Biodiversity: developing while preserving life
Since the 1970s, the scientific community has been alerting the authorities and public opinion to the decline in biodiversity. As with climate change, humanity is responsible for this massive and rapid disappearance of the populations of many animal and plant species. One of the main causes is the artificialization and destruction of natural habitats under pressure from agricultural, urban, industrial, and tourist expansion.
As Jean-François Kalck and Christophe Derrien, stakeholders in this area of expertise at Artelia, explain, engineering has a key role to play in combating this decline by fully integrating the preservation and restoration of living organisms throughout the design and construction of developments and facilities. Given the fundamental services that nature provides us with every moment (known as ecosystem services), this is not just an ethical issue, but one that concerns the balance and preservation of our societies and economies.
How can this collapse in biodiversity be characterized?
Christophe Derrien
This collapse, for that is indeed the term to use, can already be observed around us on a daily basis. There are fewer insects and birds: the National Museum of Natural History and the League for the Protection of Birds have noted a loss of around 30% of bird populations in 30 years. In general, wildlife is retreating in the face of humans and their livestock, which now constitute the overwhelming majority of mammalian biomass.
Over the years, a growing number of scientific studies and participatory surveys have supported these observations by establishing precise indicators of the state of ecosystems. Like the IPCC for climate, the IPBES (Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services) regularly publishes summaries based on the analysis of thousands of international scientific publications.
Jean-François Kalck
These global data converge, warning of environmental degradation and population decline. According to IPBES, 75% of the Earth’s land surface and 66% of the oceans have been significantly altered, while 85% of wetlands have disappeared in three centuries. The population of most major terrestrial ecosystems has declined by 20% in a hundred years, with an acceleration in recent decades. One million species are already threatened with extinction, out of an estimated 8 million on our planet. In their 2024 report, Living Planet, a system in peril, the WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature) and the ZSL (Zoological Society of London) also emphasize the seriousness of the situation, stating that between 1970 and 2020, the average size of wild vertebrate populations monitored by them has declined by 73%.
What are the causes and consequences, particularly in terms of ecosystem services?
Jean-François Kalck
The primary cause is habitat loss linked to the destruction and artificialization of natural environments. This is followed by the overexploitation of living organisms (fishing, hunting, massive deforestation, etc.) and climate change, which will have an increasingly significant impact in the coming years. Air, water, and soil pollution and the spread of invasive species are other aggravating factors. Many communities are currently facing these invasive species, some of which are exotic, which proliferate to the detriment of local populations and can be vectors of health risks (tiger mosquitoes, electric ants, Asian hornets, ragweed, giant hogweed, etc.).
The consequences of this collapse are considerable for humanity, as our survival is closely linked to a multitude of natural and free processes, known as ecosystem services: food and raw materials, protection against natural disasters, health, etc. These are grouped into four categories: supporting services, provisioning services, regulating services, and cultural services. There are many examples, but let’s just mention two: pollination by bees, on which most of our food depends, and the ability of mangroves to protect coastlines from storms and erosion. Destroying biodiversity at the current rate therefore amounts to eliminating the benefits that nature brings to human societies.
Christophe Derrien
ndeed, this concept of ecosystem services is crucial. We must protect nature not only for altruistic and philosophical reasons, but because it is vital for humankind. The human species tends to think of itself as separate from the natural world around it, but this is not the case. We are part of biodiversity. It therefore makes no sense to pit biodiversity against the economy, or humanity against the wild world. There is an urgent need to think on a living scale. At COP 16 on biodiversity, held in October 2024 in Cali, Colombia, it was pointed out that 50% of global GDP is directly dependent on biodiversity. That is colossal!
Since the 1970s, regulations promoting nature conservation have been steadily strengthened in many countries, such as France, where environmental studies have become mandatory. What changes are currently taking place in the engineering professions? Is biodiversity being taken into account to a greater extent?
Jean-François Kalck
At the heart of environmental studies lies the ERC concept (Avoid, Reduce, Compensate). This approach is central to regulations. But in practice, regulatory studies are often carried out when the project is already quite advanced, or even relatively fixed, leaving little opportunity to work on avoiding impacts before they occur. Engineers have therefore implemented eco-design approaches that can be initiated in the preliminary phases of the project and continued throughout its implementation. At Artelia, we have named our eco-design method TRACE (Track – Reduce – Avoid – Challenge – Engage). It enables us to identify and encourage, as early as possible and at all stages of a project, choices that avoid impacts, whether related to biodiversity, carbon, pollution, or societal concerns.
Christophe Derrien
In fact, everything is closely linked. Preserving or restoring a wetland, an environment that is generally capable of supporting rich biodiversity, also improves atmospheric carbon capture, while allowing a river space to spill over during floods, thereby reducing the risk of flooding in the urban area downstream. Designing and building sustainable developments means taking into account all these interdependent elements, including biodiversity, and using more nature-based solutions (NBS) to ensure the sustainability of investments in local areas and improve their resilience.
One of the advances made in terms of biodiversity, and more generally the environment, is that these issues, long considered outside the scope of our professions, are now also becoming the concern of engineers, on a par with the functional efficiency objectives that had previously captured most of their attention. Our teams are therefore incorporating a growing number of project ecologists who work in partnership with all other Artelia specialists (hydraulic engineers, civil engineers, energy engineers, industrial, transport and building experts, sociologists, etc.).
In concrete terms, what types of projects do you apply your TRACE eco-design approach to, and what biodiversity preservation and restoration operations does Artelia contribute to?
Christophe Derrien
In terms of biodiversity, our work ranges from field inventories (fauna, flora, habitat) at project sites to ecological management plans, decontamination studies, and renaturation project management to recreate natural environments. We are currently contributing to the restoration of several wetlands (the Grand Marais de Therouanne and Hanfroest areas in France, the Meder Marsh in Canada1, etc.). We are also involved in the renaturation of industrial wastelands and the restoration of ecological continuity. We also conduct studies aimed at reducing light pollution (dark sky), such as in the Brière Natural Park on the island of Guérande.
Jean-François Kalck
We offer our environmental expertise and our TRACE eco-design approach for a variety of projects (buildings, transport infrastructure, energy and industrial facilities, etc.) with the aim of improving them from an environmental and social perspective. We are involved in several electrical interconnection projects in Africa, particularly to protect critical habitats. We are participating in similar studies in Asia, for example in Vietnam, where we have identified mitigation measures to be included to protect birds as part of a high-voltage power line project. In Indonesia, our teams have just completed a biodiversity inventory (fauna, flora, habitat), in accordance with World Bank performance standards, for a dam project on the Uro River.
Is the issue of biodiversity beginning to take root in the minds of project owners and development funding agencies?
Jean-François Kalck
To date, more than 130 leading international financial institutions and investment banks have signed up to the Equator Principles and have incorporated the destruction of critical habitats into their criteria for excluding projects from financing. Similarly, various organizations, professional associations, and think tanks have expressed a genuine desire to take action to protect biodiversity. Artelia contributes to some of these. Our group has also developed an ESG (Environmental & Social Governance) assessment framework to help it analyze the projects proposed to it. To this end, we rely on the CSR committee and several thematic working groups, including the biodiversity group, created in 2016, within a cross-functional committee dedicated to the environment (Environment Business Booster).
However, there is still much education to be done to ensure that people truly understand the importance of the issues at stake and that biodiversity is seen as an asset to be harnessed for sustainable land use planning, rather than as an additional constraint in projects with very tight budgets and schedules. The rather disappointing outcome of COP 16 on biodiversity shows how important it is to persevere, particularly by encouraging Artelia and all its business lines to implement eco-design approaches in all projects.
Published on 1 November 2024.