Hallo, eco-conscious viewers, and welcome to today’s Planet Earth: Our Loving Home. The United Nations has declared 2010 the International Year of Biodiversity,and on today’s program we’ll explore the impact of livestock raising on the planet’s flora and fauna.
Earth is home to countless species, which all cooperate with one another to maintain the health of the biosphere. We human beings are also part of the global ecosystem and our lives and survival are closely related to those of other species.
Dr. Lovejoy (m): We human beings are living things; we came into existence and evolved in living systems as part of the ecological systems. Every time we reduce the amount of biodiversity, we basically impoverish our own future.
HOST: Dr. Thomas Lovejoy of the United States has enjoyed a long and distinguished career having served as the Chief Biodiversity Advisor to the World Bank, the Executive Vice President of the World Wildlife Fund – US, and as the Senior Advisor to the President of the United Nations Foundation. Currently he serves as the Heinz Center Biodiversity Chair.
The Center is a prestigious environmental policy institute in the USA. Dr. Lovejoy created the idea of “debt-for-nature swaps” between nations.
Dr. Lovejoy (m): The idea of debt-for-nature swaps is to actually turn the idea of debt around, and say is there a way that forgiving debt can actually make conservation and better environmental management take place.
And it’s basically a matter of forgiving debt in one currency, in return for the country in question devoting its own currency for conservation and environmental projects. And nobody knows how much of it’s been done because there’s no central register, but clearly at least a few billion dollars worth have taken place and
invested in conservation, literally all around the world.
HOST: As part of his important work, Dr. Lovejoy is sounding the alarm that global biodiversity is facing unprecedented threats.
For more information regarding Dr. Thomas Lovejoy,please visit
www.heinzctr.org 
