Dr. Keith Martin, MD - Member of Parliament, Esquimalt-Juan De Fuca

The failure to implement initiatives that link human security and environmental security is seriously contributing to the catastrophic and accelerating loss of biodiversity around the world, according to Dr. Keith Martin, founder and chair of the Canadian Parliament’s first All-Party International Conservation Caucus. Dr. Martin is urging world leaders to link development programs with habitat protection.

"Ecosystems have the best chance of surviving and being protected when people derive a benefit from them. They survive and thrive when they are more valuable to people in their natural state than if they are destroyed,” said Dr. Martin, who has personally witnessed projects in South Africa, Botswana, and Tanzania that have successfully used this approach to save fragile ecosystems. 

Human activity is causing species to become extinct at an unprecedented rate. Shockingly, between 1,500 and 15,000 species are lost every year. According to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), one-fifth of mammals, one-third of amphibians, and one-third of all plant species are threatened with extinction. Although the international community signed on to the Convention on Biological Diversity in the early 1990s, no country has met the target to preserve 10 per cent of the world’s ecological regions and stem the rate of extinctions. Indeed, the rate of loss is not declining—it is increasing.

“To protect biodiversity you have to save ecosystems, and ecosystems can be preserved if they can pay for themselves. One of the most effective ways to do this is through community initiatives, where local people receive direct benefits from sustainably using wild spaces through a small environmental footprint,” said Dr. Martin.

Focusing on the economic benefits of protecting diverse ecosystems has had tremendous success around the world. For example, in Brazil, preserving critical forest habitats rescued the golden lion tamarin—a small, iconic primate—from the brink of extinction. Sustainable development projects with a negligible environmental footprint generated revenues that were used to fund projects that provide clean water, flood control, and direct economic benefits to nearby communities. In South Africa, parks and conservancies earn millions of dollars every year from eco- and ethno-tourism, which are in turn used to protect and expand crucial biospheres and to fund primary health care, education, and job opportunities for rural communities.

Preserving natural ecosystems is also crucial in tackling the effects of climate change. Cutting down a forest has a short-term financial benefit, but it destroys the long-term benefits the forest has as a carbon sink that removes greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.

“World leaders must commit to using their international development efforts to form innovative public/private partnerships that can support initiatives that link human security and environmental security. Development agencies working with NGOs, multilateral agencies, and the private sector can support low-impact interventions to generate funds that can be used to protect and preserve critical habitats and benefit the people who live near them,” said Dr. Martin.

“The international community must connect these funding opportunities to support habitat protection and human development. If we fail to do this, biospheres will be wiped out forever, along with the species that live within them. When this occurs, our own survival as a species will be threatened,” said Dr. Martin.

Dr. Keith Martin is a physician and Canadian Member of Parliament who has worked extensively in Africa and the developing world in medicine and conservation. He is the founder and chair of Canada’s first All-Party International Conservation Caucus, which brings top scientists to Parliament to advise politicians, NGOs, bureaucrats, and diplomats about environmental solutions.

• Tags: Human Security, Environmental Security, Keith Martin, Conservation, Global Health