How can we employ networks of cooperative observers and new technologies to map the geographical distribution of all species on earth to maximize their conservation?

Global biodiversity is being lost today at an unknown rate – unknown because there are not enough field biologists, nor funds, to support the required field expeditions to many parts of the world to document the existing biodiversity. Existing procedures prevent mapping the geographical distribution of all species on the planet with sufficient detail to determine the minimum areas needed for preserving a major fraction of the remaining diversity. Suitably-trained scientists and support staff cannot be increased fast enough to carry out such work in any reasonable time. However, it may be possible to enormously extend the reach of the research community through recent technical developments that include 1) the global expansion of the Internet 2) the widespread adoption of digital cameras by the general public, and 3) increasingly accurate knowledge of where pictures are taken – using GPS and GOOGLE Earth –type technology. It should be possible to rapidly increase the documentation of existing biodiversity and biological landscapes through the development of a digital photographic archive produced by individuals around the globe. All images could be made publicly available in a manner similar to those of current online digital imagery archives. Individuals might send digital photos with relatively detailed documentation to a central website, where they would then be forwarded to specialists who would attempt to identify them and, if needed, communicate further with the photographers. Scanned slides could also be sought out since these offer a valuable historical record of landscapes. The global research community would effectively have a greatly expanded team of international collaborators. The main problems to implementing such an idea would be the need for volunteer help in sorting the large number of images likely to be submitted, the guiding of photographers towards priority subjects, and help in maintaining the database.

How can we utilize existing biodiversity data to create a computer-based system to reflect pressures on the environment on an ongoing basis?

We all know that the environment is under pressure and there are many people working towards regulating or relieving these pressures, but how are we doing? This proposed system would create a dashboard of sorts that can be updated on a weekly / monthly basis to show how we are doing in various critical areas of biodiversity. The system would most likely be a website offering graphs and interactive maps (GIS) to show biodiversity pressures and programmes. This would highlight areas that have lots of support (programmes) and areas that are largely overlooked.

What is the cost-effectiveness of different strategies for strengthening biodiversity science and acquiring baseline data for monitoring biodiversity in data poor areas of the world?

Biodiversity rich areas of the world, typically located in the tropics, have a marked deficit of trained personnel and adequate funding for monitoring, planning and prioritizing the conservation of its significant species and ecosystems. These pressing resource imbalances must be tackled through the combination of immediate remedies and long-term strategies for effective biodiversity protection, management, and capacity building.

A central problem is that the majority of tropical organisms remain unknown. Even among the better-known taxonomic groups (e.g. birds and mammals) new species continue to be described every year. For species that have already been described, there may be only limited knowledge on their distributions, no information on their relative abundances, and fewer data on their dynamics. Available data, such as those generated from specimens and deposited in natural history museums, are of limited use: sampling of tropical locations tends to be patchy, thus not adequately reflecting true patterns in the distributions of organisms.

Identifying and implementing cost-effective strategies to close these biodiversity-knowledge-scientific capacity gaps will be key for national reporting of progress towards the CBD 2010 Biodiversity Target and the Millennium Development Goals, ultimately seeking to halt and reverse biodiversity loss.

How can the earth’s vegetation and biota be used to help offset already high atmospheric CO2 levels in order to minimize or mitigate the effects of climate change on the biosphere?

Because Earth’s climate is already changing, and regardless of how policy changes human inputs of CO2, we are going to lose biodiversity if we do not start to understand how we can used biodiversity to mitigate high atmospheric CO2. We already have examples of the use of forests and tree planting to bank carbon. However, a large component of biota occurs in grasslands and earlier successional systems which are not being promoted as potential carbon banks. If we procede to approach the climate change issue with just planting trees we will end up losing those biota that cannot live in forests.

Is Passive Management Approach still practical for Managing Biodiversity in a Changing Climate within Least Developed Countries?

Most of the least developed countries are managing their biodiversity using passive management approaches; leaving nature to take its own course. With the climate variability, extremes and change species are suffering from extreme and persistent droughts, floods, wildfires etc. Seconded by the increasing population of people who also depend on climate-sensitive sectors (farming, fishing, pastoralism) the situation in worse. Following crop failures, massive death of livestock etc, people are relying directly on the biodiversity resources closer to their areas as well as from further away. The increasing population is also leaving most of the protected areas as isolated ecological islands. Given the harsh situations (floods, droughts, wildfires, etc) organisms are restricted to escape to various refuge areas. Therefore, more need to be done to inform the policy and possibly switch from passive to active management of biodiversity for sustainable development; biodiversity conservation and sustained ecosystem goods and services.

How is biodiversity related to ecosystem functions or services?

The importance of biodiversity is quite often pointed out. However, it is not clear how the diversity is related to ecosytem functions or to ecosystem services. Most scientists working on diversities are not always working on their functional aspects or not always aware of the importance to integrate them into a whole ecosystem. However, without such scientific explanations, people won’t be convinced to preserve biodiversities. It is surely not an easy question, but scientists should collaborate together to answer it.

What political and economic changes can reverse climate change and the loss of biodiversity?

The world’s economy depends upon a system of capital accumulation that does not support a sustainable relationship between the nature and the human communities. Natural resources are exploited above the threshold to sustainability. Political changes are required.

What are the consequences of land cover and land use change for human societies and the sustainability of ecosystems?

The environment of the Earth has many close connections and relationships with human activity. It is also now more widely recognized that a profound transformation of the Earth’s environment is taking place and that many of these changes are the result of human action. Growing world population and increasing wealth are driving demands for more food production. Croplands and pastures occupies today roughly 40% of the land surface and global land cover and is according to the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) the main modification humanity makes to land cover, and therefore a main driver of ecological change, and biodiversity loss at the global scale.

Current trends in land use allow humans to appropriate an ever-larger fraction of the biosphere’s goods and services while simultaneously diminishing the capacity of global ecosystems to sustain food production, maintain freshwater and forest resources, regulate climate and air quality, and mediate infectious diseases…
Modern landuse practices, while increasing the short-term supplies of material goods, may undermine many ecosystem services in the long run, even on regional and global scales. Confronting the global environmental challenges of land use will require assessing and managing inherent trade-offs between meeting immediate human needs and maintaining the capacity of ecosystems to provide goods and services in the future. Assessments of trade-offs must recognize that land use provides crucial social and economic benefits, even while leading to possible long-term declines in human welfare through altered ecosystem functioning.
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What is the extinction probability faced by each species; why; and what should, and is, being done to reduce this?

Why? – Unlike all other human impacts on the planet, extinction is irreversible.

Obstacles – shortfalls in capacity and funding for understanding species taxonomy, distribution, and extinction probability.

How can we provide food to humanity while sustaining animal well-being and biodiversity ?

The animal well being can not be set aside in favor of human well being. Both are interconnected and interdependent. Livestock farming today is awful and does not seem to improve. The same remarks can also address the agricultural field. If we can establish a parallel between biodiversity and humanity qualities and living conditions, what will the future look like ?