Your Big Read into the way Europe’s salmon farming industry is undermining food security in West Africa (“The hidden cost of your salmon”, February 1) illustrates how food consumption in the global north is unfairly impacting the diets and livelihoods of people in lower income countries.
Unfortunately this is just one example of how unsustainable consumption habits in richer countries undermine the biodiversity and ecosystems of the global south, leading to the loss of, and damage to, nature with subsequent knock-on effects for local people. Another is soy production in Latin America, which is leading to tropical deforestation and, in turn, resulting in a loss of forest resources for local communities. In the UK alone, consumption of crop, cattle-related and timber commodities can account for tropical deforestation equivalent to over 40,000 football fields.
We cannot expect the market to correct this situation when there is such a clear imbalance in the trade relations and negotiating power of different regions of the world.
I and my colleagues suggest we need a system that ensures fair compensation by those countries and corporations consuming meat, timber and other commodities at the expense of the biodiversity and ecosystems that people in the global south rely on.
Some of the damages associated with biodiversity loss are already being factored into the climate loss and damage fund agreed at COP28. An additional “consumer pays” fund would cover the more significant damages that are not driven by climate change but by land conversion and over-exploitation. What such a fund looks like in practice can and should be determined by the indigenous peoples and local communities directly affected. If the true cost of the commodities being consumed in the global north were apparent, the world would more quickly shift to sustainable levels of consumption.
Dilys Roe
Principal Researcher in Biodiversity, International Institute for Environment and Development, London WC2, UK
