What’s so important about biodiversity?

Everybody has heard of biodiversity but most of us take it for granted and don’t realise quite how crucial it is to life on Earth. 

Biodiversity is the variety of all living things and the ways in which they interact with one another. It influences our climate and supplies us with food, medicines, clean air, water and soil, as well as spaces for relaxation and leisure. Any deterioration in biodiversity directly affects us, not just societally but also economically. And because natural networks and systems are interlinked, any impact on one can have a cascade effect on the others.

Take insects for example. There are over 1 million recognised species of insects worldwide, but insect populations are collapsing. Scientific studies report insect declines in the order of 50-80% across the world. Insects aren’t just food for birds and bats, which are themselves struggling, they break down and recycle the nutrients plants need for photosynthesis and are vital pollinators. Ninety-four percent of vascular plants, some 369,000 species, are flowering plants which depend on animals, mostly insects, for pollination as do many of our food crops. 

If insects fail, ecosystems fail.