More than 40,000 species are threatened with extinction.
With this being a worrying statistic in itself, the loss of each individual species is part of the much wider concerns of biodiversity loss. Biodiversity is as crucial for human life as it is for the ecosystem. The variety of plants, animals, fungi and micro-organisms in an ecosystem work together to benefit each other and keep the habitat sustainable.
Benefits of biodiversity to humans are known as ecosystem services examples of these include:
Forests that reduce flood risks
Coastline protection from sea level changes
Regulation of pollution by wetlands
Even something as simple as a walk in the park to ease anxiety
The smallest of changes can have large consequences to a species and its ecosystem. There are many causes of biodiversity loss, many worsened by the impacts of the human population.
Big steps are needed in sustainable consumption and production and tackling climate change to think about making up for the biodiversity already lost and how to move forwards in the future.
Biodiversity is a big topic in the news currently, with the upcoming second part of COP-15, the United Nations Biodiversity Conference. Negotiations are moving forward to work on a UN global agreement for safeguarding biodiversity ahead of the summit scheduled to take place in China at the end of April. This will be known as the Global Biodiversity Framework. With biodiversity rapidly declining the conference has been criticised for acting too slowly with delays caused by the Covid pandemic and potential issues with financing. We will be following the conference as it takes place to bring you an update in a future blog as well as exploring biodiversity further, delving into what makes it so important and the projects already working to combat biodiversity loss.