Alarm over high rate of species disappearance

On a Pacific beach in Costa Rica, a researcher whispers the number after counting the slimy, round white eggs just laid by a rare leatherback turtle in a hole dug in the sand under bright moonlight.

Turtles like this 1.5 metre (5 ft) female have probably been struggling out of the surf at night since before the dinosaurs disappeared 65 million years ago.

The region is the main nesting site in the east Pacific for the critically endangered species.

Numbers of leatherbacks emerging onto this Costa Rican beach fell to 32 in the 2008-09 season from 1,500 two decades ago -- due to factors such as nearby hotels, poaching of eggs, accidental snaring in fishermen’s nets and global warming. Arrivals so far this season are slightly up.

Far from the beach, other experts may give a new argument for conserving the turtles by studying whether their fast-clotting blood can give clues to aiding humans, or if the way they regulate buoyancy can inform submarine design.

In 2010 -- the International Year of Biodiversity -- the United Nations wants efforts to slow the accelerating pace of extinctions to reach beyond nature lovers, to companies and economists.

Shifting emphasis from emotional images of polar bears, pandas or leatherbacks that stress the fragility and beauty of nature, the focus is on a harder-headed assessment of how the natural world is a key to economic growth and new products.

“Boosting biodiversity can boost the global economy,” the UN Environment Programme said in a headline over a statement launching the theme. Natural services by coral reefs, forests or wetlands are too often undervalued, it said.

But profits from imitating nature have often been elusive.

By some UN estimates, three species an hour are going extinct, most of them before they have even been identified.

“It’s like we have a house full of wedding presents,” said James Spotila, a professor of environmental science at Drexel University in Philadelphia. “And we’re throwing them out of the window before we even open them.”

Extinction crisis

UN reports say the world is facing the worst spate of extinctions since the dinosaurs vanished, due to factors such as expanding cities, forest clearance, overfishing, climate change and species disrupting new habitats.

Yet a hectare of intact coral reef, for instance, can be worth up to $1 million a year for tourism, up to $189,000 for protecting coasts from storms, up to $57,000 as a source of genetic materials and up to $3,818 for fisheries, according to a preliminary UN-backed study in late 2009.

The problem is translating such estimates into cash.