Privatizing nature, outsourcing governance: the economics of extinction - The Ecologist
▻http://www.theecologist.org/essays/2988302/privatizing_nature_outsourcing_governance_the_economics_of_extinction.
A few weeks ago the World Wide Fund for Nature released their latest Living Planet Report.
Its findings have reverberated around the world, with the bleak news that the 3,706 wildlife populations that are actively monitored by scientists have declined by an average of 58% since 1970.
To blame? Agriculture, fisheries, mining and other human activities. The report’s authors predict that this figure will reach 67% by the end of the decade.
How on earth has this happened? The answer that’s often put forward is that wildlife protection laws in the ’lawless’ regions of the world (meaning large swathes of Africa and Asia) are woefully inadequate.
But the true root of the problem is that nature is being monetized in order to generate profits for investors and corporations in a process that’s facilitated by changes in the structure of global governance - and it’s about to get much worse.
Unless we get to grips with the real issues at stake, the destruction of nature is all-but guaranteed, except in those few parts of the world that are set aside as reserves for the enjoyment of wealthy visitors.