KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 20 (Bernama) -- Human activity is pushing the planet’s natural systems that support life on earth to the edge, WWF’s Living Planet Report 2018 revealed.
It also presents a sobering picture of the impact of human activity on the world’s wildlife, forests, oceans, rivers and climate, hence the call for an urgent need for the global community to collectively rethink and redefine how they value, protect and restore nature.
“We are withdrawing from our natural resources’ ‘savings account’ insatiably, leaving less for the next generation to live with. The disappearing fish in the sea, the changing climate, our empty forests are all the symptoms,” WWF-Malaysia Conservation Director Dr Henry Chan said in a statement here, today.
According to Chan, the latest report had indicated a decline on global populations of fish, birds, mammals, amphibians and reptiles, on average, by 60 per cent between 1970 and 2014, where the top threats to species identified in the report were directly linked to human activities, including habitat loss and degradation and overexploitation of wildlife.
“In Malaysia, marine turtles are facing threats to their survival, the Sumatran rhino is already extinct in the wild, and species like the Malayan tiger, gaur and sambar deer are in peril,” he said.
The report also looks at the importance of pollinators and how a changing climate, intensive agricultural practices, invasive species and emerging diseases have affected their abundance, diversity and health.
“In tropical areas, our dependency on pollinators is up to 98 per cent for the production of fruits; therefore, Malaysia has a good reason to be worried.
“As a country, we need to adopt responsible production and consumption of commodities. All forest areas that have been designated for production forest should be managed in accordance with certification standards that call for a balance of ecological, social and economic needs,” he said.
Chan also called for the mandatory certification requirement for palm oil production in Malaysia to be extended for production of seafood, fish, and shrimp to curb further decline of the marine lives.
-- BERNAMA
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