Figure 1-3-8 Domestic Distribution of Endemic Species of Mammals, Endemic Species Index of Vascular plants

Distribution of endemic vertebrate animals of Japan

Distribution of endemic vascular plants of Japan $ ^{*} $

Note: Endemic Species Index is an index corrected the sampling data bias and taxonomic unclassification by an ecological niche modeling Source: Ministry of the Environment

Figure 1-3-10 Reduction Factors of Domestic Threatened Species

Source: Ministry of the Environment

ecosystem.

Figure 1-3-8 shows the distribution of endemic species of endemic vertebrate animals and tracheophytes in Japan. The areas marked with a darker color on the map represent a larger number of endemic vertebrate animals and endemic vascular plants living in the area. This information is a key indicator for selecting important sites for conservation of biodiversity.

## b) Socioeconomic activities and biodiversity

Land can be considered to be a component of ecosystems that is directly or indirectly affected by the results of human socioeconomic activities. Land-dwelling creatures, including human beings, live off the land, meaning that changes in land use can directly impact living organisms. Therefore, measuring the level of land use change can be thought of as a key indicator for assessing the loss of biodiversity due to human socioeconomic activities.

The reduction factors of Japan's threatened species are the socioeconomic activities of human beings, including development, water pollution, illegal capture, and alien species. As a result, wildlife species are under threat of extinction (Figure 1-3-9). Specific activities that pose a threat to the world's biodiversity include infrastructure development and production activities such as agriculture, isolation of habitat ranges, and advancing global warming. These trends are likely to continue in the future (Figure 1-3-10).

As seen above, the loss of biodiversity due to socioeconomic activities such as the excessive use of natural resources and overdevelopment is advancing globally. Objective assessments of the interaction between

■ Loss to agriculture ■ Loss to development

■ Loss to climate change ■ Loss to fragmentation of ecosystem

■ Loss to other factors ■ Remaining diversity

Source: Ministry of the Environment based on the OECD's Environmental Outlook to 2030

biodiversity and socioeconomic activities and analysis of the causes of impacts are required in order to consider the future of biodiversity conservation.

(3) Socioeconomic Activities and Forest Resources

a) Abundance of forest resources

Looking at forest resource abundance from the perspective of forest area shows that forests cover approximately 4 billion hectares of the world's surface, accounting for about 30% of total global land area. A comparison of forest distribution

# An Economic Approach to Biodiversity Conservation

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The most likely cause of biodiversity loss is the impact of human socioeconomic activities. However, the impact of biodiversity loss on human beings has been requiring more and more attention in recent years.

In order to make policy and business decisions in light of heightened awareness of this issue, it is important to conduct objective and quantitative assessments of various impacts: both the impact of human socioeconomic activities on biodiversity, and the impact of biodiversity loss on human socioeconomic activities. This kind of assessment method has not been fully established yet, but various approaches have been launched in many parts of the world.

There is an approach to assessing the value of biodiversity by converting it into economic and monetary values, known as the Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB), promoted by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and other organizations. This report assumes a monetary value for each ecosystem service. For instance, absorption of greenhouse gas is equivalents to 3.7 trillion dollars. By using this evaluation, profits due to biodiversity conservation and economic losses due to biodiversity loss can be estimated.

The initiative Towards Green Growth published by OECD assessed the relationship between the economy and biodiversity, focusing on changes in land usage due to socioeconomic activities. This approach can be understood as a means to analyze correlations between these two factors using economic and statistical data, rather than carrying out a monetary accounting of biodiversity.

As stated above, an analysis of the correlations between biodiversity and the economy may result in a number of new approaches being proposed for rational decision-making processes and conservation policies for biodiversity among policy makers, business owners, consumers, and other parties. Currently, efforts are being made to conserve biodiversity using economic assessments, such as: setting new indicators that comprehensively evaluate the current status of biodiversity and socioeconomic activities; and creating an approach that uses market mechanisms to assess the economic value of biodiversity.