The UNEP Magazine for Youth for young people · by young people · about young people “We should not be afraid to fi ght for what we believe is right” AVATAR: REACHING THE HEART Tunza_8.1_Engv2.indd 1 14/4/10 08:49:11 TUNZA the UNEP magazine CONTENTS for youth. To view current and past issues of this publication online, Editorial 3 please visit www.unep.org Does biodiversity matter? 4 United Nations Environment Avatar: reaching the heart 6 Programme (UNEP) PO Box 30552, Nairobi, Kenya Taking action 8 Tel (254 20) 7621 234 Fax (254 20) 7623 927 Telex 22068 UNEP KE Last chance to think 10 E-mail [email protected] www.unep.org Where the wild things are 12 ISSN 1727-8902 The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity 14 Director of Publication Satinder Bindra Editor Geoffrey Lean Food choice 16 Special Contributor Wondwosen Asnake Youth Editors Karen Eng, Deborah Woolfson TUNZA answers your questions 18 Nairobi Coordinator Naomi Poulton Head, UNEP’s Children and Youth Unit Theodore Oben Faith in nature 18 Circulation Manager Manyahleshal Kebede Closer to home 19 Design Edward Cooper, Ecuador Production Banson Front cover photo Twentieth Century Fox Measured questions 20 Youth Contributors Carla Basantes, Ecuador; María Fernanda Burneo, Ecuador; Francisco Chuc, Mexico; Fighting back 21 Kate de Mattos-Shipley, UK; Edgar Geguiento, Philippines; Janeicie Kantún, Mexico; Felicity Kuek, Seven species on the climate change hit list 22 Malaysia; Abhiram Kramadhati Gopi, India; Brittany Lynn Valdez, USA; Julio Martínez, Mexico; Tribute The year of the tiger 24 Mboweni, South Africa; Robert Nelson, Haiti/USA; María Belén San Martín, Peru; Tan Sijie, Singapore; Maia Tanner, UK. Keep up with TUNZA on Facebook! Other Contributors Sarah Bladen, WWF; Mark Carwardine; Fergus Drennan; Irene Hoffmann, FAO; www.tinyurl.com/tunzamagfb Martin Jenkins; Tim Menke, Twentieth Century Fox; Sergiy Paskevych, www.chornobyl.un.ua; Fred Pearce; Shauna Swartz; Rosey Simonds and David Woollcombe, Peace Child International; Damon Stanwell-Smith, UNEP-WCMC; Christoph Schröter- Schlaack, TEEB; Susie Weldon, ARC. Printed in the United Kingdom The contents of this magazine do not necessarily re- fl ect the views or policies of UNEP or the editors, nor are they an offi cial record. The designations em- ployed and the presentation do not imply the expres- sion of any opinion whatsoever on the part of UNEP concerning the legal status of any country, territory UNEP and Bayer, the German-based around the world and develop new or city or its authority, or concerning the delimitation international enterprise involved youth programmes. Projects include: of its frontiers or boundaries. in health care, crop science and TUNZA Magazine, the International materials science, are working Children’s Painting Competition on to gether to strengthen young people’s the Environment, the Bayer Young environ mental awareness and engage Environmental Envoy in Partner ship UNEP promotes children and youth in environmental with UNEP, the UNEP Tunza environmentally sound practices issues worldwide. International Youth/Children’s globally and in its own activities. This Conference, youth environmental magazine is printed on 100% recycled paper, The partnership agreement, renewed networks in Africa, Asia Pacifi c, Europe, using vegetable-based inks and other eco- to run through 2010, lays down a Latin America, North America and West friendly practices. Our distribution policy aims basis for UNEP and Bayer to enlarge Asia, the Asia-Pacifi c Eco-Minds forum, to reduce UNEP’s carbon footprint. their long standing collaboration to and a photo competition, ‘Ecology in bring successful initiatives to countries Focus’, in Eastern Europe. 2 TUNZA Vol 8 No 1 Tunza_8.1_Engv2.indd 2 14/4/10 08:49:12 EDITORIAL y now the world should be well on the way to defusing the greatest ever threat to life on Earth Bin human history. For this is the year by which the world’s governments solemnly swore that they would be beating back the biodiversity crisis, which threatens to bring about the sixth mass extinction of species in the lifetime of our planet, and the fi rst since the disappearance of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. To be precise, world leaders pledged, early last decade, ‘to achieve, by 2010, a signifi cant reduction of the current rate of biodiversity loss MANY SPECIES • ONE PLANET • ONE FUTURE at the global, regional and national level, as a contribution to WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY • 5 JUNE 2010 poverty alleviation and to the benefi t of all life on Earth.’ As the pledge indicates, the biodiversity crisis is not just about vanishing species, important though that is. It is also destroying the vital services that nature provides for humanity. We depend on soils and seas for food, for example, on forests for freshwater, on trees to reduce What YOU can do pollution, on wild species for many of our medicines. And yet half of the world’s wetlands have been lost over One person alone cannot save the planet’s biodiversity, the last century; 40 per cent of its forests in just the last but each individual’s effort to encourage nature’s wealth three decades. A third of coral reefs – the most important must not be underestimated. Here are just four ways to do breeding grounds for fi sh – have been seriously damaged. your bit to encourage biodiversity and, what’s more, inspire And, every year, 25 billion tonnes of topsoil is eroded those around you: away. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, the most comprehensive study on the issue ever undertaken, PLANT local species in your garden or on your balcony, or concluded that 60 per cent of the world’s such ‘ecosystem volunteer at your local nature reserve, school or botanical services’ had been degraded over the last 50 years. gardens. You will be providing nourishment for native ani- mals and helping native plants to thrive. If you enjoy team Poor people in developing countries are most reliant on work, why not fi nd out about local initiatives such as planting these services, and so suffer most when they are damaged trees with local conservation groups. Look on the web or or lost. As UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has pointed at your local library, but if you can’t fi nd a group, you could out, they are vital for achieving the all-important Millennium always start your own! Development Goals. But everyone is affected, since the entire world economy is effectively utterly dependent on PROMOTE the protection of biodiversity. Tell friends, family, the natural environment. And yet the importance of what teachers or the person next to you on the bus what you’re is happening is not recognized. As the ground-breaking doing to encourage biodiversity and why it matters. Educating project, The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity, has your peers is one of the key solutions to raising a generation pointed out: ‘It is hard to think of any other asset where that cares about the future of all life on Earth. we would tolerate its loss without asking ourselves what we are losing and why.’ No asset is more important. PERSUADE local landowners, fi shermen, farmers and busi- nesses to do their bit to protect the species their line of 2010 is the International Year of Biodiversity. It could be work affects. These groups are the main stakeholders when a year of shame, representing the world’s failure to live it comes to protecting biodiversity, and the more they hear up to its pledge to tackle the crisis. Or it could be one of from the public and consumers (that’s YOU), the more likely promise, marking the moment when humanity decided they are to choose to protect it. fi nally to turn it around. We must do everything we can to make the second scenario a reality. PRESERVE the wildlife that already exists. That old log in your local park or garden might just be home to insects, lizards, frogs or other organisms you hadn’t noticed before. Check to see what species might be there before you disturb anything. www.cbd.int/2010/biodiversity/?tab=2 www.bbc.co.uk/breathingplaces/hour www.snh.gov.uk/scottish/2010yearofbiodiversity04.asp www.dublin.ie/environment/biodiversity/kids-corner.htm www.cbcg.org.au/biodiversity/tips_for_encouraging_ biodiversit.htm Biological Diversity 3 Tunza_8.1_Engv2.indd 3 14/4/10 08:49:12 DOES BIODIVERSITY MATTER? is the International Year of 2010 Biodiversity. In October repre- sentatives of almost all the world’s nations will be in Japan for a meeting of the Convention on Biological Diversity. One of the subjects they’ll discuss is the 2010 biodiversity target, an agree- ment made eight years ago to try to stop the loss of biodiversity by 2010 – something we know we haven’t achieved. But how many people, even among those meeting in Japan, really understand biodiversity? What is it? Can we measure it? Does it really matter if we lose it, or some of it? What will happen if we do? Where is it? Some kinds of habitat have far more species than others. Those with the most are tropical rainforests; other rich habitats in clude coral reefs, and scrublands in a Mediterranean-type climate, which are particularly rich in plant species. In contrast, very cold and dry places – the Arctic and Antarctic, and deserts such as the Sahara – have very few. How much of it is there? When it comes to living organisms It’s much harder to say how many we can at least have a go at count ing different kinds of ecosystem or habi- them. We usually do this in terms of tat there are. People can’t agree on What is biodiversity? species – a kind of universal currency a way of classifying them, and in any Biodiversity is really just one way of biodiversity.