The Importance of Biodiversity

Biodiversity is the richness of life on Earth, including species, habitats, genes, and ecosystems. Biodiversity is important for a healthy planet because natural ecosystems provide food, shelter, clean air and water, and other essential services. Biodiversity also helps to slow down global climate change by storing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in plant and ocean communities.

Scientists use a variety of methods to measure biodiversity, but most involve statistical indexes that compare different areas for their number and types of species. These indexes have been criticized for not reflecting the overall quality of a sample, since a higher number of species does not necessarily mean that an area is more biologically diverse.

For example, a more crowded forest can have less diversity than an uncrowded one, even though both forests contain many kinds of trees. Some methods of measuring biodiversity focus on groups of organisms rather than individual species, such as fungi and earthworms that decompose organic material, bacteria that make nitrogen usable for plants, or bees that pollinate crops and flowers.

Human health and well-being depend on biodiversity. In a healthy ecosystem, biodiversity provides genetic diversity that allows plants and animals to resist disease, pests and other environmental stresses. A loss of biodiversity decreases our ability to produce food, medicine and other products we need.

Indigenous peoples around the world are often the best environmental stewards, and research shows that when their land is protected, biodiversity flourishes. Protecting their rights, traditional knowledge, and political representation is crucial for a healthy ecosystem that supports sustainable livelihoods and thriving human communities.