Biodiversity is a simple word for the unimaginably complex sum of all life on Earth.
It comprises everything from the genetic diversity within species to the innumerable ecosystems that support life.
ASLA’s Climate Action Plan takes a bold step forward in formally recognizing the connection between climate change and the loss of biodiversity, setting forth action Items specifically linked to addressing the biodiversity crisis. We believe that ASLA and the landscape architecture community can amplify this positive step by formally honoring the importance of biodiversity and the meaningful role that landscape architects can take in its preservation and perpetuation.
Biodiversity is a simple word for the unimaginably complex sum of all life on Earth.
It comprises everything from the genetic diversity within species to the innumerable ecosystems that support life. We as a species are only at the beginning of learning about this rich variety that our lives and livelihoods are completely dependent on. Yet at a time when humanity is more reliant than ever on the services, lessons, health, and relationships a biodiverse planet promises, we are pushing the living world into an extinction crisis.
Through habitat destruction and fragmentation, overharvesting, and pollution, humans are directly responsible for the accelerated loss of biodiversity. One million species of plants and animals are currently threatened with extinction and many more are in decline. The 2020 World Wildlife Foundation’s Living Planet Report found an average 68% decline in global populations of mammals, fish, birds, reptiles, and amphibians over the last 50 years, and it is estimated that up to 46% of all biodiversity will be gone by 2050. Many scientists believe that we are entering Earth’s sixth mass extinction.
Nature is in trouble.
As designers and shapers of the environment, the choices landscape architects make can directly impact biodiversity.
Moreover, biodiversity loss disproportionately affects the world’s poorest countries, marginalized communities, and indigenous peoples, all too often perpetuating a legacy of environmental injustices. One quarter of the land on Earth, representing a significant amount of the world’s biodiversity, is home to indigenous people. Not only is protecting their ways of life important, but their traditional knowledge also can help to protect biodiversity. The suite of poor decisions that underpins climate change is enmeshed with the same attitudes and actions that continue to cause biodiversity destruction. These two pressing issues will serve to exacerbate the negative effects of each other in ways we can’t yet anticipate.
The strength with which we honor and protect the diversity of life on Earth is directly proportional to our survival and prosperity. Biodiversity is life itself; it supports our livelihoods, cultures, economies, happiness, and health. As designers and shapers of the environment, the choices landscape architects make can directly impact biodiversity. The number one cause of biodiversity loss, habitat destruction and fragmentation, is directly within landscape architects’ sphere of influence. More so than all the other design professions, landscape architects are uniquely qualified, and uniquely positioned, to take a leadership role in protecting and perpetuating the diversity of life that defines our profession.
It's our responsibility to act.
Call-to-Action
We value the action items that ASLA has already set forth in its Climate Action Plan. Here, we call upon ASLA to amplify those goals and become a progressive leader in the challenge to protect global biodiversity by taking the following actions:
Officially recognize the importance of biological diversity for the continued evolution of life on this planet and for maintaining life-sustaining systems of the biosphere.
Formally acknowledge the biodiversity crisis, the ongoing mass extinction of life on Earth, and the impacts this is having on humans and non-human species that share this planet.
Highlight landscape architecture’s unique position, and landscape architects’ unique skill set, to address the biodiversity crisis and its interwoven relationship with climate change and environmental injustices.
Endorse and fully support the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD); actively advocating for the United States to ratify the CBD.
Fully support Nature 2030 by joining the International Union for Conservation of Nature as a National NGO.
Endorse the Global Goal for Nature, Call to Action to secure an ambitious global biodiversity agreement that reverses biodiversity loss this decade, in support of climate action and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.
Convene a committee to immediately begin addressing the role that landscape architecture plays in the loss of biological diversity and the actions required to halt and reverse the loss of nature. The committee should be tasked with:
A. Recommending revisions to ASLA’s 2022-2024 Strategic Plan, to include strategic initiatives to specifically address the loss of biological diversity and to support a nature-positive future.
B. Developing a Biodiversity Action Plan based on the broad recommendations of the CBD, Nature 2030, and Global Goal for Nature that outlines steps landscape architects can take to conserve, restore, and promote biodiversity. This should include recommending official policies, advocacy initiatives, and updates to ASLA’s professional practices’ resources to specifically address the loss of biological diversity and to support a nature-positive future.
Moreover, we are calling on Landscape Architects and allied professionals to recognize and acknowledge the biodiversity crisis with a personal and professional commitment to:
Actively incorporate biodiversity conservation and nature-positive practices throughout your practice.
Commit to an approach that recognizes the intertwined crises of biodiversity loss, climate change, and environmental injustices.
Endorse the ASLA Biodiversity Call-to-Action and support ASLA’s efforts to embrace biodiversity as a defining issue of our times.
Advocate for governments, businesses, and non-government organizations to secure and work towards an ambitious global biodiversity agreement that reverses biodiversity loss this decade, mandates climate action, and supports the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN.
This is the defining issue of our time, and we call on ALSA and the landscape architecture community to commit to a Nature Positive future.
We hope you agree.
#biodiversityASLA #naturefirstASLA
Keith Bowers, FASLA, PLA, PWS
Biohabitats, Inc.
Kelly Farrell, Ecologist, Landscape Designer
Sasaki
