Biodiversity Loss

Statista | CC BY-ND 4.0

THE GLOBAL BIODIVERSITY CRISIS - Are We Facing A Sixth Mass Extinction?

We are in the midst of a manmade biodiversity crisis triggered by climate change, widespread habitat loss, environmental degradation, intensive agriculture, deforestation, and overfishing.

WWF's Living Planet Report shows that monitored wildlife populations fell by an average of 73% globally between 1970 and 2020.

Species are disappearing 10 to 1,000 times faster than the normal extinction rate. Over 41,000 species are currently threatened with extinction.

Human activity has altered 75% of land-based environments and 66% of marine ecosystems since the Industrial Revolution, leaving very little space for wildlife, insects, birds, and marine life to thrive.

To help address the unprecedented decline in global animal species, the United Nations held the first-ever Summit on Biodiversity in 2020. Every two years, world leaders come together to review progress and set new rules to carry out the Convention on Biological Diversity.

Humans quite literally need the natural world to survive. Freshwater, food, healthy soil to grow crops, timber for construction, medicines, carbon storage, jobs, and the very air we breathe. Not to mention the beauty, joy, and wealth of health benefits we enjoy from spending time in nature.

For many years, humans have valued nature solely for its market worth.

These summits finally recognise the importance of preserving our natural world. If funding is secured, used effectively, and all nations commit to their pledges, this could be the breakthrough nature has been waiting for.

We have seen endangered animals come back from the brink, barren lands rewilded, and concrete jungles transformed into green havens. It can be done.

“Now is our chance to shore up and strengthen the web of life, so it can carry the full weight of generations to come.” - Inger Andersen, executive director of UNEP