Biodiversity—the sheer number and variety of plant and animal species on the planet—is essential for the health of our planet. It is essentially nature, by another name.
In diversity there is resilience: the greater the variety of species on Earth, the better our planet can mitigate and adapt to challenges like climate change, population growth and resource depletion, and to continue providing a suitable home for all the species that live here—not least humans.
And yet biodiversity is in a sharp, long-term decline, driven largely by human behavior. The United Nations’ Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) recently warned that we are exploiting nature far more rapidly than it can renew itself. If we don’t change course, up to one million known species could disappear by 2050, with dire consequences for planetary health.
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