Anchor new future in nature, wildlife society says

We need to start creating a “new normal” that lets us live within nature and not at its expense.

That’s the call from the Algoa Bay branch of the Wildlife and Environment Society of SA (Wessa), which was responding on Sunday to recent statements by the World Economic Forum and heavyweight collective Campaign for Nature on the coronavirus and the G20’s post-pandemic restructuring plans.

Wessa chair  Gary Koekemoer said while the pandemic and resultant lockdown had been an important period for reflection on the need for change, humans were creatures of habit.

Globally, economies were founded on fossil fuels and in SA, following the latest relaxation of lockdown regulations, the coal mining industry had been given permission to resume activity to maintain the country’s electricity supply, he noted.

“So the real opportunity in these terrible times is to reflect on what we consider to be ‘normal’.

“There are many calling for a return to work, but if work is the pre-Covid-19 normal, it’s just a matter of time before we again face another global crisis.”

Existing economic activity had taken Planet Earth beyond the boundaries of the ecosystems that sustained human life, but there was an opportunity now to change things for the better globally and locally, he said.

“Perhaps this is an opportunity to heed the wisdom of First Nations, and listen to the feedback from science?

“We can create a ‘new normal’ that lives within nature and not at its expense.

“We can rethink Nelson Mandela Bay’s economy and integrate it into our five biomes and our bountiful Algoa Bay.

“That is the work we need to start with.”

The coronavirus is believed to have originated from a market in Wuhan in central China and many commentators have pointed to the illegal wildlife trade condoned by the Chinese government as the underpinning driver for its emergence.

In a statement last week, however, the World Economic Forum said the Asian giant could lead the transition to a new nature-orientated global economy after the coronavirus had been brought under control.

It said China’s powerful new “ecological civilisation” approach that it was using to counter its previously severe air pollution could become the template to ensure a stable post-Covid recovery globally.

In a statement on Wednesday, Campaign for Nature — which includes scientists, representatives of indigenous communities and a growing coalition of more than  100 conservation organisations — called for nature to be made a cornerstone of the economic recovery plan being debated this week by G20 finance ministers and central bank governors.

The organisation said investing in nature would reduce the risk of future pandemics, which were often rooted in the destruction of nature, and would help guard against the long-term costs of failing to address climate change and biodiversity loss.

Koekemoer said First Nation communities and scientists alike had for centuries been warning that unchecked exploitation of nature would have dire consequences.

“We have ignored those warnings and perhaps Covid-19 is a warning shot across our bows?”

A positive that had emerged from the response to the pandemic was that humankind had shown it was capable of acting decisively on a global basis if motivated to do so.

Science had guided a response to an invisible moving target and politicians had mostly understood the need to listen to the experts and act even though outcomes were unknown, he said.

“Science has been giving us similar feedback on the climate and the environment since the mid-70s.

“And like Covid-19 that we cannot see, for most of us nature is something we are largely unaware of.”

Nelson Mandela Bay was blessed with rich marine and terrestrial biodiversity and yet enterprises both under way and pending were threatening to turn it into an industrial wasteland, he said.

“We can do things differently in our own city and perhaps the co-operation between the political players during Covid-19 can set a platform for the future.”

To read the World Economic Forum statement.

To read the Campaign for Nature statement.