Unstainable harvesting is overexploitation. It’s overharvesting a resource to the point where it can no longer replenish the population level in a natural manner.
Unsustainable harvesting, including hunting, trapping, fishing, and logging is one of the biggest threats to biodiversity (one of the primary five threats). In a new article published in the journal Science Advances, a team of scientists identified regions under high-intensity threat from the commercial harvesting of species. On land, these high-risk regions occur across all continents but are especially concentrated in Asia and North & South America. At sea, these regions are particularly concentrated in Asian seas.
Dr. Enrico Di Minin the lead author highlighted that urgent actions are needed in the centres of unsustainable harvesting to ensure that use of species is sustainable.
“We found that high-risk areas contain 82% of all species impacted by unsustainable harvesting, and more than 80% of the ranges of Critically Endangered species threatened by this threat. Currently, only 16% of these regions are covered by protected areas on land and just 6% at sea. Furthermore, species threatened by unsustainable harvesting are especially concentrated in areas where governance is the lowest”.
The report noted that “unsustainable harvesting is now the most prevalent threat affecting threatened marine species and is the second most prevalent (after agriculture/aquaculture) for terrestrial and freshwater species.”
