DUBAI – Expert conservationists and private sector representatives met on Wednesday to discuss efforts to combat pressing environmental challenges such as deforestation and the illegal wildlife trade.
The ’Advancing Best Practice for Wildlife and Biodiversity Conservation’ event, part of Expo 2020 Dubai’s Programme for People and the Planet, was held in association with the UAE Ministry of Climate Change & Environment and DP World, co-curated by DP World and the Zoological Society of London, and took place at the DP World Pavilion.
HE Razan Al Mubarak, Managing Director, Environment Agency-Abu Dhabi and IUCN President, said: “Species have the inherent right to exist and we have a moral duty to protect them, so protecting nature is also about protecting a cultural heritage, an identity, a morality, a recognition that we are a part of nature not apart [from nature]. We need to accept in our core the contribution of nature and biodiversity to humanity. It is our duty to advocate for nature, not only because of what nature can do for us, but because of its own value, its own intrinsic value.
Dr Jane Goodall, well-known primatologist and anthropologist,said: “Expo 2020 Dubai offers many opportunities to create a legacy for future generations in the area of biodiversity. The current global situation requires that young people get involved with environmental issues. It’s time we incorporated social and environmental issues into school curricula.”
Elizabeth Wathuti, Founder, Green Generation Initiative, said: “If we continue with the same business and development models right now, most of our cities and natural places will be uninhabitable in the next years. The main issue is that we have been treating the climate crisis and biodiversity crisis as separate issues, and yet they should be treated as one. We should make sure we are not just talking about conserving biodiversity but we are actually acting and making sure that it incorporated what is changing right now in government in countries in cities.
“The solution is to massively increase nature regeneration to invest in nature and to make sure that in everything we are doing right now we are focused on making sure that all our natural eco-systems stay intact. That’s the only solution right now. We don’t have another way out or a shortcut. It has to be halting every activity failing biodiversity laws or deforestation, and making sure that we are creating more room for nature even in our cities. About 68 per cent of the world’s population will live in cities by 2050, so we need clean, green and resilient cities that will accommodate life.”
Gerrard Albert, Chair, Ngā Tāngata Tiaki O Whanganui, Te Awa Tupua – Te Awa O Whanganui, said: “The challenge for us is to accept our place within nature’s scheme, rather than the anthropocentric approach that we’ve taken as humans to assume that we are masters over nature. And every time we try to address climate change, conservation and biodiversity, we come at it from a totally human level and we use trade-offs that essentially make us feel better but don’t get us any closer to understanding that we are part of the universal order and that we stem from it.
“Businesses need to start practicing what I call indigenous economics, which means starting with the resource, you understand it. You understand that it is a resource that actually has power over you because we need it, and therefore we start to base our interactions around a relational way of working with that resource, a relational way of working with indigenous peoples who can sustain that resource and then a relational way of understanding how we can use that resource based on a decision that’s made by all people.”
Mateus Mutemba, Director General of the National Administration for Conversation Areas, Mozambique, said: “One of the impacts the illegal wildlife trade has at a very local level is that engages usually young people who are getting involved in committing these crimes. The sentencing for these crimes is very severe in Mozambique and most countries in southern Africa. These people, once they are caught, face heavy sentences in jail. They can serve sentences that range from 12 to 16 years in prison, and that has an impact at the local level especially because their families are left without a breadwinner. The wives do not have their husbands with them and their children do not have their father with them, so this is one of the most important impacts on the social side. But the depletion of these animals also delays our ability to provide a very good tourism product to the parks and reserves that mostly sit in the most disenfranchised areas, in the very the poor areas. So that inhibits the local community from having income-generation opportunities that would derive from sustainable use – tourism being one of the ways to provide growth opportunities.”
Dr Ian Cruikshank, Transport Taskforce Manager, United for Wildlife, said: “The illegal wildlife trade strips all our animal and plant species out of the environment, leaves our environments a lot poorer, strips all of the biodiversity out, which leads to the degradation of those environment systems. So it’s absolutely key to address this horrific trade so we can actually start protecting our natural areas for our children and our children’s children. Because if we don’t do something now the world is going to start losing more and more species and we’re going to be in trouble.
“The solution is within our hands. If we work together, we can put so many measures in place that we can have an incredible, massive impact on the illegal wildlife trade almost immediately. It just requires more companies like DP World to come together, [to] form part of the United for Wildlife Transport Taskforces, so we can work together to more effectively combat the illegal wildlife trade.
“We can fight this from the financial side and stop the leaks of money that is associated with the trade, and then we need to address it in the countries of demand, where the demand is actually being created. We need to work to reduce and stop that demand, and also stop those enterprises involved in the trade in getting their product to the final destination.”