Never before has the biosphere, the thin layer of life we call home,
been under such intensive and urgent threat.
Deforestation rates have soared as we have cleared land to feed ever-more people, global emissions are disrupting the climate system, new pathogens threaten our crops and our health, illegal trade has eradicated entire plant populations, and non-native species are outcompeting local floras.
Biodiversity is being lost – locally, regionally and globally.Yet this
biodiversity sustains our lives. Open your fridge, peek into your
medicine cupboard, examine your living room, feel your clothes. For
thousands of years, we have searched nature to satisfy our hunger, cure
our diseases, build our houses, and make our lives more comfortable. But
our early exploration of useful traits in species relied on rudimentary
tools, and indigenous knowledge was lost as local traditions were
downplayed and globalisation emerged.
