{"id":1957,"date":"2021-05-28T09:05:01","date_gmt":"2021-05-28T09:05:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fundacioncanal.com\/blog\/?p=1957"},"modified":"2025-09-04T06:52:01","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T06:52:01","slug":"biodiversity-as-climate-guarantor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fundacioncanal.com\/blog\/en\/biodiversity-as-climate-guarantor\/","title":{"rendered":"Biodiversity as climate guarantor"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

(Estimated reading time: 4.36 minutes) – Audio version of article available.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Caring for the environment is closely linked to\npreserving biodiversity which, in turn, is a key element for mitigating and\nadapting to climate change (MITECO<\/a>). Nature is one of the main tools we have to regulate\nclimate, so how we use the resources it offers to us is very important (European Commission, 2009<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biodiversity encompasses all the different forms into\nwhich life is organised, as well as all living organisms (animals, plants,\nviruses, and bacteria) and the spaces and ecosystems they live in. Its wealth\nensures our survival. Its variety provides us with resources for food and to\nproduce medicines, and with raw materials to produce objects and energy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We cannot live without all this, nor the services it\nprovides as an air-quality and climate regulator (through plant photosynthesis\nand the water cycle, for example), in water purification, erosion control, and\nnatural disasters (through the barrier effect) and pollination (thanks to\ninsect action), and more (Biodiversity Foundation<\/a>). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ecosystemic services have a huge economic value and are\nessential to guarantee food safety and the continuity of resources like water\nand energy as the population grows. All these services are interrelated and\ndepend on each other. This is why it is so important to work on preserving our\nnatural capital. The problem is that it has always been there, and mankind\nfreely took its goods without calculating the cost of its destruction. It is\nestimated that, if we continue at the current pace, only the loss of land\nbiodiversity, without counting ocean ecosystems, could cost 7% of the GDP from\nnow until 2050 (European Union, September 2009<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As such, the richer biodiversity is, the greater\nchance of survival those of us living on the planet have. This is why the\nNatura 2000 network is so important (European Commission<\/a>), the European ecological network of biodiversity\nconservation areas and the main instrument to preserve nature in the European\nUnion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the largest coordinated network of protected\nareas in the world. It covers over 18% of the EU’S land surface, and more than\n8% of its marine territory, with approximately 1,150,000 km 2<\/sup> in\ntotal. It contains Special Areas of Conversation (SACs) and Special Protection\nAreas for Birds (SPAs). There are also Sites of Community Importance (SCIs),\nwhich is an important previous step for an area to become a SAC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Spain, the network already has 1,467 SCIs approved\nby the European Commission, and 657 SPAs. In total, a surface area of over\n222,000 km2<\/sup>, 27.35% of Spain. Of this, 84,000 km2<\/sup> fall\nunder marine territory (MITECO<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conserving ecosystems and preventing changes in soil\nuse help to guarantee a bearable climate, as stated by the Intergovernmental\nScience-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).\nCurrently consisting of over 135 countries, this intergovernmental platform\ninsists that having rich and varied ecosystems is an “insurance\npolicy” against the impacts of climate change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this vein, several UN bodies signed a joint\nstatement 8 March 2021, asking for the right to a healthy environment given the\n“triple environmental crisis: climate change, loss of biodiversity and\npollution<\/em>” faced by humanity. The manifesto says that the rights of\npresent and future generations depend on a fair ecological transition, leaving\nno one behind. The challenge is to obtain “an environmentally healthy and\nsocially equitable world and realize human rights for all” (UNEP, Marzo 2021<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In short, caring for biodiversity means guaranteeing our future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n