Élaboration et mise en oeuvre : M1 Protection des Ecosystèmes

Abstract

Biodiversity, or biological diversity, is defined as the "variability among living organisms from all sources including, inter alia, terrestrial, marine and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part; this includes diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems" (SCBD, 1992). Today, biodiversity is a matter of global concern. Species extinction rates have never been higher: they are 50 to 100 times greater than the natural extinction rate (SCBD, 2000). In 2000, the Convention on Biological Diversity estimated that 54,000 plant species and 5,200 animal species were facing extinction, primarily due to human activity (SCBD, 2000). Overexploitation of resources, habitat destruction, environmental pollution, and the introduction of invasive species are recognized as the primary threats to biodiversity. Global-scale issues, such as climate change, also place immense pressure on biodiversity (Lovejoy, 2006). Governments around the world are increasingly making efforts to conserve biodiversity. The most significant example is the creation of protected areas: over the last three decades, there has been a 500% increase in the global land area designated as protected for nature conservation (Wittemyer et al., 2008). Between 1990 and 2000 alone, the number of protected areas recognized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN, 2008) quadrupled (Robbins et al., 2006). In 2004, there were more than 20 million square kilometers of protected areas worldwide, the vast majority of which were terrestrial (SCBD, 2007).