UNEP/129

                                                                  28 November 2002

UN ENVIRONMENT PROGRAMME HAS ROLE IN INTERNATIONAL EFFORT TO PROBE

MYSTERIES OF ORGANISMS JUST BELOW EARTH’S SURFACE

Possibility Seen of Restoring Fertility of Damaged, Degraded Soil

LONDON/NAIROBI (UNEP), 28 November:  -- Scientists are to go below ground in seven tropical countries to search for the largest source of untapped life left on Earth, in a project involving the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

Experts know that, millimetres below the surface in the twilight, subterranean world, of the earthworm and the nematode, tens of thousands of new species of tiny organisms including bacteria, fungi, insects, mites and worms await discovery.

Scientists are also convinced that unravelling the secrets of how they operate may be the key to restoring the fertility of damaged and degraded lands, while helping to raise crop yields in the tropics without the need for heavy pesticide and fertilizer use.

Klaus Töpfer, Executive Director of UNEP, said:  “The life forms living just below our feet are the most understudied organisms on the planet.  When people think of where new species might be found, they tend to think of the rainforests, mangrove swamps or place like mountain peaks, not millimetres below their toes.”

He said researchers were now realizing that the world's soils, especially those in the tropics, were teeming with life and harboured more undescribed species than dwelt on the Earth's surface.  Harvesting the secrets of that understudied realm promised huge benefits and improved knowledge towards the goal of delivering sustainable development, towards eradicating poverty.  “This is one of the more unusual, curious but absolutely vital projects UNEP has undertaken”, he said, “so I am delighted that the organization is involved in this pioneering work”.

He noted that it was Louis Pasteur, the father of modern microbiology, who observed that “the role of the very small is large”.

For example, earthworms, termites and other soil-burrowing organisms influenced the amount of rainwater soils could absorb.  Soils depleted in such organisms were more drought-prone and at risk from catastrophic run-off.  This could in turn increase the risk of flooding and erosion with consequences for river water quality and habitats such as coral reefs.

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                                                      28 November 2002

Bacteria and fungi help to eliminate pollutants and disease-causing germs from groundwater as it percolates through the soil to reservoirs, boreholes and other sources of drinking water.

Soil-living organisms also play a key role in the release of carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases from the land to the atmosphere.

Understanding and unravelling the role of these humble creatures and life forms in the so-called “carbon cycle” may help the land absorb more greenhouse gases.

Related research on soil-living organisms has been carried out in many parts of the world.  A team from the French Institute de Recherché pour le Development and the University of Sambalpur in India, working with the Indian company Parry Agro, found that, after the re-introduction of earthworms including native species, harvests at some of the plantations are up as much as 282 per cent, and profits up by as much as $5,500 per hectare per year.

Dr. Fatima Moreira, a soil microbiologist at the Federal University of Lavras in Lavras, Brazil, said nitrogen-fixing bacteria were already being deployed in Brazil to boost soya bean harvests in an environmentally friendly way.

The new $26 million project, backed with $9 million funding from the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and support from other donors such as the Rockefeller Foundation, will be initially targeting the “below ground biodiversity” of seven tropical countries:  Brazil, Mexico, Côte d'Ivoire, Uganda, Kenya, Indonesia and India.

Ahmed Djoghlaf, head of UNEP/GEF Division, which is based at UNEP headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya, said:  “There is an urgent need to assess, classify and record the life forms below ground.  Many people are well aware that increasing intensification of agriculture and the clearing of forests for farmland is contributing to the threat of extinction and a decline in the numbers of plants and animals on the surface.  There is growing evidence that a similar impact is being felt below ground.  So we may be losing many important and useful species from the world's soils without even knowing it.”

Professor Mike Swift, Director of the Nairobi-based Tropical Soil Biology and Fertility Institute of CIAT (TSBF), which is coordinating the “Conservation and Sustainable Management of Below-Ground Biodiversity” project, said the sites in the countries chosen were thought to be among those with the highest below-ground biodiversity.  “There are huge gaps in our knowledge about the variety of organisms in the soil, especially in developing countries.  What we know is the tip of the iceberg”, he said.  “One of the reasons why below-ground biodiversity has been the Cinderella subject of the natural world has been linked to the difficulty of actually seeing what is there.  But we now have new, genetic or DNA screening techniques, similar to those used by forensic scientists to profile a criminal from a swab or sample, which will allow us to screen soil samples for bacteria, fungi and other life forms.”

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                                                      28 November 2002

Professor Jo Anderson of Exeter University in England, and Chairman of the programme's Technical Advisory Group, pointed out that there were rising social and economic pressures across the tropics that were leading to widespread destruction of natural habitats for food, fuel and commercial products like timber.

Critical “ecosystem services”, such as water supplies, carbon storage and even the local climate, were being compromised along with losses of the very soil organisms that play a key role in providing many of these services.

NOTES:

(i)      For more information, please contact Eric Falt, Spokesperson/Director of UNEP's Division of Communications and Public Information, on Tel: +254-2-62-3292, Mobile: +254-733-682656, also E-mail:  eric.falt@unep.org or Nick Nuttall, UNEP Head of Media, on Tel: +254-2-623084, Mobile: +254-733-632755 or when in London +1-917-378-8818 also E-mail:  nick.nuttall@unep.org

(ii)Pictures and facts and figures on “below-ground biodiversity” can be found at the website of the United States Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service's Soil Quality Institute –- http://soils.usda.gov/sqi/SoilBiology/soil_biology_primer.htm#Contents

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