Rebuilding biodiversity
Biological diversity (often shortened to biodiversity) is a term that came into widespread use during the 1980s but is based on far earlier groundwork carried out in the 18th century by naturalist Carolus Linnaeus. Biodiversity is greater in tropical regions, the world’s most biodiverse countries being Brazil followed by Colombia and Indonesia.
Loss of biodiversity as a global phenomenon is increasingly considered to be a crisis on a par with climate change — and perhaps even more urgent. Scientists are starting to abandon their customary cautious, measured language. A three-year study from the UN-affiliated Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services warned that biodiversity collapse threatens humanity and is likely to result in mass human migration.
According to the figures, the world’s wild animal populations have declined by an average of about 60 per cent since 1970. Since the rise of agriculture and the start of human “civilisation”, mammals have experienced an 83 per cent drop in numbers. Research in Germany has found flying insect numbers down 76 per cent in 27 years. Once diminished, these numbers are hard to regenerate. Unless this trend is stopped, our children and grandchildren may miss out on seeing animals in the
