Biodiversity
Biodiversity is at the heart of human cultural, economic and social well-being. However, man-made changes in ecosystems and the extinction of plant and animal species have been faster in the last half century than at any time in human history.
Observations and research by scientists show that the global rate of species extinction is already at least tens to hundreds of times higher than the average for the last 10 million years and continues to accelerate. Since 1500, 1.6% of birds, 1.9% of mammals and 2.2% of amphibians have been reported extinct. Between 1990 and 2020, about 420 million hectares of forests (mainly tropical forests) were lost and another 10 million hectares, the size of Hungary, are lost every year. According to the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), the size of the vertebrate population, for example, has declined by an average of 68% over the past five decades.
The rate at which species are now extinct far exceeds the rate at which they became extinct naturally in the past. The historical spread of humanity on the planet is associated with waves of extinction of other species. The main threats to date are overhunting and human harvesting, habitat conversion and degradation, and the introduction of invasive species caused by human migration, settlement, trade, agriculture and resource extraction. These threats have been accelerating since 1500, along with the rapid growth of human populations and resource consumption increase per capita. In addition, climate change has become an increasingly important threat over the last few decades.
The Conference of the Parties of the Paris Climate Agreement (COP26) in Glasgow, 2021, unanimously agreed that stopping and reversing the process of biodiversity loss and ecosystem services should be a top priority, along with climate action. In this regard, the adopted EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 aims to take better care of nature so that nature can take better care of people. The Strategy is a key part of the European Green Deal, which aims to make Europe a climate-neutral continent by 2050, and a path to a green and inclusive recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic.
