Saving Endangered
Species: It's The Economy
By
Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent
PLAYA GRANDE, Costa Rica (Reuters) -
"Forty-nine". On a Pacific beach in Costa
Rica, a researcher whispers the number after
counting the slimy, round white eggs just
laid by a rare leatherback turtle in a hole
dug in the sand under bright moonlight.
Turtles like this 1.5 metre (5 ft) female
have probably been struggling out of the
surf at night since before the dinosaurs
disappeared 65 million years ago. The region
is the main nesting site in the east Pacific
for the critically endangered species.
Numbers of leatherbacks emerging onto this
Costa Rican beach fell to 32 in the 2008-09
season from 1,500 two decades ago -- due to
factors such as nearby hotels, poaching of
eggs, accidental snaring in fishermen's nets
and global warming. Arrivals so far this
season are slightly up.
Far from the beach, other experts may give a
new argument for conserving the turtles by
studying whether their fast-clotting blood
can give clues to aiding humans, or if the
way they regulate buoyancy can inform
submarine design.
In 2010 -- the International Year of
Biodiversity -- the United Nations wants
efforts to slow the accelerating pace of
extinctions to reach beyond nature lovers,
to companies and economists.
Shifting emphasis from emotional images of
polar bears, pandas or leatherbacks that
stress the fragility and beauty of nature,
the focus is on a harder-headed assessment
of how the natural world is a key to
economic growth and new products.
"Boosting biodiversity can boost the global
economy," the U.N. Environment Programme
said in a headline over a statement
launching the theme. Natural services by
coral reefs, forests or wetlands are too
often undervalued, it said.
But profits from imitating nature have often
been elusive. By some U.N. estimates, three
species an hour are going extinct, most of
them before they have even been identified.
"It's like we have a house full of wedding
presents," said James Spotila, a professor
of environmental science at Drexel
University in Philadelphia. "And we're
throwing them out of the window before we
even open them."
EXTINCTION CRISIS
U.N. reports say the world is facing the
worst spate of extinctions since the
dinosaurs vanished, due to factors such as
expanding cities, forest clearance,
overfishing, climate change and species
disrupting new habitats.
Yet a hectare of intact coral reef, for
instance, can be worth up to $1 million a
year for tourism, up to $189,000 for
protecting coasts from storms, up to $57,000
as a source of genetic materials and up to
$3,818 for fisheries, according to a
preliminary U.N.-backed study in late 2009.
The problem is translating such estimates
into cash.
"I always ask: 'where's the business
proposal?'," said Gunter Pauli, head of Zero
Emissions Research and Initiatives which
looks for opportunities in nature.
Many pharmaceutical firms rely on nature.
Among recent examples, scientists developed
the malaria drug artemisinin from sweet
wormwood, while the Madagascan periwinkle
and Pacific yew tree have both yielded
treatments for cancer.
Beyond medicines, firms are looking to "biomimicry",
tricks evolved by nature such as adhesives
inspired by the feet of gecko lizards that
can walk on ceilings, or cellphone screens
imitating iridescent butterfly wings to
generate colours.
Companies including Royal Dutch Shell,
Dupont and Nike work with the Montana-based
Biomimicry Guild, which seeks to identify
new ideas.
"It's so fun to see the light go on in their
eyes. They can see 'we can make money and do
the right thing'," said Sherry Ritter of the
Guild.
Still, Pauli said only three biomimicry
products had secured annual turnover over
100 million euros ($144.3 million).
These are Velcro -- Swiss inventor George de
Mestral was inspired in the 1940s by plant
burrs trapped on his dog's fur -- hypodermic
needles which Terumo Corp modelled on the
jab of a mosquito, and paints derived from a
self-cleaning trick by the lotus plant, sold
by U.S. Sto Corp. and other groups.
ABALONE KEVLAR?
"A lot are nice, romantic ideas," Pauli
said. "The abalone (shellfish) produces
materials stronger than Kevlar: correct.
Commercial viability: zero. It's too
complicated."
Among new business ideas, he said coffee
farms in Colombia had created 10,000 jobs by
using coffee waste as fertiliser to grow
edible tropical mushrooms. In turn, the
remaining waste can be sold as animal feed.
"If you say: 'can we talk about triple cash
flows?' then the entrepreneur gets
interested," he said, referring to the three
income sources in such a project.
Studies showing the utilitarian value of
nature are an extra reason for conservation,
said Ahmed Djoghlaf, Executive Secretary of
the Convention on Biological Diversity.
It is only natural that these approaches,
and the new data they generate, are
receiving more attention since their
estimates are suddenly becoming more robust,
he said.
"Biodiversity decline is predominantly
caused by economic activities in the
broadest sense, and the policy debate all
too often tends to pit 'economic' interests
against 'environmental' interests. The
recent work shows that this juxtaposition is
fundamentally flawed," he said.
The "Copenhagen Accord", agreed by some
nations at U.N. climate talks in 2009, will
also seek to promote the use of tropical
forests to soak up greenhouse gases, a new
source of income for poor nations.
Spotila, a leatherback turtle expert, said
turtle blood is quick to clot to avoid
giving sharks a scent that can bring an
attack. Scientists are studying turtle blood
for possible clues to stem bleeding in
humans, for instance after surgery.
And the leatherbacks, the biggest species of
turtle, can dive deeper than other turtles,
leading experts to wonder how they regulate
buoyancy. That and the shape of their shells
could give clues to submarine or ship
design.
The International Union for Conservation of
Nature is seeking corporate sponsors to slow
losses of species after the world failed to
reach a U.N. goal, set in 2002, of slowing
the rate of extinctions of animals and
plants by 2010.
"We failed miserably," said Jean-Christophe
Vie, deputy head of IUCN's species programme.
He said using economics to make the argument
for protecting nature is often only stating
the obvious.
"We need an economic argument, but I find it
very sad," he said. "Things like fisheries,
timber, pollination, clean water. Can you
imagine the size of the economy or company
needed to (protect) that?"
On Playa Grande, researchers such as Tera
Dornfeld mark the site of the eggs after the
female turtle has filled in the hole with
her giant rear flippers and returned to the
ocean. Later, the eggs will be dug up and
transferred to a hatchery.
In a local economic battle, park managers
fear developers may win permission from
politicians to develop hotels, roads and
villas closer to the remote beach.
"I fear that more development here would be
the final nail in the coffin for the
turtles," said Frank Paladino, professor of
biology at Indiana Purdue University and
director of research in the Las Baulas park
that covers the beach.
In one sign of hope, an aging poster on the
wall of the research centre says the turtles
could all be gone by 2010. A turtle and her
49 eggs have proven that wrong. |
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