International Day for Biological Diversity 2010

Biodiversity and Human Well-being Facts and Figures

Economic Benefits of Biodiversity Assets

• Percentage of pharmaceutical sector’s turnover ($650 billion annually) derived from genetic resources: 20 to 50%.

• Namibia’s protected areas contribute 6% of GDP in tourism alone with a significant potential for growth1. Income from Namibia’s conservancies (and conservancy-related activities): US$ 4.1 million. Percentage of total export from foreign tourist spending: estimated 24%.

• Contribution of the Great Barrier Reef to the Australian economy (value of tourism, other recreational activities and commercial fishing): AU$ 6 billion.

• Sixty percent of ecosystem services have been degraded in fifty years and the cost of failure to halt biodiversity loss on land alone in last 10 years is estimated to be $500 billion.

• Giga tons of carbon stored in Canadian national parks: 4.43 (billion metric tonnes). Value of this service: US$ 11bn – US$ 2.2 trillion depending on the market price of carbon.

• Years of Mexico’s (2004) carbon dioxide emissions offset by its protected areas: more than 5. Value of this service: US$ 12.2 billion.

Livelihoods and Employment

• Nearly a sixth of the world’s population depends on protected areas for significant percent of their livelihoods.

• Over a billion people in developing countries rely on fish as a major source of food and 80% of the world fisheries are fully or overexploited.

• Cost of global network of marine protected areas conserving 20–30% of the world’s seas: up to $19 billion annually creating around one million jobs.

• Wetlands of Okavango Delta generate 32 million $ per year to local households of Botswana mainly trough tourism. Total economic output: 145 million $ - 2.6% of  Botswana GNP.

• Number of people in the world who rely on timber and non-timber forest products: 1.6 billion and annual rate of deforestation: 13 million hectares (or roughly the area of Bangladesh).

Health, Nutrition and Vulnerability

• Percentage of people in Africa estimated by WHO to rely on traditional medicines (plants and animals) as the main source of their health care needs: 80%.

• Number of people worldwide who depend on drugs derived from forest plants for their medicinal needs: 1 billion.

• About 8% of the 52,000 medicinal plants used today are threatened with extinction.

• Number of times more likely a  person living in a poor country is to be hit by a climate change-related disaster than someone from a rich country: 79