Nature is critical to our survival: nature provides us with our oxygen, regulates our weather patterns, pollinates our crops, and produces our food. But it is under increasing stress. Human activity has altered almost 75 per cent of the earth’s surface, squeezing wildlife and nature into an ever-smaller corner of the planet. While for many years the climate crisis and the biodiversity crisis have been treated as separate issues, the reality – as highlighted at COP27– is that there is no viable route to limiting global warming to 1.5°C without urgently protecting and restoring nature. Around 1 million animal and plant species are threatened with extinction – many within decades – according to the 2019 Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Service.
Drivers of wildlife endangerment:
Taken from the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services’ 2019 assessment
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Animal existence allows for human existence
The presence of animals and habitat are a crucial part to several human systems that include food supply, economics, medicine production, energy, human health, and agricultural success. For example, 1.6 billion people rely on forests for its resources to provide food, fuel, shelter, and livelihood. However, 7 million hectares of natural forests are lost annually. On a grander scale, deforestation can cause contributions to climate change, changes to rainfall patterns, decrease bio-diversity, and danger watersheds (30% of the world’s watersheds are covered by forests). Additionally, the loss of animal life reduces the benefits of biodiversity. Australia, a highly biodiverse country, has highlighted the benefits of biodiversity in their 2016 country assessment: