Nature is not a negotiating partner

Biodiversity is our life insurance.

Climate change is on everyone's lips, while biodiversity has been pushed into the shadows, despite it securing our food supply and thus the survival of the human species. The loss of species can be stopped, but to do so, we must change our behaviour.

The media is brimming with articles about climate change, but hardly ever reports on the consequences of dwindling biodiversity. Yet the ecological network of life forms the basis of our existence. This is not instantly obvious to everyone, because extinct plants and animals have no immediate visible or tangible impact on our daily lives. "Many people therefore underestimate the risk to biodiversity," says biologist and author Frauke Fischer, and illustrates this with an example: "If while sitting in an airplane we notice one rivet after another coming loose from the wing, we show little initial concern. But if one too many comes loose, the plane crashes." Niels Friedrich, Executive Director of the Foundation Pro Biodiversity, cites another example of the effects of species loss: "In the 1950s, the Chinese government exterminated all sparrows. This eliminated the natural predators of agricultural pests. These then attacked the grain, which led to major crop failures, and the death by starvation of many, many people."

Biodiversity is under "attack" not only in China, but also in Switzerland: around 14 out of 20 amphibian species are on the endangered species list, and 45 percent of all wild bees are endangered or extinct. Due to the destruction of its habitat, even the humble hedgehog has found its way onto the endangered animals list. According to a study by the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL), one plant species has disappeared every year over the past hundred years in the canton of Schaffhausen alone. Although some still exist in the rest of Switzerland, their habitat has shrunk by up to 90 percent over the same period. Since 1900, an area of around 7,594 km2 of dry meadows, floodplains and moors has disappeared. This development continues unabated: "Land equating to about the size of eight football pitches is built on in Switzerland every day," says Nathalie Rutz, media spokesperson for Pro Natura. "As more and more land disappears under concrete, humans push ever further into remaining, still relatively intact habitats," adds Friedrich. "For example, into the higher Alps for skiing, because less and less snow is falling lower down. This in turn gradually affects animal species in places previously untouched by tourism. For example, the Rock Ptarmigan, which has fled to higher altitudes due to global warming and has almost no escape routes left due to human activities.

Enough is enough
"No one knows how many more species we can wipe out before ecosystems collapse and we humans lose the basis of our lives," say Friedrich and Fischer. What is clear to both, however, is that "biodiversity is our life insurance." For Friedrich, one of the fundamental evils is the assumption that money feeds us, not nature. Nevertheless, for him capitalism is not the cause of the biodiversity misery, but the greed for profit of some energy transition stakeholders: "Many want to make as much profit as possible with the climatic change and exclude biodiversity in the process." That leads to absurd situations. One example? "What good is it if we trample on nature by exploiting raw materials in other countries in order to drive around electrically in Zurich or clear forests for wind turbines to charge our smartphones or heat our homes?" Truly uncomfortable truths that demand answers.

Less work through biodiversity
People often think "I can't do anything anyway," for Niels Friedrich, as for Frauke Fischer, this outward resignation is a disguised excuse: "Anyone and everyone can do something. It's often small things that add up to big things," says Friedrich. "For example, if you dispose of your cigarette butts properly instead of throwing them down the drain, you're not poisoning anyone or anything else but yourself." Accusing others of "misconduct" is not expedient for Friedrich: "It does no good to point the finger at people and tell them all the things they are doing wrong. That demotivates. "Which is why he prefers to pay homage to the bees during his coffee break, mentioning that without them there would be no affordable coffee, or recommending to his conversation partners that they create shelter for swifts, since they eat flying insects and thus also the disease-spreading tiger mosquitoes that have immigrated from Southeast Asia.

Protecting species does not always mean going without. Often, it's enough to just stop doing something. If homeowners stopped leaving their robotic lawnmowers unattended during the day and night, planted native plants, created shelter for insects and left flowering strips, there would be barely any injured or starving hedgehogs. "This would allow their population to recover." And it's not just animals and plants that benefit from doing nothing: for humans, the workload is reduced. Homeowners, however, are often embarrassed by an "untidy garden." But it is precisely in these "overgrown" gardens that plants and animals find their niches. This fact doesn't escape Friedrich either: "In Alsace, I observed a Little Owl in a tattered caravan and a breeding Whitethroat in a natural garden in Weil."

Do nothing
"Rock gardens and sealed front yards not only reduce biodiversity, but are also an environmental problem because of increasing heavy rains," adds Fischer. "As a result, this causes rapid water runoff, which leads to flooding. Sewer systems are not designed to handle such amounts of water." However, we cannot assume a voluntary shift in thinking. Which is why some municipalities, such as Langendorf and Grenchen (So) or Steffisburg (Be), have already banned rock gardens. But do we need more coercion to prevent environmental damage and promote biodiversity? Pro Natura is counting on education: "Many people are just not aware of why rock gardens reduce biodiversity, what neophytes are and why flower meadows should only be mowed twice a year," says Rutz. If the actions of many individuals destroy a common good, however, a ban is mandatory. This is the case, for example, in the canton of Aargau at Lake Hallwil, where stand-up paddlers have recently been banned from navigating the floodplains. This is because the habitat has been severely damaged in places by the increase in recreational sports. However, in order for people not to perceive regulations and bans as annoying and restrictive, they would have to be explained in a comprehensible way. An approach that Friedrich advocates: "But anyone who still doesn't understand it should be fined."

Mitigate false subsidiary incentives
Several factors contribute to the biodiversity crisis. In addition to intensive agriculture, construction and human activities in previously almost untouched areas, this also includes consumption. When something is cheap, it has repercussions elsewhere. Fischer does not accept the argument "I can't afford anything else": "Every day we don't do something, it becomes more expensive. Not only chocolate, but many types of fruit could soon become luxury products again because there are barely any natural pollinators left." Friedrich thinks that given our wasteful lifestyles, there would be plenty of opportunities to save money. "Today, we afford ourselves the luxury of throwing away tons of food. Thus, we can also afford to pay more for it." This environmentally damaging attitude to consumption is partly even promoted by the state, for example where meat is concerned. Although record quantities amounting to 51 kilograms are purchased per person each year, the federal government continues to subsidise this with 12.4 million Swiss francs per annum. The costs of the resulting environmental damage, such as the high nitrate contamination of drinking water or the increasing antibiotic resistance, are borne by the general public. These are not the only environmentally harmful subsidies.

That's why Pro Natura is calling for all of them to be examined for their impact on nature and the climate, and for environmentally damaging ones to be abolished. "Switzerland committed to this in 2010 by signing the international biodiversity agreement, which was written down in the national biodiversity strategy in 2012," says Rutz. "Since then, unfortunately, not much has happened."

Subsidies make environmentally damaging products cheaper. But what if environmental damage was already included in prices? "That would help, because higher prices also change consumer behaviour." say Friedrich and Fischer. Making everything generally more expensive, however, is not enough for Pro Natura: "We also need to promote environmentally friendly products and make them affordable for everyone." In this way, expensive, environmentally harmful products would soon disappear from the market, agrees everyone. For Fischer, an absolute necessity: "We can continue as we are for a while longer. But the effects are getting worse. Nature is not a negotiating partner. If we don't understand that, it will accelerate our decline. We can't work against the laws of nature."

Checklists

The geographer and biologist Gregor Klaus and the freelance journalist Nicolas Gattlen have developed various checklists that can be downloaded free of charge and are included in the book Creating nature (Gregor Klaus, Nicolas Gattlen - Erste Auflage 2016, 304 Seiten, Haupt Verlag).

Book Tip
do we care if a species disappears in Brazil that we didn't even know existed? Wouldn't it be fantastic if the mosquito died out? On the contrary: nature is a network in which every organism plays a role. No species exists independently of the others. Humans are no exception. Without biodiversity, we cannot survive. Frauke Fischer and Hilke Oberhansberg show how our daily lives are connected to biodiversity in their book ("What Has the Mosquito Ever Done for Us?" Frauke Fischer, Hilke Oberhansberg, 2021, Oekom Verlag, 222 pages.)