2022/05/25     Dresden, Germany

Design: UNU-FLORES/Laura Hoffmann

Biodiversity loss has implications for our survival. This publication calls for action in four domains – food, economy, urbanisation, and climate change – addressing policymakers, business, academia, and civil society.

Biodiversity underpins all life on Earth. The air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat, and our health and wellbeing depend on life below water (SDG 14) and life on land (SDG 15). To sustain healthy ecosystems and their services to people, we need biodiversity: “the diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems.” (IPBES 2019) However, in the past decades, humans have over-exploited Earth’s resources, resulting in negative effects on the abovementioned services provided by ecosystems. Biodiversity is declining at an alarming rate due to land and sea-use change caused by our food system, economy, urbanisation, and anthropogenic climate change, putting human survival at risk (IPBES 2019).

Although biodiversity is important for human survival, the awareness on biodiversity across the globe is rather low (European Commission 2019, SINUS Institute 2019, BMUV 2019). Biodiversity is complex, and the consequences of changing biodiversity may not be directly visible in the short term. The long-term effects of biodiversity loss will have a major impact on each one of us and will force us to change our current way of living. It is about time, that policymakers, businesses, academics, and civil society take action to mainstream biodiversity conservation and its sustainable use.) However, in the past decades, humans have overexploited Earth’s resources, resulting in negative effects on the abovementioned services provided by ecosystems. Biodiversity is declining at an alarming rate due to land and sea-use change caused by our food system, economy, urbanisation, and anthropogenic climate change, putting human survival at risk (IPBES 2019).

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