What is happening to biodiversity?
Biodiversity is being lost across the globe. Although biodiversity is difficult to measure, indicators such as trends for forest cover and fisheries abundance show a continuing decline. These trends portend not only the extinction of many thousands of species, but disasters for the human population—us— that depends on them. Many conservation biologists believe we are now entering a period of mass extinction (the last one – 65 million years ago – spelled the demise of 85 percent of life on earth). The challenge for humanity in the 21st century is to reverse this course of events, but the first step is to stabilize loss. The United Nations Environment Program believes that with concerted effort, it is still possible to achieve the 2010 target of the International Convention on Biological Diversity: “a significant reduction of the current rate of biodiversity loss at the global, regional and national level as a contribution to poverty alleviation and to the benefit of all life on earth.”
