Terrestrial Biodiversity
The value of Biodiversity #1
Nature offers the greatest representation of richness, prosperity, and variety. It does so through its fruits, its gifts: the biological diversity, better known as biodiversity. Far beyond terrestrial and marine biodiversity, the variety and variability of life on Earth embrace “diversity within species, between species, and of ecosystems” (Convention of Biological Diversity). But how much do we really know about biodiversity and its functioning?
The aim of this series of articles, of which this is the opener, is to lead the reader towards the beautiful complexities, interconnections, and harmonies at the basis of Mother Earth. Why should we protect biological diversity? How its preservation is interlinked with individual, community, and economic prosperity? Enjoy this journey!
Without mentioning basic human needs for survival (breathing, eating, drinking), everything we have available, consume, or rely on is the direct result of natural biodiversity. Mobile phones, for example, are made of dozens of materials: besides plastic, there is a plurality of minerals, such as iron, copper, nickel, and cobalt, all extracted from the soil. The clothes we wear, made of wool, cotton, or synthetic materials, require land for their production, as well as water and energy.
Land has always been crucial to accomplish human desires: from minerals to oil and gas extraction, from food production to energy generation, from fashion to urbanization.
But now we have reached the tipping point with 75% of land significantly altered by anthropological impact — extensive and intensive land use, overexploitation, over-contamination, and degradation — terrestrial biodiversity risks unprecedented dangers, this includes plants, animals, insects, and human beings.
Terrestrial biodiversity: A still unknown richness
Life on land is composed of a multitude of varieties of living beings, ranging from specific landscapes and ecosystems (forests, mountains, wetlands, drylands), to plants, from wildlife to insects and pollinators, including all living forms that, from the largest to the smallest, live on or underneath the land.
Forests, for example, host the majority of terrestrial biodiversity living on Earth: almost 80% of the known amphibian species, 75% of all known birds, and 68% of the known mammals live in these delicate ecosystems, according to FAO. But life on land also includes tree species. Currently, 60,082 species are reported to exist on Earth, 20,334 of which are threatened with extinction.
When it comes to biodiversity, one of the biggest challenges is calculating the miraculous abundance offered by Nature, in exact numbers.
Researchers have classified almost 1.3 million invertebrate species, almost 70,000 vertebrate species, 144,000 species of fungi, and nearly 400,000 species of plants, but at least one-third of all species remain to be discovered, with the actual risk of being named only after becoming extinct.
Understanding an entangled complexity
“Man sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future: he lives as he is never going to die and then he dies as he never really lived.” — HH the Dalai Lama
It is clear that the modern human does not know how to live. This is just an opposite outcome compared to Nature, where every living being has a precise purpose to pursue: live in complete harmony with the whole.
We all know the role of insects and pollinators in ensuring seeds spreading and abundance of life. But many other living beings, often less known, play a crucial role in the ecosystem. Bats, for example, directly pollinate the flowers of over 500 plants, including mango, banana, and cocoa, and balance the numbers of mosquitoes. Or the role of herbivore mammals that, through their living, ensure the diversity and survival of tree species. Or even invisible activities, such as that of earthworms, central to increasing soil nutrients, drainage, and better regulating the soil structure.
In Nature, each component is perfectly in balance to ensure ecological complexity.
Distracted by the ticking clock of climate change and the rush to find instant solutions, we sometimes forget that each ecosystem is unique. Each is made special by its geographical location, micro-climate, age, diversity and varieties of trees, the peculiarity of endemic species (that can survive only in specific areas), and their delicate interconnections. Therefore, we cannot pretend, as studies also confirm, that newly planted forests or mono-dominant plantations can replace primary forests in terms of carbon stock, unique ecological features, and biodiversity protection.
Solutions to the current biodiversity crisis urge to consider this complexity.
The decade of ecosystem restoration
2021 leads the beginning of a new decade: the decade of ecosystem restoration launched by the United Nations. With only nine years ahead to meet the goals included in the Agenda 2030, we have no other choice but to halt the degradation of ecosystems.
However, the blind search for profit has led us towards careless deforestation, urbanization, and concrete covering.
Between 1990 and 2016, we lost 1.3 million square kilometers of forests, corresponding to 800 football fields of forest every hour. 28% of all assessed species, more than 37,400 living beings from insects to birds and conifers, are threatened with extinction.
Besides massive biodiversity loss, fewer forests and trees accelerate the pace of soil erosion, as roots keep both topsoil and water close together. Soil erosion compromises agricultural productivity, increases hydrological risks such as landslides and floods, with concrete risks of human displacement and infrastructure damage.
The harm to communities is evident: not only for the almost two billion indigenous people deriving their livelihoods directly from forests and nature but also for those hit by extreme and more frequent hydrological disasters.
Italy is the second EU country most affected by hydrogeologic calamities, extreme weather phenomena, droughts, and forest fires, with economic losses estimated at 65 billion Euros.
Due to the combination of anthropogenic and natural causes, altering the biodiversity balance reverberates its effects on a plurality of factors: advancing desertification, food insecurity, mass-scale migration, depopulation of unproductive rural areas, frequent interaction between humans and wildlife, with risks of spreading of zoonotic pathogens and infectious diseases. The locust invasion in African countries and the illegal trade and market of pangolin are the final results of a broken balance we need to restore.
When humans eventually realize that biodiversity is not here for our disposal, to be recklessly extracted, overexploited, and fractionated to maximize financial gains and performances, but instead is respected as a common value, as the invisible fabric keeping individual, community, and Planet’s wellbeing cohesive, only then will we experience a real, widespread regeneration. A relationship made of interconnection, meaning, complementarity, diversity, geodiversity, variety, beauty, and richness, in the interests of each living being.
“The solution is just under our feet.” — Kiss the Ground
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