Environment Disadvantage -4wkj-ndi

EE Destroys Environment

It’s a Tradeoff- No EE AND Biodiversity

IPS 10 (IPS - Inter Press Service, “ATIN AMERICA: BIODIVERSITY SUPERPOWER FACES DEVELOPMENT DILEMMA”, December 3, 2010, http://www.lexisnexis.com.turing.library.northwestern.edu/hottopics/lnacademic/)>BC If Latin America is to sustain continued economic growth, it faces the dilemma of either threatening its rich biodiversity or transforming into a global leader in providing environmental services based on its unique ecosystems. This is the message emerging from the report "Latin America and the Caribbean: A Biodiversity Superpower" released on the eve of the 20th Ibero- American Summit, taking place Dec. 3-4, in the Argentine city of Mar del Plata, 400 kilometres south of Buenos Aires. The vast study, coming in at more than 400 pages, involved a team of 500 people working two years, under the auspices of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and other regional and international entities. Their goal was to inform governments and the private sector in the region about the economic opportunities and risks involved in areas like agriculture, mining, fishing and forestry that have an effect on biodiversity and the environmental services that unique flora, fauna and ecosystems can provide. The UN declared 2010 the International Year for Biodiversity to raise awareness about the serious problem of species loss and to promote initiatives to slow the pace of extinction, which ultimately helps preserve human life. The UNDP study's conclusions are optimistic because although the research explains the negative environmental impacts it also highlights incentives that benefit the region's ecosystems and its economies alike. The region is home to six of the countries with greatest biodiversity in the world: Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela," Emma Torres, the UNDP's environment and energy advisor in Latin America, told IPS. These countries cover 10 percent of the world's land surface but hold 70 percent of mammal, bird, reptile, amphibian, plant and insect species, according to the study. Within this territory is the area of greatest diversity on the planet: the Amazon jungle. And 40 percent of the world's biodiversity as well as 25 percent of its forests are concentrated in South America alone. Central America, despite covering just 0.5 percent of the Earth's landmass, possesses 10 percent of its biodiversity. In the Caribbean, meanwhile, 50 percent of the plant life is endemic; in other words, it is not found anywhere else. The natural wealth of Latin America and the Caribbean already contributes to the national economies. Nevertheless, to the extent that development is environmentally unsustainable, this natural capital is at risk. From this premise, the report gives economic value to the environment and recommends options. For example, it notes that Mexico's protected areas contribute 3.5 billion dollars annually to the national economy. That is, each Mexican peso invested in national parks, for example, generates 52 pesos. The study also indicates that 66 to 75 percent of foreign tourists travelling to the region visited at least one protected area, and nearly 94 percent of tourism operators in the Caribbean state that they rely on the natural surroundings as a basis for their businesses. In Venezuela, 73 percent of the electricity generated in 2007 came from hydroelectric plants, with the watersheds of various national parks providing the water. In Peru, 376,000 hectares of cultivated land is irrigated with water originating in protected areas. The report points out that the last decade saw exceptional achievement in economic growth and poverty reduction in the region, which also has a promising economic future despite the global financial crisis, In this context, biodiversity plays a role whose true scope is not yet sufficiently appreciated, according to the study. Torres said there are statistics experts working to quantify this natural capital.

It is not just a matter of preserving resources that go towards economic production but also of valuing the environment's potential as a laboratory for medical answers, an area in which the region could become a leader, states the text. While just 12 percent of the world is under some sort of environmentally protected status, the region's average is higher, with cases like Colombia, where 43 percent of its territory is protected area. Torres underscored that one of the region's main achievements has been to slow the pace of deforestation in the Amazon, and applauded Brazil for establishing minimum pricing for products obtained from its rich biodiversity. The UNDP expert also noted the commitment by the Brazilian Association of Meat Exporters to ban the purchase of livestock and cattle products coming from recently deforested areas -- similar to a pledge from the soybean industry. Mexico, meanwhile, has enacted a broad payment mechanism for hydrological services, which gives value to protecting the country's water resources. In Peru, a program for reducing overfishing of anchovies was covered by government incentives for retraining the sector's workers, promoting microenterprise and providing early retirement options. The study points to diverse and innovative proposals for compensating conservation efforts, citing the example of Ecuador, which requested the international community pay 3.6 billion dollars for this Andean nation to leave oil reserves untouched in a protected area, the 9,820-square-km Yasuní National Park. However, the study warns about "near-sighted decisions" that could lead to low-quality development and potentially to collapse. Beyond its intrinsic value, the region's natural capital represents its main competitive advantage, according to the report. Its conclusion: The conservation of natural wealth presents an opportunity -- not a cost or a limitation -- for creating a new development paradigm, one that is based on environmental integrity, human health and social equality.