taken place over history, but they did so over long periods of time, allowing living organisms to adapt. Today, however, climate change is occurring at rapid speed, preventing forms of life on Earth from adapting.
CB3 works with the Ministry of Education to introduce messages in schools about climate change and its relationship to biological diversity, desertification, and living organisms, focusing on teachers by providing them with important information about life on Earth, biological diversity, and climate change. The second stage of the project focuses on students and their parents.
CLIMATE CHANGE: Samir Tantawi, a member of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), said climate change induced by rising temperatures was driving some animal species to move in search of better environments.
The past seven years have been the hottest on Earth by far, with 2021 recording the highest global CO2 and methane levels, both important greenhouse gases driving climate change. Last year, wildfires destroyed parts of Greece, North America, and Siberia, floods swept areas in Germany, and droughts across Africa led to the first-ever climate-related famine in Madagascar, Tantawi said.
Advances in mathematical models of the climate have made it possible to predict the climate with greater accuracy. The good news is that scientists can forecast climatic changes in remote areas on Earth without the need to install measuring devices or establishing climate stations, he added.
The continuous rise in temperatures, for example on the Equator where the weather is already hot, causes the migration of animals. Wild animals that do not find food during their migration across the African prairies bordering the Equator are forced to leave their natural habitats for more desert-like environments, and lions are no longer able to find prey. Mountain goats can climb to reach highlands where the weather is more pleasant, but the steady rise in temperatures also affects these highlands and leads to the extinction of these animals, Tantawi explained.
Another barrier is coastlines. Many wild animals cannot move far from their habitats due to water barriers. Fish such as herring are also beginning to suffer from climate change. Schools of herring have started to migrate from the North Sea to the Atlantic Ocean to find a more suitable environment, he stated.
Contrary to larger organisms suffering from climate change, the malaria mosquito benefits from global warming, which enables it to expand its habitat, spreading deadly diseases in a wider environment, Tantawi added.
Some animals are able to adapt to climate change, which leads to the redistribution of food for animals and human beings, he said, stressing that reducing greenhouse-gas emissions on a large scale is the best way to control the steady rise in the Earth’s temperature, which is caused by the consumption of fossil fuels, such as gas, petroleum, and coal.
Other means to combat non-stop rising temperatures include protecting key ecosystems, such as nature reserves that are home to different species, he pointed out. With the dangers resulting from climate change, adaptation has become the key to protect life, Tantawi said, warning that natural catastrophes are inevitably becoming more threatening and should be prepared for adequately.
About 13 per cent of the world’s 125 species of butterflies have already become extinct, he said, so have insects necessary to pollinate plants in some European regions. Some scientists say the number of insects has declined by 80 per cent worldwide, which in turn has resulted in a shortage of food for some species of birds and amphibians, he added.
Moreover, the use of pesticides and fertilisers in agriculture has negatively affected the habitats of many birds and insects, Tantawi said.
Some 60 types of plants useful for humanity depend on insects for pollination, and scientists have warned that the rising temperatures of the Earth have resulted in the flowering of some plants a month earlier than usual, threatening major dysfunctions in some birds’ and animals’ food cycles, he added.
Tantawi pointed out that a study conducted by researchers at the University of Cambridge in the UK had monitored the flowering of 400,000 plants from 406 species of trees, shrubs, herbs and climbing plants across the UK. The researchers found that the average time of the first flowering between 1987 and 2019 was shorter by 30 days than between 1753 and 1986. Researchers have kept their notes in a database called the Nature Almanac containing the observations of scientists, naturalists, and amateur and professional gardeners over the past 200 years.
Late frosting can kill or damage an early flowering plant, the researchers concluded. However, they stressed that the greatest threat is posed to the wild birds and insects that have developed their adaptation in conjunction with the flowering of plants and the bearing of fruit that they depend on to survive, Tantawi continued.
The disruption of this cycle leads to an “environmental mismatch,” he said, explaining that when a plant blooms, it attracts certain types of insect and then various kinds of birds in a balanced food sequence that ensures the survival of all species. However, if one component responds faster than others, there is disharmony, which could eventually lead to the extinction of a species that cannot adapt fast enough.
Addressing the negative effects of climate change on biological diversity, Karim Omar, technical director of CB3, said that the rate of extinction has become 10,000 per cent greater than the normal rate over recent years. About 75 per cent of the land area has changed significantly, 85 per cent of wetlands have been lost, and agricultural productivity has decreased to 23 per cent of the land area.
Omar noted that Egypt has successfully included some of its endangered animals and plants on the International Red List of Endangered Species, such as the mountain lettuce located in St Catherine’s in Sinai over an area of five kilometres where it grows on the vertical slopes of the mountain and is destroyed by torrents.
Egypt is also trying to preserve its wild rose, of which there are only 90 examples in the world. It is used in the treatment of some skin diseases and contributes to soil stabilisation in mountainous areas. Omar added that it is difficult to grow the wild rose in artificial conditions.
He referred to multilateral environmental agreements that contribute to addressing environmental issues of global importance and to the three Rio Conventions on Climate Change, Desertification, and Biological Diversity, explaining that one of the negative repercussions of climate change is the exposure of wetlands to pollution and the loss of the surface layer of natural soil.
This is estimated at about 10 cm, and it carries nutrients for plants and takes about 2,000 years to form.
*A version of this article appears in print in the 17 March, 2022 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.
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