On the occasion of the World Environment Day, Azza Taalab, in Geneva, interviews Sebastian Winkler, head of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature: 2010 Countdown Sebastian Winkler is the new head of the 2010 Countdown Secretariat. He is an environmental economist who previously worked for the United Nations Environment Programme at the Economics, Environment and Trade Unit in Geneva. He was interviewed in English. You have recently been appointed head of the 2010 Countdown campaign at the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Brussels. What is your campaign about and what problems does it address? We refer to 2010 Countdown as an initiative, although it includes many elements of a campaign. The purpose of 2010 Countdown is to create a "majority movement" around the 2010 biodiversity target which has been signed by more than 190 countries promising to "significantly reduce the loss of biodiversity by 2010." The alliance started as a Pan-European initiative and its objective is to support governments and other stakeholders in achieving the 2010 biodiversity target. 2010 Countdown combines efforts to save biodiversity within a powerful network of active partners, including governments, cities and regions, and civil society organisations. National platforms assess performance, create awareness and demand action. To join the alliance, every member commits to take specific steps to save biodiversity in its realm. Addressing biodiversity requires taking action also in relation to other environmental problems, such as climate change, pollution, etc. In fact, biodiversity is the measure of the number, variety and variability of living organisms. It includes diversity within species, between species, and among ecosystems. The concept also covers how this diversity changes from one location to another, and over time. Indicators such as the number of species in a given area can help in monitoring certain aspects of biodiversity. Biodiversity includes all organisms, from microscopic bacteria to more complex plants and animals all the way to ecosystems. This year, we come across "Dry lands" everywhere in the environment world. "Protect biodiversity in Dry lands" was the theme of the International Day for Biological Diversity celebrated on 22 May. This year is the International Year of Deserts and Desertification, declared by the General Assembly. "Don't desert Dry lands" was the slogan of the World Environment Day, celebrated on 5 June. What explanation can you give for this focus? More than 45 per cent of the world's land surface is arid, encompassing biomes such as deserts, savannas, grasslands, woodlands, and shrub lands. While arid areas are comparatively less rich in biodiversity than areas defined as "hotspots", such as tropical rainforests or coral reefs, they contain a wide range of specialised and unique species of flora and fauna, which are essential to the survival of the people living in these areas. They also include gene pools which are still relatively unknown and which can be used for further inventions in the sector of biotechnology. Many of the world's major food crops, such as wheat, barley, sorghum, and millet originated in arid lands. The wild progenitors of these crops constitute a globally important genetic pool that needs to be conserved. Furthermore, arid lands maintain important ecological functions and serve as storehouses for carbon. They are home to far more of the world's poor than forests are, for instance, and hold important cultural and spiritual values for them. Rural communities in arid lands are highly dependent on natural resources to secure their livelihoods. It could be argued that because of the relatively lower diversity of species found in drylands, the relative importance of each in maintaining and providing key ecosystem goods and services which sustain human livelihood is very high. Therefore, biological diversity in such areas deserves substantially more attention than is presently afforded, as the loss of any species could have significant impact on the well-being of local communities living in affected areas. Integrated management of land, water and living resources that promotes conservation and sustainable use of natural resources in an equitable way is thus key to ensuring both, the maintenance of ecological functions and the values of arid ecosystems as well as securing the livelihoods of people residing in arid zones. This is often referred to as applying an "ecosystem approach" to dryland management. It recognises that humans, with their cultural diversity, are an integral component of many of these ecosystems. However, the complexity of an integrated ecosystem approach that takes into account ecological, socio-economic and institutional factors at different scales remains a challenge. The variety of stakeholder perspectives on what an "ecosystem" is, deriving from their varied uses of overlapping systems, has further complicated the identification of needs and appropriate approaches to dryland management. What are the threats to biological diversity -- could you focus on drylands? For decades, the international debate has been concerned with drylands being at risk of irreversible degradation and loss of their long-term capacity to provide ecosystem goods and services, resulting from various factors, including climatic variations and human activities. To date, policies, legislative frameworks, and resource mobilisation have not been particularly successful in their attempts to respond effectively to dryland degradation, desertification, and shrinking livelihood security of local communities living in drylands. The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) is the key legally binding universal instrument to address desertification and land degradation in arid environments, and this instrument requires further support. Introducing the 2010 target within the UNCCD can mobilise actors and provide further synergies. You are well aware of the findings of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA), released in 2005, which highlights "that various lines of evidence indicate that the 2010 is unlikely to be met". Do you agree? While at the global level, the target is "to achieve a significant reduction of the current rate of biodiversity loss", the one addressed at the EU and pan-European level, is even more ambitious with its target to "halt the loss of biodiversity". Given appropriate actions, it is possible to achieve a reduction in the rate of biodiversity loss for certain components of biodiversity and in certain regions within that timeframe. However, a reduction in the overall rate of biodiversity loss is unlikely to be achieved by 2010. Indeed, current trends show no sign of a slowdown of biodiversity loss, and direct drivers of loss, such as land use change and climate change, are expected to increase further. Moreover, it can take many years for institutions to take action and for the positive and negative impacts of human actions on biodiversity and ecosystems to become apparent. Since changes take place over different timeframes, longer-term goals and targets, say for 2050, are needed to guide policy and actions, in addition to short-term targets. Even on economic grounds alone, there is substantial scope for greater protection of biodiversity. Ultimately, the level of biodiversity that survives on Earth will be determined not just by considerations of usefulness but also by ethical concerns. Tradeoffs between promoting human well-being and limiting biodiversity loss are likely, but synergies are also possible. In fact one of the major findings in the MEA is that unprecedented additional efforts would be needed to achieve a significant reduction in the rate of biodiversity loss by 2010, and it is for this reason that 2010 Countdown has been launched. It is certainly not with "business as usual" that we will get any closer to the target. Therefore, to join the 2010 Countdown movement, our partners are asked to sign a declaration and indicate the additional contributions they are making towards achieving the 2010 target. Apart from the lead organisation responsible for implementing the Convention on Biological Diversity, there is a plethora of international organisations working on biodiversity-related aspects. Do you see the danger of overlapping efforts? Indeed you are touching a critical point that we are attempting to solve through the 2010 target. In fact, one of the things that regularly strike me after more than 10 years of working with the conservation community is that we are a movement similar to an orchestra, but with its instruments playing from different sheets of music. We have many different scientific approaches; we have many institutionally-based approaches to biodiversity and conservation; we classify the world in so many ways today that for many in the public domain it is either confusing, disheartening or simply incapacitating. I believe we need to rethink how we can unify the purpose of all our different conservation activities in a way that allows society to see the common objective. So here is a major challenge to our community: how to rationalise the many voices, the many different research entry points that we have in biodiversity, and bundle them in a way that the rest of society can relate to -- not as an orchestra of hundreds of different voices, but as a chorus of people and institutions -- with messages and answers that the rest of society can understand. The 2010 biodiversity target has the potential to become the new unifying target for the environmental movement given that it is visionary, being community- and systems-oriented. For instance, we have now inserted the target in several of the major MEAs. The international organisations are not necessarily the major problem, given that they have an environmental mandate and given that a focus around a common 2010 target ensures joint action. The real challenge for saving biodiversity is to insert the target in those institutions that impact biodiversity, like the WTO, Regional Development Banks, etc. Based on my eight- month experience working on 2010 Countdown, I strongly believe the programme provides a visionary idea and a frame for concerted and collective action by making a global commitment and implementing it at the local level. We can make a quantum leap to influence and implement the policies that will ultimately make society choose a path more aligned to our common vision of a world. A world that values and conserves biodiversity for the sake of nature and people. The next five years will be critical in putting the environment back on the political agenda and I trust that 2010 Countdown provides us with a general framework and roadmap for concerted action. Some may claim that environmental protection is a luxury in poor developing countries and that socio-economic development, and above all employment creation, should take precedence over environmental protection. What is your view? Saving biodiversity is an economic imperative. Environment is less and less viewed as an economic obstacle, but as the foundation for any economic development. In 2010 Countdown our partners' role is to continue to remind people of the importance of biodiversity and ecosystem services for human well-being. We have just launched a 2010 Countdown petition to integrate the 2010 biodiversity target into the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and we call on all citizens to take action to save biodiversity and end poverty by signing the petition. As you may recall at the 2000 UN Millennium Summit, world leaders from developed and developing countries alike committed themselves -- at the highest political level -- to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). These eight time-bound goals aim at reducing poverty worldwide by 2015. In addition, at the UN World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002, the same leaders promised to significantly reduce the current rate of biodiversity loss by 2010. Now it is time to combine both targets: the UN General Assembly in September 2006 should incorporate the 2010 biodiversity target into the MDG framework as a stepping stone towards ensuring environmental sustainability by 2015, the seventh Millennium Development Goal. In Europe the economic agenda is also in the forefront. The Lisbon agenda is about creating jobs and positioning Europe as the most competitive knowledge-based economy by 2010. As you will note we have an economic and environment target related to 2010. These are not necessarily mutually exclusive. The environmental sector, such as organic farming, eco- tourism etc. also provides jobs. Unfortunately, there is a misperception that protecting the environment leads to less jobs, and that conservation is a brake to any economic development. There is a need for a paradigm shift in which environment is not just the third pillar of sustainable development. In 2007 we will be celebrating 20 years since the Brundtland Report and 15 years since the Rio Summit. Hence, next year is a unique opportunity for the environmental movement to learn from past experiences and to re-define the concept of sustainable development. We are currently working with numerous stakeholders to prepare a major international gathering for this very purpose.
