Sat Mag
‘Forests and Livelihoods: Sustaining People and Planet’
World Wildlife Day celeberations in Los Angeles
A Review by Nandasiri (Nandi) Jasentuliyana,
Former Deputy Director-General, United Nations.
“The continued existence of wildlife and wilderness is important to the quality of life of humans.” – Jim Fowler
World Wildlife Day was celebrated with an outstanding WEBINAR by the America-Sri Lanka Photographic Art Society Los Angeles (ASPAS) hosted from Los Angeles, USA. ASPAS is a member of the Photographic Society of America (PSA) and International Federation of Photographic Art (FIAP) that accounted for a large audience participating in the event.
The celebrations this year was very topical for the Sri Lankan audience in the context of the developments in the country concerning the ongoing human-animal conflict as the World Wildlife Day was celebrated in 2021 under the theme “Forests and Livelihoods: Sustaining People and Planet”, as a way to highlight the central role of forests, forest species, and ecosystems services in sustaining the livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people globally, who live within or adjacent to forested areas around the globe.
In a statement released in June, leaders at the United Nations, World Health Organization, and World Wildlife Federation International declared that “pandemics, such as the coronavirus, are the result of humanity’s destruction of nature, the illegal and unsustainable wildlife trade, as well as the devastation of forests and other wild places, are the driving force behind the increasing number of diseases leaping from wildlife to humans.”
The ASPAS WEBINAR offered a platform to discuss a more balanced relationship with these ecosystems and the tools that can help us reach this objective, so that future generations can continue to enjoy and benefit from them sustainably and responsibly,
Opening the WEBINAR, Dr. Peter H. Sand, former Secretary-General of the Conference of Parties to the Endangered Species Convention (CITES), and Acting Director-General of ICUN, and currently, a Professor at the Institute of International Law, University of Munich, Germany, began by giving, as he said, the bad news first.
He noted that according to renowned Harvard biologist Edward Wilson (who passed away just six weeks ago, in January, at the age of 95), we could put the fraction of species disappearing each year “at upward of a thousand times the rate that existed before the coming of humans.” Wilson estimated that 30,000 species per year (or three species per hour) are being driven to extinction and predicted that half of the species described by scientists today would be gone by the end of this century unless we take drastic action.
In light of these figures, our Webinar’s title today, “Commemorating World Wildlife,” almost reads like an obituary, he said. He noted that “we can only hope that the beautiful wildlife pictures of my distinguished co-panellist Rukshan Jayewardene will not just become a historical memory of Sri Lanka’s past.
He said the progressive disappearance of natural habitats is among the primary reasons for the dramatic decline of the world’s wildlife resources. But even the spaces already nationally and internationally designated as nature reserves are far from adequately protected and supported today. Take the “World Heritage Convention” (established under UNESCO auspices in 1972), which currently covers and financially assists a total of over 200 natural heritage sites in 90 countries: Regrettably, the United States, which initially was one of the founders and the prime sponsor of the Convention’s World Heritage Fund, stopped in 2011 – for political reasons – to make any further voluntary contributions, hence severely curtailed the Fund’s projects in developing countries over the past 10 years.
He then turned to the second major threat to wildlife resources’ long-term survival, which is their continuing economic over-exploitation. To be sure, a coalition of UN agencies and other international organizations now coordinates efforts to combat illegal wildlife trade and poaching. For example, the Endangered Species Convention (CITES) unanimously recommended a total ban on all commercial trade in ivory or ivory products.
However, he noted that while most countries now comply (including China particularly, since 2018), Japan still refuses to close its lucrative domestic ivory market, claiming that it does not contribute to elephant poaching in Africa. On the other hand, as regards aquatic wildlife, Japan discontinued its so-called “scientific whaling” in the Antarctic (after the International Court of Justice declared the practice illegal in 2014). Since 2019 limits the taking of whales to its territorial sea and exclusive economic zone.
Ultimately, of course, human use (and misuse) of the world’s wildlife also turns on an ethical issue: If our present generation fails to protect the Earth’s remaining living natural heritage against the risk of extinction, we will deprive future generations of the long-term benefits and enjoyment of the resources to which they, too, are entitled. The problem may indeed be couched in terms of the ‘sustainable development’ meaning development is sustainable only if it “meets the needs of the present and future generations.” In other words, our ethical accountability for the survival of the Earth’s wildlife is intergenerational: It might be defined as a kind of ‘environmental trusteeship,’ a concept which in essence goes back to 19th-century political philosophy he said, and quoted Karl Marx, in Das Kapital: “Even society as a whole, a nation, or all existing societies put together, are not owners of the Earth. They are merely its occupants, its users, and like good caretakers, they must hand it down improved to subsequent generations.”
Dr.Mari Margil, Executive Director, Centre for Democratic and Environmental Rights, spoke next on the Rights of Nature and pointed out that the Rights of Nature is the recognition of the natural world’s legal rights – including all of nature, ecosystems, and species (including wildlife).
These laws, she said, recognize legal rights, including the right to exist, flourish, regenerate, evolve, and restore, as well as water, habitat, and a healthy climate. She noted that the first Rights of Nature law was enacted in 2006 in Tamaqua Borough, in Pennsylvania, U.S.A., and then in Ecuador, Bolivia, Uganda, and New Zealand. Local Rights of Nature laws were adopted in the USA, Brazil, Canada. Rights of Nature court decisions, were enunciated declaring that certain rivers and other ecosystems possess legal rights in Colombia, India, Bangladesh
She pointed out that Rights of Nature laws stand in stark contrast to conventional environmental law, which is in place in countries worldwide. These laws are based on the treatment of nature, including species and wildlife, considered property or an item of commerce. Environmental laws, on the other hand, she said, regulate human use and exploitation of nature, including laws that legalize fracking, mountaintop removal mining, etc. – practices that bring known harm to nature.
The impact of treating nature as existing for human use – with environmental laws legalizing the use and exploitation of nature – is overlapping ecological crises worldwide, she said.
She went on to point out that people, governments, and even courts around the world are recognizing that “business as usual” cannot get us to a place of true sustainability and environmental protection. Instead, there is a growing understanding that we need to make a fundamental shift in how humanity governs itself toward the natural world – and with that, critically, a fundamental change in how nature is treated under the law – from a right-less entity to being recognized as a natural, living entity with legal rights. She concluded that moving from right-less to rights-bearing rights is the highest form of legal protection in the human, written law.
Mr. Rukshan Jayewardene, a Cambridge University-trained Archaeologist, and a well-recognized nature photographer and conservationist, working with several NGOs advocating the preservation of the biodiversity of the Island, joining from Sri Lanka, gave a brilliant presentation emphasizing the imperative of recognizing the need to cherish and protect nature around us for the use of the generations to come. He rightly pointed out the maladies confronting conservation in Sri Lanka, identifying as the principal culprits, those who are the trustees tasked with preserving our wildlife. He called for political will to ensure that administrative decisions in land use planning are not taken arbitrarily but on carefully considered accurate data to avoid widespread human-animal conflicts that are prevalent presently in Sri Lanka.
He pointed out that Sri Lanka is a large Island which is why it has a very rich biodiversity. Many species are in protected areas that Sri Lanka has established. Still, unfortunately, there are large numbers of highly protected elephants who live outside those areas. They have no provision for their long-term survival.
Though scientists have said that such outside areas though troublesome to protect, have to be protected no matter how difficult the human – elephant conflict becomes because people have encroached on the pathways between the protected areas and forest areas adjacent to these protected areas resulting in elephants and leopards encroaching on farmlands. Such incidents have grown each year, he said.
He noted that “we the conservationists keep telling the government that minimum viable areas where they live must be respected and if not, the species such even the leopards will be extinct.” All we have to do is give enough space and keep out of their way.” Some such conservation formulas are simple to carry out. Still, unfortunately, the political and administrative will to implement them is absent.
In concluding his animated presentation, he related the story of how when a king was hunting, an Arahant appeared and told the king not to kill the animals, pointing out that birds in the air and beasts on land have equal rights with people to this land. Mr. Jayewardene lamented that the Buddhist ethic of not harming any life made this Island different with inhibition to take life in any form and even that tenant of good behaviour that had survived all these centuries is losing fast!
A spirited question and answer session followed with Mr. Sanjiv Warnasuriya, a Member of ASPAS prominent Wildlife and Nature Photographer based in Los Angeles, California, leading the discussion.
The Webinar was conducted under the direction of the President of The America–Sri Lanka Photographic Art Society Los Angeles. Suriya Jayalath Perera, and Medini Ratnayake, Attorney-at-Law, acted as the moderator.