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Loss of Biodiversity means the reduction or extinction of the natural life on the planet. This includes in the ocean, in the forests, in the cities, and all land in between. Loss of species can impact each other like a domino effect, with some species relying on each other to survive and us on them. We are a big circle, working together, our bodies creating air and food for each other.

We can combat the loss of diversity with how we produce and how we consume. In the production process, it’s about how we use land, how we protect the species that were living on the land, how we protect the soil, and how we make sure that the species that are living there can cohabitate it with us. In the consuming process, we need to find out where our consumables came from, trying to support local organic markets in your area that are trying their best to be sustainable and to consume less and make educated choices on where you buy your clothes from.

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Wool is one of the only fibers and textiles that is commonly made and used in Aotearoa. This is largely due to our massive amount of sheep which are kept for the lamb meat industry. As one of our main exports a significant amount of land is used to house sheep. Almost all of our natural forests were burned down to make pastures for cows and sheep. This development happened soon after the British settled in Aotearoa, mass fires were started and all of the kauri forests were harvested. So, since the beginning the wool industry has caused extreme loss of biodiversity.

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In researching Wool I found a very informative PDF report by the Center for Biological Diversity and Collective Fashion Justice’s CIRCUMFAUNA Initiative

Authors: Stephanie Feldstein Emma Hakansson Joshua Katcher Unique Vance

This report’s argument is that wool is not as sustainable as we are led to believe. When we look at the whole lifespan and impact of the life of the sheep, the scouring of the wool, and the waste of the whole process we can clearly see that wool is having a huge negative impact on our climate on a global level. The three biggest concerns to Aotearoa is water pollution, loss of bird life and land clearing. This report is stating that “the climate cost of sheep’s wool is three times greater than acrylic and more than five times greater than conventionally grown cotton.” The runoff water from the sheep’s excrement pollutes the soil and the waterways- this is a huge problem in Aotearoa as most of our waterways such as streams and rivers have been polluted by farming, this impacts all of the local wildlife, the trees, the ph river balance, the fish, the birds and us. “Animal agriculture is a leading cause of water pollution and habitat destruction, which in turn is the leading cause of species extinction.”

The biggest concern for Aotearoa’s biodiversity is the loss of birdlife caused by the deforestation needed for farm animals. According to this report “In an Australian Parliament published paper, it was reported that many once- common bird species in areas where sheep are known to over-graze are now in decline.” Since our main native animals are birds statistics like this are scary. I am sure that most New Zealanders are aware in the back of their brain that the land used for farming is inhospitable for native species as it lacks the variety of plants, clean soil and shade needed to support them however the severity of the situation is not addressed. Are we just going to wait until it reaches a critical level? When is it time to act? To close down most of our sheep farms and switch them to permaculture forests and biohousing?

Key Quote-

“While the use of materials derived from fossil fuels are cause for serious concern, we should not fall into a false binary of choosing between harmful synthetics and harmful wool production. Furthermore, animal-derived fibers are still reliant on fossil fuels at every stage, including feed production, transportation, slaughter, and processing.”

Source- https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/programs/population_and_sustainability/pdfs/shear_destruction_final_report.pdf

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Because biodiversity is such a complex and multidimensional landscape, and ecosystem degradation is so wide ranging—affecting oceans, freshwater, soil, and forests—multiple metrics and indicators are needed to measure impact and progress. Setting targets and accountability for such a complex range is much more challenging and requires many countries to pull together and collaborate on this important issue. 

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Because biodiversity is such a complex and multidimensional landscape, and ecosystem degradation is so wide ranging—affecting oceans, freshwater, soil, and forests—multiple metrics and indicators are needed to measure impact and progress. Setting targets and accountability for such a complex range is much more challenging and requires many countries to pull together and collaborate on this important issue. 

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When discussing biodiversity, leather is one of the most important textiles to discuss. This is largely due to the horrific mass clearing of Amazon rainforests to produce the world’s leather goods. According to this article, " To produce less than nine leather jackets, one hectare of land in Brazil must be cleared or kept cleared. It is likely this land was cleared illegally, and that it was taken from the biodiverse Amazon Rainforest. One acre of land is also required to produce ten leather bags or seventeen pairs of leather boots.” There is awareness around this, and fashion-forward people have started to question this but there is such a demand for money that land owners in Brazil are often secretly burning more and more land to make money or are unwilling to make the changes needed.

Burning any forest is horrific but burning the Amazon rainforest is especially bad as it supports so much life on earth- counteracting much of human’s CO2 pollution and is home to so many unique animals and plants.

The issues around biodiversity and leather is also relevant to Australia and Aotearoa as “cattle ranching causes a colossal 93% of deforestation in the world-renowned Queensland’s Great Barrier Reef catchments, with cattle grazing the leading cause of habitat destruction across the country. This is devastating to biodiversity and the native animals endangered by this desecration.” Although this statistic is about Australia, our cattle in Aotearoa are surely doing the same to our ocean life. The cattle waste is not processed or cleaned and allowed to flow straight to the sea and rivers.

https://www.collectivefashionjustice.org/articles/leather-lobbying-and-deforestation

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Awareness of the negative impacts of cotton on the environment has grown recently. This is due to media coverage, large amounts of medical illnesses caused by harsh pesticides and concerns about deforestation.

Cotton is one of humankind's main sources of textiles. Although it comes from a natural source, the cotton plant, we of course found ways to disrupt its natural flow and enhance the yield. This “disruption” often comes from continually replanting cotton in fields and using fertilizers and pesticides. The replanting of cotton “severely degrades soil quality” and you can exhaust a field from growing cotton over and over in it, so the soil loses all nutrients which takes a long time to recover. This means that more land is slash and burned to grow cotton on meanwhile the land that was ruined from the cotton cannot support life. There are ways around this such as permaculture, not using pesticides, swapping out what plants are being planted in the fields so it’s not always cotton and giving back to the soil with compost, bark and clean water. However many places where cotton is grown do not have the funding to make these changes. Even organic cotton has it’s issues.

https://www.worldwildlife.org/industries/cotton

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This video by The Circular Economy Show is all about biodiversity within the fashion industry. First, the video explains how important biodiversity is “one teaspoon of soil contains more living organisms than there are people on earth.” Then it introduces what a linear economy is and how that is having a negative impact on the environment and it introduces a circular economy approach and how that would look.

The main point of this resource is to point how how exploitative our current approach to resources is- “90% of biodiversity loss globally and 50% of all greenhouse gas emissions are a direct result from our production and consumption” and to raise awareness.

As a consumer, it can be hard to understand how your t-shirt or bag is causing a loss of biodiversity since where it came from and how it was produced and manufactured is often hidden. You might fall for the greenwashing tactics and labels like “organic” and “fair trade” but how do you know that what you are buying is actually as thought out as you want it to be?

Videos like this are useful for everyday Western consumers to understand the depth and deceit of the fast fashion industry.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWa5xIg5TAU

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The Better Cotton Standard System is a data-collecting company that surveys small, medium and large cotton farms that claim to be making changes to the cotton industry. These changes are, better working conditions, fewer pesticides and more organic compost and fertilizers used, training women, and no child labor. They then publish the results showing the changes in farming in each country. This is a solution to the problem of unethical and harmful cotton production as it is a way of accurately telling how environmentally safe your cotton is as a consumer as you know that it has been tested in the manufacturing process. This is also an important solution to the biggest problem the fashion industry faces which is misinformation and greenwashing.

https://stories.bettercotton.org/bci-farmer-results--2018-2019/?_gl=1*1d16mnb*_ga*MTUyODgxOTIzNC4xNjk3NTAxMzIy*_ga_F7PM35QYCV*MTY5NzUwMTMyMS4xLjEuMTY5NzUwMTM5Mi4wLjAuMA..#group-Results-Overview-2DXPklUNzy

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Discover the environmental, social and economic outcomes BCI Farmers experienced in the 2018-19 cotton season by participating in the BCI programme.

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The Textile Exchange is a non-profit company that is focused on lowering the negative impacts on the environment caused by the fashion industry. They look at a variety of fibers and address the key issues which each one and work with the farms to make changes on an industry level. Their biggest goal is to reduce the gas emissions of the textile industry by 45% by 2030. One way they do this is by introducing “Impact Incentives” which farms can sell to the brands using their products, the “Impact Incentives are a guarantee that the fibers were made in an ethically and environmentally safe way. By purchasing these Incentives the brands can know where their leather came from and support the farms directly who are making these changes.

https://textileexchange.org/about/

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Another key solution to the loss of biodiversity is researching the brands you as a consumer buy from. However this can prove difficult for the average consumer as facts are hidden, brands aren’t as transparent as you want them to be-not enough information on where the factories are, what the workers are getting paid, is it actually ethical or is it all greenwashing. The rise in sustainable brands and the interest in sustainable brands has provided a market for brands to claim to be a clean-green brand when they are not. Videos like this one by Shelbe are very helpful. She researches “ethical” brands and tells you as a consumer which one is actually ethical, is long lasting, how it feels to wear it, and whether the company is greenwashing. This is easy and accessible information for most consumers who have questions and are uncertain when buying from sustainable brands. This is a very simple solution to greenwashing and it directly interacts with the consumers in an understandable manner.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X68WTP-6r7c

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One solution to the loss of biodiversity caused by the textile manufacturing process that relies heavily on land and water resources is creating a new textile that doesn’t require as much. One of these textiles is called Tencel. Tencel is a natural fiber made from wood that is broken down into a soft fiber that can be made into fabric by itself or mixed with other fabrics. Tencel was designed to challenge the unsustainable fabrics currently on the market that are causing problems like loss of biodiversity and water pollution. The wood that Tencel is made from comes from fast-growing eucalyptus trees and not from unknown sources. “Tencel is produced in a closed-loop system, so 99% of the water and chemicals used to produce the material are reused.” At the moment Tencel is not a very common fiber but over the next ten years, new sustainable textiles like Tencel will make most of our market as we globally look for ways to lower our CO2 emissions.

https://www.tencel.com/about

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https://www.oceancleanwash.org/?gclid=Cj0KCQjw4bipBhCyARIsAFsieCzm2CJCKyyC-JvXXjeSyKa45Um6j2YzV2IyJjMvbbtLIiUjWyBG3DcaAuiWEALw_wcB

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A solution to water pollution and loss of biodiversity in our oceans

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A solution to water pollution and loss of biodiversity in our oceans

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One big factor that causes loss of biodiversity in our oceans is plastics, or microplastics. Animals consume them and die. The chemicals released by the microplatics destroy our clean ocean that houses billions of species of life forms. Our ocean is a precious resource that we rely on for our exhistenec and we are risking it by pollution the waterways. One of the biggest ways we do this is by simply washing our clothes, CEO of Planet Care says that each washing load of synthetic fibers releases around one plastic bag worth of mircoplastics into the waterways. It seems strange then for most washing machines to not have a way of filtering this out. One big way to challenge this is to stop manufacturing synthetic fibers but more realistically it would be to have filters installed in the washing machines. Planet Care is one of these filters. What makes Planet Care great is that when your filter is used up, you can send it back to company where they remove the microplastics and fibers for scientific testing and then reuse the cartridge again and they send you a new filter to use and replace it. This kind of device should be commonplace. It should be affordable and government funded.

https://planetcare.org/en-int/pages/our-story

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UN GOAL 6- Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all

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UN GOAL 6- Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all

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This UN Goal is focused on the water consumption and water hygiene on earth. If a company is in line with this goal it might recycle water, clean water, properly filter water contaminants or use less water. As water is a precious resource and we keep polluting it with our textile runoffs, we excessive water for crops or livestock and the let the waste of these animals flow to our waterways. The way that we produce textiles and process them has not historically been environmentally friendly. However recent awareness around this has caused massive industry changes. We are still a very long way away from achieving this UN goal but the hope is that in the next ten years our whole industry will feel the pressure to change to recycled water and wastewater treatments.

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UN Goal 15- Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss.

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UN Goal 15- Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss.

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This UN Goal is focused on plant life, deforesting and rebalancing our CO2 emissions. The loss of forests and native landscapes are a world-wide issue that causes plant and animal species to go extinct and takes away their natural environment causing them to relocate or die out. Most of this loss of forest and native land is due to humankinds need to consume. Consume more wood, food and textiles, our needs are endless and increasing. The pressure we are putting on our natural environment with our need to consume constantly is reaching a critical level and many of us (the western world) are unwilling to make changes to our lifestyles to slow down and consume less as we are told by advertising that we actually need to consume more and that everyone is consuming and we get trapped in an advertising hole where the origins of these products are hidden from us- we only see the $15 dress on the website.

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My response to all of this research is to cease production! Cease consumption! And to buy a washing machine filter!

It was wise for Whitecliffe to shift the focus of their fashion degree to sustainable fashion however when studying and considering the fashion industry as a whole we see how terrible it is. The cost of looking good is consuming something that takes so much water and land to make, takes so much time to make, might put plastics into the environment or dye runoffs- the cost is too high. Yes in recent years, scientists and leading fashion companies have been using and developing natural fibers that are made ethically and environmentally safe however much of that is still out of reach to me- as a small fashion designer and student and is definitely out of reach to me as a poor consumer.

I am waiting for these fabrics to become mainstream, for them to become options to me. Until then the best option I have is to not produce and not consume. I am aware that in my degree I will be manufacturing clothing however these are more of a learning process wherein I get to learn how to pattern make and sew to a high standard and then I get to conduct my own research like textiles weaving and spinning and natural dyeing. These are the things that I will carry on with after this degree. I will not try to become another brand out there making clothes as I do not want to add to the already overwhelming amount of textiles we have on earth. I want to instead get fully immersed in my love for the craftmanship of textiles, the history of textiles and preserving ancient ways of producing textiles that were often natural and environmentally positive.