UN report: Climate anomalies threaten biodiversity in Latin America and the Caribbean

Droughts, wildfires, floods and landslides pose a growing threat to biodiversity and human survival in Latin America and the Caribbean, according to a recent UNESCO report.

On 12 December, UNESCO released its first quantitative report on the impact of climate anomalies on biosphere reserves and global geoparks in Latin America and the Caribbean, covering 15 protected areas covering a geographical area of more than 1 million square kilometres inhabited by 110 million people in Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Mexico.

According to the report, all 15 protected areas have documented the loss of vegetation cover, increased forest fires, loss of biological habitats, and reduced agricultural yields due to rising temperatures and changes in precipitation. If current trends continue, the report predicts that average temperatures in these areas will rise by 2 to 7 degrees Celsius by 2100.

Research shows that protected area management underestimates the threat of climate change. For example, only 6 of the 15 protected areas are considered a significant threat by protected area management, while research shows that 13 protected areas will be at moderate to high risk of wildfires in the coming decades.

The study also revealed a clear link between the threat of climate change, the vulnerability of protected areas and the risks they are exposed to, which makes it possible to quantify the specific risks in each area. Farmers and their communities are highly vulnerable to reduced rainfall or chronic heat waves in 9 of the 15 protected areas, where more than 90 per cent of their agricultural land is entirely dependent on rainwater irrigation, and 10.7 million people live in areas with interrupted water supplies, 3.3 million in flood-prone areas and 8 million in landslide-prone areas.

According to the report, UNESCO is actively helping these protected areas cope with the effects of climate change. For example, in the Maya Biosphere Reserve in Guatemala, managers are committed to quantifying and offsetting carbon emissions by avoiding deforestation over a 30-year period (2012 to 2042), with the goal of reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 37 million tons.