Biodiversity
Biodiversity is the variability of
Since
Human activities have led to an ongoing biodiversity loss and an accompanying loss of genetic diversity. This process is often referred to as Holocene extinction, or sixth mass extinction. For example, it was estimated in 2007 that up to 30% of all species will be extinct by 2050.[4] Destroying habitats for farming is a key reason why biodiversity is decreasing today. Climate change also plays a role.[5][6] This can be seen for example in the effects of climate change on biomes. This anthropogenic extinction may have started toward the end of the Pleistocene, as some studies suggest that the megafaunal extinction event that took place around the end of the last ice age partly resulted from overhunting.[7]
Definitions

Biologists most often define biodiversity as the "totality of
An advantage of this definition is that it presents a unified view of the traditional types of biological variety previously identified:- taxonomic diversity (usually measured at the species diversity level)[10]
- ecological diversity (often viewed from the perspective of ecosystem diversity)[10]
- morphological diversity (which stems from genetic diversity and molecular diversity[11])
- functional diversity (which is a measure of the number of functionally disparate species within a population (e.g. different feeding mechanism, different motility, predator vs prey, etc.)[12])
Biodiversity is most commonly used to replace the more clearly-defined and long-established terms, species diversity and species richness.[13] However, there is no concrete definition for biodiversity, as its definition continues to be defined. Other definitions include (in chronological order):
- An explicit definition consistent with this interpretation was first given in a paper by Bruce A. Wilcox commissioned by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) for the 1982 World National Parks Conference.[14] Wilcox's definition was "Biological diversity is the variety of life forms...at all levels of biological systems (i.e., molecular, organismic, population, species and ecosystem)...".[14]
- A publication by Wilcox in 1984: Biodiversity can be defined genetically as the diversity of alleles, genes and gene transfer that drive evolution.[14]
- The 1992 United Nations Earth Summit defined biological diversity as "the variability among living organisms from all sources, including, inter alia, terrestrial, marine and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part: this includes diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems".[15] This definition is used in the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity.[15]
- Gaston and Spicer's definition in their book "Biodiversity: an introduction" in 2004 is "variation of life at all levels of biological organization".[16]
- The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) defined biodiversity in 2019 as "the variability that exists among living organisms (both within and between species) and the ecosystems of which they are part."[17]
Number of species
According to estimates by Mora et al. (2011), there are approximately 8.7 million terrestrial species and 2.2 million oceanic species. The authors note that these estimates are strongest for eukaryotic organisms and likely represent the lower bound of prokaryote diversity.[18] Other estimates include:
- 220,000 vascular plants, estimated using the species-area relation method[19]
- 0.7-1 million marine species[20]
- 10–30 million insects;[21] (of some 0.9 million we know today)[22]
- 5–10 million bacteria;[23]
- 1.5-3 million
- 1 million mites[26]
- The number of microbial species is not reliably known, but the Global Ocean Sampling Expedition dramatically increased the estimates of genetic diversity by identifying an enormous number of new genes from near-surface plankton samples at various marine locations, initially over the 2004–2006 period.[27] The findings may eventually cause a significant change in the way science defines species and other taxonomic categories.[28][29]
Since the rate of extinction has increased, many extant species may become extinct before they are described.
Current biodiversity loss

During the last century, decreases in biodiversity have been increasingly observed. It was estimated in 2007 that up to 30% of all species will be extinct by 2050.
In absolute terms, the planet has lost 58% of its biodiversity since 1970 according to a 2016 study by the World Wildlife Fund.[43] The Living Planet Report 2014 claims that "the number of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish across the globe is, on average, about half the size it was 40 years ago". Of that number, 39% accounts for the terrestrial wildlife gone, 39% for the marine wildlife gone and 76% for the freshwater wildlife gone. Biodiversity took the biggest hit in Latin America, plummeting 83 percent. High-income countries showed a 10% increase in biodiversity, which was canceled out by a loss in low-income countries. This is despite the fact that high-income countries use five times the ecological resources of low-income countries, which was explained as a result of a process whereby wealthy nations are outsourcing resource depletion to poorer nations, which are suffering the greatest ecosystem losses.[44]
A 2017 study published in
In 2020 the
Of 70,000 monitored species, around 48% are experiencing population declines from human activity (in 2023), whereas only 3% have increasing populations.[48][49][50]
Since the Stone Age, species loss has accelerated above the average basal rate, driven by human activity. Estimates of species losses are at a rate 100–10,000 times as fast as is typical in the fossil record.[62]
Loss of biodiversity results in the loss of
In 2006, many species were formally classified as
Numerous scientists and the
Some studies have however pointed out that habitat destruction for the expansion of agriculture and the overexploitation of wildlife are the more significant drivers of contemporary biodiversity loss, not climate change.[5][6]
Distribution

Biodiversity is not evenly distributed, rather it varies greatly across the globe as well as within regions and seasons. Among other factors, the diversity of all living things (
Diversity consistently measures higher in the
There is local biodiversity, which directly impacts daily life, affecting the availability of fresh water, food choices, and fuel sources for humans. Regional biodiversity includes habitats and ecosystems that synergizes and either overlaps or differs on a regional scale. National biodiversity within a country determines the ability for a country to thrive according to its habitats and ecosystems on a national scale. Also, within a country, endangered species are initially supported on a national level then internationally. Ecotourism may be utilized to support the economy and encourages tourists to continue to visit and support species and ecosystems they visit, while they enjoy the available amenities provided. International biodiversity impacts global livelihood, food systems, and health. Problematic pollution, over consumption, and climate change can devastate international biodiversity. Nature-based solutions are a critical tool for a global resolution. Many species are in danger of becoming extinct and need world leaders to be proactive with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.
Terrestrial biodiversity is thought to be up to 25 times greater than ocean biodiversity.[77] Forests harbour most of Earth's terrestrial biodiversity. The conservation of the world's biodiversity is thus utterly dependent on the way in which we interact with and use the world's forests.[78] A new method used in 2011, put the total number of species on Earth at 8.7 million, of which 2.1 million were estimated to live in the ocean.[79] However, this estimate seems to under-represent the diversity of microorganisms.[80] Forests provide habitats for 80 percent of amphibian species, 75 percent of bird species and 68 percent of mammal species. About 60 percent of all vascular plants are found in tropical forests. Mangroves provide breeding grounds and nurseries for numerous species of fish and shellfish and help trap sediments that might otherwise adversely affect seagrass beds and coral reefs, which are habitats for many more marine species.[78] Forests span around 4 billion acres (nearly a third of the Earth's land mass) and are home to approximately 80% of the world's biodiversity. About 1 billion hectares are covered by primary forests. Over 700 million hectares of the world's woods are officially protected.[81][82]
The biodiversity of forests varies considerably according to factors such as forest type, geography, climate and soils – in addition to human use.[78] Most forest habitats in temperate regions support relatively few animal and plant species and species that tend to have large geographical distributions, while the montane forests of Africa, South America and Southeast Asia and lowland forests of Australia, coastal Brazil, the Caribbean islands, Central America and insular Southeast Asia have many species with small geographical distributions.[78] Areas with dense human populations and intense agricultural land use, such as Europe, parts of Bangladesh, China, India and North America, are less intact in terms of their biodiversity. Northern Africa, southern Australia, coastal Brazil, Madagascar and South Africa, are also identified as areas with striking losses in biodiversity intactness.[78] European forests in EU and non-EU nations comprise more than 30% of Europe's land mass (around 227 million hectares), representing an almost 10% growth since 1990.[83][84]
Latitudinal gradients
Generally, there is an increase in biodiversity from the
Even though terrestrial biodiversity declines from the equator to the poles,
In 2016, an alternative hypothesis ("the
Biodiversity Hotspots
A biodiversity hotspot is a region with a high level of endemic species that have experienced great habitat loss.[92] The term hotspot was introduced in 1988 by Norman Myers.[93][94][95][96] While hotspots are spread all over the world, the majority are forest areas and most are located in the tropics.[97]
Brazil's Atlantic Forest is considered one such hotspot, containing roughly 20,000 plant species, 1,350 vertebrates and millions of insects, about half of which occur nowhere else.[98][99] The island of Madagascar and India are also particularly notable. Colombia is characterized by high biodiversity, with the highest rate of species by area unit worldwide and it has the largest number of endemics (species that are not found naturally anywhere else) of any country. About 10% of the species of the Earth can be found in Colombia, including over 1,900 species of bird, more than in Europe and North America combined, Colombia has 10% of the world's mammals species, 14% of the amphibian species and 18% of the bird species of the world.[100] Madagascar dry deciduous forests and lowland rainforests possess a high ratio of endemism.[101][102] Since the island separated from mainland Africa 66 million years ago, many species and ecosystems have evolved independently.[103] Indonesia's 17,000 islands cover 735,355 square miles (1,904,560 km2) and contain 10% of the world's flowering plants, 12% of mammals and 17% of reptiles, amphibians and birds—along with nearly 240 million people.[104] Many regions of high biodiversity and/or endemism arise from specialized habitats which require unusual adaptations, for example, alpine environments in high mountains, or Northern European peat bogs.[102]
Accurately measuring differences in biodiversity can be difficult. Selection bias amongst researchers may contribute to biased empirical research for modern estimates of biodiversity. In 1768, Rev. Gilbert White succinctly observed of his Selborne, Hampshire "all nature is so full, that that district produces the most variety which is the most examined."[105]
Evolution over geologic timeframes
Biodiversity is the result of 3.5 billion years of
million years ago) |

Biodiversity grew fast during the
The most recent major
The biodiversity of the past is called Paleobiodiversity. The
Diversification
The existence of a global carrying capacity, limiting the amount of life that can live at once, is debated, as is the question of whether such a limit would also cap the number of species. While records of life in the sea show a logistic pattern of growth, life on land (insects, plants and tetrapods) shows an exponential rise in diversity.[10] As one author states, "Tetrapods have not yet invaded 64 percent of potentially habitable modes and it could be that without human influence the ecological and taxonomic diversity of tetrapods would continue to increase exponentially until most or all of the available eco-space is filled."[10]
It also appears that the diversity continues to increase over time, especially after mass extinctions.[120]
On the other hand, changes through the
Most biologists agree however that the period since human emergence is part of a new mass extinction, named the
New species are regularly discovered (on average between 5–10,000 new species each year, most of them insects) and many, though discovered, are not yet classified (estimates are that nearly 90% of all arthropods are not yet classified).[118] Most of the terrestrial diversity is found in tropical forests and in general, the land has more species than the ocean; some 8.7 million species may exist on Earth, of which some 2.1 million live in the ocean.[79]
Species diversity in geologic time frames
It is estimated that 5 to 50 billion species have existed on the planet.[126] Assuming that there may be a maximum of about 50 million species currently alive,[127] it stands to reason that greater than 99% of the planet's species went extinct prior to the evolution of humans.[128] Estimates on the number of Earth's current species range from 10 million to 14 million, of which about 1.2 million have been documented and over 86% have not yet been described.[129] However, a May 2016 scientific report estimates that 1 trillion species are currently on Earth, with only one-thousandth of one percent described.[130] The total amount of related DNA base pairs on Earth is estimated at 5.0 x 1037 and weighs 50 billion tonnes. In comparison, the total mass of the biosphere has been estimated to be as much as four trillion tons of carbon.[131] In July 2016, scientists reported identifying a set of 355 genes from the last universal common ancestor (LUCA) of all organisms living on Earth.[132]
The
Role and benefits of biodiversity

Ecosystem services
There have been many claims about biodiversity's effect on the ecosystem services, especially provisioning and regulating services.[142] Some of those claims have been validated, some are incorrect and some lack enough evidence to draw definitive conclusions.[142]
Ecosystem services have been grouped in three types:[142]
- Provisioning services which involve the production of renewable resources (e.g.: food, wood, fresh water)
- Regulating services which are those that lessen environmental change (e.g.: climate regulation, pest/disease control)
- Cultural services represent human value and enjoyment (e.g.: landscape aesthetics, cultural heritage, outdoor recreation and spiritual significance)[143]
Experiments with controlled environments have shown that humans cannot easily build ecosystems to support human needs;
Provisioning services
With regards to provisioning services, greater species diversity has the following benefits:
- Greater species diversity of plants increases fodder yield (synthesis of 271 experimental studies).[74]
- Greater species diversity of plants (i.e. diversity within a single species) increases overall crop yield (synthesis of 575 experimental studies).[148] Although another review of 100 experimental studies reported mixed evidence.[149]
- Greater species diversity of trees increases overall
Regulating services
With regards to regulating services, greater species diversity has the following benefits:
Greater species diversity
- of fish increases the stability of fisheries yield (synthesis of 8 observational studies)[142]
- of plants increases carbon sequestration, but note that this finding only relates to actual uptake of carbon dioxide and not long-term storage; synthesis of 479 experimental studies)[74]
- of plants increases remineralization (synthesis of 103 experimental studies), increases soil organic matter (synthesis of 85 experimental studies) and decreases disease prevalence on plants (synthesis of 107 experimental studies)[151]
- of natural pest enemies decreases herbivorous pest populations (data from two separate reviews; synthesis of 266 experimental and observational studies;[152] Synthesis of 18 observational studies.[153][154] Although another review of 38 experimental studies found mixed support for this claim, suggesting that in cases where mutual intraguild predation occurs, a single predatory species is often more effective[155]
Agriculture
Agricultural diversity can also be divided by whether it is 'planned' diversity or 'associated' diversity. This is a functional classification that we impose and not an intrinsic feature of life or diversity. Planned diversity includes the crops which a farmer has encouraged, planted or raised (e.g. crops, covers, symbionts, and livestock, among others), which can be contrasted with the associated diversity that arrives among the crops, uninvited (e.g. herbivores, weed species and pathogens, among others).[156]
Associated biodiversity can be damaging or beneficial. The beneficial associated biodiversity include for instance wild pollinators such as wild bees and
Although about 80 percent of humans' food supply comes from just 20 kinds of plants,[159] humans use at least 40,000 species.[160] Earth's surviving biodiversity provides resources for increasing the range of food and other products suitable for human use, although the present extinction rate shrinks that potential.[125]
Human health

Biodiversity's relevance to human health is becoming an international political issue, as scientific evidence builds on the global health implications of biodiversity loss.
Some of the health issues influenced by biodiversity include dietary health and nutrition security, infectious disease, medical science and medicinal resources, social and psychological health.[166] Biodiversity is also known to have an important role in reducing disaster risk and in post-disaster relief and recovery efforts.[167][168]
Biodiversity provides critical support for drug discovery and the availability of medicinal resources.[169][170] A significant proportion of drugs are derived, directly or indirectly, from biological sources: at least 50% of the pharmaceutical compounds on the US market are derived from plants, animals and microorganisms, while about 80% of the world population depends on medicines from nature (used in either modern or traditional medical practice) for primary healthcare.[162] Only a tiny fraction of wild species has been investigated for medical potential.
Marine ecosystems are particularly important,[171] although inappropriate bioprospecting can increase biodiversity loss, as well as violating the laws of the communities and states from which the resources are taken.[172][173][174]
Business and industry
Many industrial materials derive directly from biological sources. These include building materials, fibers, dyes, rubber, and oil. Biodiversity is also important to the security of resources such as water, timber, paper, fiber, and food.[175][176][177] As a result, biodiversity loss is a significant risk factor in business development and a threat to long-term economic sustainability.[178][179]
Cultural and aesthetic value
Philosophically it could be argued that biodiversity has intrinsic aesthetic and spiritual value to mankind in and of itself. This idea can be used as a counterweight to the notion that tropical forests and other ecological realms are only worthy of conservation because of the services they provide.[180]
Biodiversity also affords many non-material benefits including spiritual and aesthetic values, knowledge systems and education.[62]
Measuring biodiversity
Analytical limits
Less than 1% of all species that have been described have been studied beyond noting their existence.
Biodiversity changes (other than losses)
Natural seasonal variations
Biodiversity naturally varies due to seasonal shifts. Spring's arrival enhances biodiversity as numerous species breed and feed, while winter's onset temporarily reduces it as some insects perish and migrating animals leave. Additionally, the seasonal fluctuation in plant and invertebrate populations influences biodiversity.[191]
Introduced and invasive species

Barriers such as large
Species are increasingly being moved by humans (on purpose and accidentally). Some studies say that diverse ecosystems are more resilient and resist invasive plants and animals.[192] Many studies cite effects of invasive species on natives,[193] but not extinctions.
Invasive species seem to increase local (alpha diversity) diversity, which decreases turnover of diversity (beta diversity). Overall gamma diversity may be lowered because species are going extinct because of other causes,[194] but even some of the most insidious invaders (e.g.: Dutch elm disease, emerald ash borer, chestnut blight in North America) have not caused their host species to become extinct. Extirpation, population decline and homogenization of regional biodiversity are much more common. Human activities have frequently been the cause of invasive species circumventing their barriers,[195] by introducing them for food and other purposes. Human activities therefore allow species to migrate to new areas (and thus become invasive) occurred on time scales much shorter than historically have been required for a species to extend its range.
At present, several countries have already imported so many exotic species, particularly agricultural and ornamental plants, that their indigenous fauna/flora may be outnumbered. For example, the introduction of kudzu from Southeast Asia to Canada and the United States has threatened biodiversity in certain areas.[196] Another example are pines, which have invaded forests, shrublands and grasslands in the southern hemisphere.[197]
Hybridization and genetic pollution
Hybridization and introgression are side-effects of introduction and invasion. These phenomena can be especially detrimental to rare species that come into contact with more abundant ones. The abundant species can interbreed with the rare species, swamping its gene pool. This problem is not always apparent from morphological (outward appearance) observations alone. Some degree of gene flow is normal adaptation and not all gene and genotype constellations can be preserved. However, hybridization with or without introgression may, nevertheless, threaten a rare species' existence.[200][201]
Conservation

The conservation ethic advocates management of
Conservation biology is reforming around strategic plans to protect biodiversity.
In the EU Directive 1999/22/EC zoos are described as having a role in the preservation of the biodiversity of wildlife animals by conducting research or participation in breeding programs.[214]
Protection and restoration techniques
Removal of exotic species will allow the species that they have negatively impacted to recover their ecological niches. Exotic species that have become pests can be identified taxonomically (e.g., with
Removal is practical only given large groups of individuals due to the economic cost.As sustainable populations of the remaining native species in an area become assured, "missing" species that are candidates for reintroduction can be identified using databases such as the Encyclopedia of Life and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.
- Biodiversity banking places a monetary value on biodiversity. One example is the Australian Native Vegetation Management Framework.
- Gene banks are collections of specimens and genetic material. Some banks intend to reintroduce banked species to the ecosystem (e.g., via tree nurseries).[217]
- Reduction and better targeting of pesticides allows more species to survive in agricultural and urbanized areas.
- Location-specific approaches may be less useful for protecting migratory species. One approach is to create wildlife corridors that correspond to the animals' movements. National and other boundaries can complicate corridor creation.[218]
Protected areas

Protected areas, including forest reserves and biosphere reserves, serve many functions including for affording protection to wild animals and their habitat.[219] Protected areas have been set up all over the world with the specific aim of protecting and conserving plants and animals. Some scientists have called on the global community to designate as protected areas of 30 percent of the planet by 2030, and 50 percent by 2050, in order to mitigate biodiversity loss from anthropogenic causes.[220][221] The target of protecting 30% of the area of the planet by the year 2030 (30 by 30) was adopted by almost 200 countries in the 2022 United Nations Biodiversity Conference. At the moment of adoption (December 2022) 17% of land territory and 10% of ocean territory were protected.[222] In a study published 4 September 2020 in Science Advances researchers mapped out regions that can help meet critical conservation and climate goals.[223]
Protected areas safeguard nature and cultural resources and contribute to livelihoods, particularly at local level. There are over 238 563 designated protected areas worldwide, equivalent to 14.9 percent of the earth's land surface, varying in their extension, level of protection, and type of management (IUCN, 2018).[224]
The benefits of protected areas extend beyond their immediate environment and time. In addition to conserving nature, protected areas are crucial for securing the long-term delivery of ecosystem services. They provide numerous benefits including the conservation of genetic resources for food and agriculture, the provision of medicine and health benefits, the provision of water, recreation and tourism, and for acting as a buffer against disaster. Increasingly, there is acknowledgement of the wider socioeconomic values of these natural ecosystems and of the ecosystem services they can provide.[225]
National parks and wildlife sanctuaries
A
Forest protected areas

Forest protected areas are a subset of all protected areas in which a significant portion of the area is forest.[78] This may be the whole or only a part of the protected area.[78] Globally, 18 percent of the world's forest area, or more than 700 million hectares, fall within legally established protected areas such as national parks, conservation areas and game reserves.[78]
There is an estimated 726 million ha of forest in protected areas worldwide. Of the six major world regions, South America has the highest share of forests in protected areas, 31 percent.[227] The forests play a vital role in harboring more than 45,000 floral and 81,000 faunal species of which 5150 floral and 1837 faunal species are endemic.[228] In addition, there are 60,065 different tree species in the world.[229] Plant and animal species confined to a specific geographical area are called endemic species.
In
Approximately 50 million hectares (or 24%) of European forest land is protected for biodiversity and landscape protection. Forests allocated for soil, water, and other ecosystem services encompass around 72 million hectares (32% of European forest area).[230][231]
Role of society
Transformative change
In 2019, a summary for policymakers of the largest, most comprehensive study to date of biodiversity and ecosystem services, the Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, was published by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). It stated that "the state of nature has deteriorated at an unprecedented and accelerating rate". To fix the problem, humanity will need a transformative change, including sustainable agriculture, reductions in consumption and waste, fishing quotas and collaborative water management.[232][233]
The concept of nature-positive is playing a role in mainstreaming the goals of the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) for biodiversity.[234] The aim of mainstreaming is to embed biodiversity considerations into public and private practice to conserve and sustainably use biodiversity on global and local levels.[235] The concept of nature-positive refers to the societal goal to halt and reverse biodiversity loss, measured from a baseline of 2020 levels, and to achieve full so-called "nature recovery" by 2050.[236]
Citizen science
Citizen science, also known as public participation in scientific research, has been widely used in environmental sciences and is particularly popular in a biodiversity-related context. It has been used to enable scientists to involve the general public in biodiversity research, thereby enabling the scientists to collect data that they would otherwise not have been able to obtain.[237]
Volunteer observers have made significant contributions to on-the-ground knowledge about biodiversity, and recent improvements in technology have helped increase the flow and quality of occurrences from citizen sources. A 2016 study published in Biological Conservation[238] registers the massive contributions that citizen scientists already make to data mediated by the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). Despite some limitations of the dataset-level analysis, it is clear that nearly half of all occurrence records shared through the GBIF network come from datasets with significant volunteer contributions. Recording and sharing observations are enabled by several global-scale platforms, including iNaturalist and eBird.[239][240]
Legal status

International
- United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (1992) and Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety;
- UN BBNJ (High Seas Treaty) 2023 Intergovernmental conference on an international legally binding instrument under the UNCLOS on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction (GA resolution 72/249)
- Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES);
- Ramsar Convention (Wetlands);
- Bonn Conventionon Migratory Species;
- UNESCO Convention concerning the Protection of the World's Cultural and Natural Heritage (indirectly by protecting biodiversity habitats)
- UNESCO Global Geoparks
- Regional Conventions such as the Apia Convention
- Bilateral agreements such as the Japan-Australia Migratory Bird Agreement.
Global agreements such as the Convention on Biological Diversity, give "sovereign national rights over biological resources" (not property). The agreements commit countries to "conserve biodiversity", "develop resources for sustainability" and "share the benefits" resulting from their use. Biodiverse countries that allow bioprospecting or collection of natural products, expect a share of the benefits rather than allowing the individual or institution that discovers/exploits the resource to capture them privately. Bioprospecting can become a type of biopiracy when such principles are not respected.[241]
Sovereignty principles can rely upon what is better known as Access and Benefit Sharing Agreements (ABAs). The Convention on Biodiversity implies informed consent between the source country and the collector, to establish which resource will be used and for what and to settle on a fair agreement on benefit sharing.
On the 19 of December 2022, during the 2022 United Nations Biodiversity Conference every country on earth, with the exception of the United States and the Holy See, signed onto the agreement which includes protecting 30% of land and oceans by 2030 (30 by 30) and 22 other targets intended to reduce biodiversity loss.[222][242][243] The agreement includes also recovering 30% of earth degraded ecosystems and increasing funding for biodiversity issues.[244]
European Union
In May 2020, the European Union published its Biodiversity Strategy for 2030. The biodiversity strategy is an essential part of the climate change mitigation strategy of the European Union. From the 25% of the European budget that will go to fight climate change, large part will go to restore biodiversity[210] and nature based solutions.
The
- Protect 30% of the sea territory and 30% of the land territory especially Old-growth forests.
- Plant 3 billion trees by 2030.
- Restore at least 25,000 kilometers of rivers, so they will become free flowing.
- Reduce the use of Pesticides by 50% by 2030.
- Increase Organic farming. In linked EU program From Farm to Fork it is said, that the target is making 25% of EU agriculture organic, by 2030.[245]
- Increase biodiversity in agriculture.
- Give €20 billion per year to the issue and make it part of the business practice.
Approximately half of the global
National level laws
Biodiversity is taken into account in some political and judicial decisions:
- The relationship between law and ecosystems is very ancient and has consequences for biodiversity. It is related to private and public property rights. It can define protection for threatened ecosystems, but also some rights and duties (for example, fishing and hunting rights).[citation needed]
- Law regarding species is more recent. It defines species that must be protected because they may be threatened by extinction. The U.S. Endangered Species Actis an example of an attempt to address the "law and species" issue.
- Laws regarding gene pools are only about a century old.genetically modified organisms, gene patents and process patents.[248] Governments struggle to decide whether to focus on for example, genes, genomes, or organisms and species.[citation needed]
Uniform approval for use of biodiversity as a legal standard has not been achieved, however. Bosselman argues that biodiversity should not be used as a legal standard, claiming that the remaining areas of scientific uncertainty cause unacceptable administrative waste and increase litigation without promoting preservation goals.[249]
India passed the
History of the term
- 1916 – The term biological diversity was used first by J. Arthur Harris in "The Variable Desert", Scientific American: "The bare statement that the region contains a flora rich in genera and species and of diverse geographic origin or affinity is entirely inadequate as a description of its real biological diversity."[250]
- 1967 – Raymond F. Dasmann used the term biological diversity in reference to the richness of living nature that conservationists should protect in his book A Different Kind of Country.[251][252]
- 1974 – The term natural diversity was introduced by John Terborgh.[253]
- 1980 – Thomas Lovejoy introduced the term biological diversity to the scientific community in a book.[254] It rapidly became commonly used.[255]
- 1985 – According to Edward O. Wilson, the contracted form biodiversity was coined by W. G. Rosen: "The National Forum on BioDiversity ... was conceived by Walter G.Rosen ... Dr. Rosen represented the NRC/NAS throughout the planning stages of the project. Furthermore, he introduced the term biodiversity".[256]
- 1985 – The term "biodiversity" appears in the article, "A New Plan to Conserve the Earth's Biota" by Laura Tangley.[257]
- 1988 – The term biodiversity first appeared in publication.[258][259]
- 1988 to Present – The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Ad Hoc Working Group of Experts on Biological Diversity in began working in November 1988, leading to the publication of the draft Convention on Biological Diversity in May 1992. Since this time, there have been 16 Conferences of the Parties (COPs) to discuss potential global political responses to biodiversity loss. Most recently COP 16 in Cali, Colombia in 2024.[260]
See also
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External links
- Assessment Report on Diverse Values and Valuation of Nature by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), 2022.
- NatureServe: This site serves as a portal for accessing several types of publicly available biodiversity data
- Biodiversity Synthesis Report (PDF) by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA, 2005)
- World Map of Biodiversity an interactive map from the United Nations Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre
- Biodiversity Heritage Library – Open access digital library of historical taxonomic literature
- Biodiversity PMC – Open access digital library of biodiversity and ecological literature
- Mapping of biodiversity
- Encyclopedia of Life – Documenting all species of life on Earth.