Transforming our society for the sake of life

Until now, the international community has primarily focused on addressing the visible impact of nature’s decline. We must now address the political, economic and social factors that drive our societies to overburden nature, causing its loss.

These underlying causes include:

  • The expansion of international trade and production methods
  • Resource extraction and processing, often far from their place of consumption
  • Population growth and increasing per capita consumption
  • Technological innovation, which in some cases causes further harm to nature
  • Governance and accountability issues at all levels, from local to global
Les causes sous-jacentes du déclin de la nature - À l’international

International

  • Fishing: Overfishing and commercial fishing are having a major impact on fish stocks.
     
  • Agriculture: Rainforests in the Amazon and in Borneo are being destroyed to make way for cash crops for export.
     
  • Population: The human population has more than doubled over the last 50 years.1
     
  • Growth: Global economic growth has nearly quadrupled.2

1) https://ipbes.net/news/Media-Release-Global-Assessment-Fr
2) https://zenodo.org/record/5906976#.Y2VjZ4LMIjR

Les causes sous-jacentes du déclin de la nature - Au Québec et au Canada

Quebec and Canada

  • Consumption: Canada’s material consumption per capita is among the highest in the world at 35 tons per year, compared to 19 in Europe, 22 in China and 12.5 worldwide3.
     
  • Trade: Increased shipping traffic on the St. Lawrence River due to the continued expansion of international trade is having a dramatic impact on threatened species.
     
  • Technological innovation: The mining boom linked to the electrification of the economy in southwestern Quebec threatens the protection of our natural environment.
     
  • Governance: The forestry lobby is using its considerable influence to stop efforts to create protected areas and recover species at risk in Quebec, such as caribou.

3) https://www.materialflows.net/

Les causes sous-jacentes du déclin de la nature - Les solutions

Solutions

Today, we need to change our relationship with living things. Major transformations are needed in all social spheres, at the social, economic, cultural, technological and institutional levels.

Protecting nature must be a core value of this systemic change.

 

© Marion Depoisier

Our demands

  • Eliminate investments for projects that threaten biodiversity 
  • End mining and rebalance forest uses
  • Prioritize the protection of nature and ecological corridors in land use planning

View our demands