Radio Episode // Nora Adam Addresses Resource Consumption Vis-à-vis Biodiversity Preservation on Deutschlandfunk Radio
Based on the Convention on Biological Diversity, the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP15) this October in Kunming, China, aims to establish a new set of goals to protect nature. On Deutschlandfunk radio, UNU-FLORES Partnerships & Liaison Officer and the Institute’s focal point for biodiversity in the context of the Resource Nexus, Dr Nora Adam, explains what resource consumption has to do with it.
Unsplash @Zura Narimanishvili
Overview
The Aichi Biodiversity Targets for the global protection of biodiversity were formulated within the Convention on Biological Diversity framework and define 20 targets to be achieved by 2020. Target 4 calls on governments, businesses, and stakeholders to take steps for sustainable production and consumption and ensure the impacts of the use of natural resources stay within safe ecological limits. However, most of them have been missed, calling for a set of new targets for the ongoing decade.
Ahead of the COP15 summit, which will address these targets, the German Deutschlandfunk radio runs the series “Lost Diversity: Needs and Reality in Species Conservation” to discuss selected Aichi-Targets and assess the outcome. In the series’ first episode, “Restrict Resource Consumption”, experts elaborate on consumption drivers and measures to produce and consume sustainably. Dr Adam explains why making production more efficient is not enough: “While natural resources are being used more efficiently, the overall demand for resources continues to increase. Thus, the impacts are far beyond safe ecological limits.” Instead, it is also necessary to reduce or adjust eating habits that are too intense, consume less and more sustainably, recycle more, and slow down global population growth, concludes the panel.
In her role as UNU-FLORES’s focal point for biodiversity in the context of the Resource Nexus, Dr Adam’s research broadly focuses on the consequences of genetic and chemical diversity for productivity, resistance, and stability at the population and community levels. Among others, she leads the project “Developing the Biodiversity Economy in selected Landscapes in Namibia” and co-initiated the “Saxon Dialogue on Biodiversity” to raise awareness among the public.
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This article was first published on October 8, 2021 on the UNU-FLORES website.