Ensure Sustainable Harvesting and Trade of Wild Species
Ensure that the use, harvesting and trade of wild species is sustainable, safe and legal, preventing overexploitation, minimizing impacts on non-target species and ecosystems, and reducing the risk of pathogen spillover, applying the ecosystem approach, while respecting and protecting customary sustainable use by Indigenous peoples and local communities.
Balance or Breakdown
Our relationship with nature is at a tipping point. While the first four targets of the Biodiversity Plan address the fundamental threats of habitat loss and extinction, this target asks us to find a way to take what we need — without taking more than nature can give.
At first, the target’s full title can feel a bit unsettling: “Ensure that the use, harvesting and trade of wild species is sustainable, safe and legal.” ‘Use’ is a tricky word — it can sound exploiting, one-directional and objectifying.
But in reality, nature is a complex system constantly ‘using’ itself to survive. To be part of the fantastic web of life on Earth, we must approach the system in a symbiotic way, and respect the mutual dependencies at the core of biodiversity.
Also good to know: ‘wild species’ includes not only animals, but also plants and other organisms—on land and underwater.
At its core, this target highlights a simple truth: we are overexploiting nature. If we don’t allow it time to replenish, systems will break down—and species will vanish. We must find a balance: benefitting from nature while also making sure that the ecosystems survive and flourish.
The target also warns about the impact on ‘non-target species.’ An example of this is how pesticides harm bees, butterflies and birds and the way that industrialized fishing indiscriminately catches non-intended species, so-called bycatch.
The gifts that we take from nature must be treated with respect. Only then can we remain part of the ongoing story — rather than writing its final chapter.
PS. Why a Lizard? They are both predator and prey and vital to the balance of many ecosystems. As one of many ‘indicator species’, we can measure the health of an ecosystem by monitoring their population.