• Diversity is vital
• Beauty in jeopardy
• Ecological services
• What destroys biodiversity?
• The human manipulator
• Dialogue for Sustainability
• Changing Course

Diversity is vital

Humans are an integral part of a delicate web of life, which has developed over millions of years. Species – humans, plants, animals, insects, birds and other living organisms – have evolved in response to each other and to changing conditions. Interacting with each other and with air, soil and water, species make up ecosystems and collectively form the web of life upon which we depend entirely.

When an ecosystem is in balance, each species often plays a particular role that helps keep this balance. Scientific studies have shown that the higher the diversity of living organisms in an ecosystem – or in another term: the higher the biodiversity – the easier it is for the ecosystem to maintain or return to a balanced state if it has been disturbed. With rich biodiversity, the system thus also maintains its functions such as for example water retention capacity in wetlands, storage of carbon dioxide (CO2) in peatlands and forests, and feeding and nursing grounds for the natural production of fish in our oceans.

Millions of organisms, plants and animals hence not only surround us, but support us every day in the most concrete sense through what we eat, breathe and drink, what our immune system repels and through what inspires our artists, engineers and each of us as individuals.

Diversity is in danger

Unfortunately, there is a but to this wonderful story of life: it has taken us, humans, a long time to just begin to understand the functions of species and ecosystems and the role, they play in sustaining our lives. Currently, we are causing biodiversity to diminish at an unnaturally high rate almost everywhere on our planet, and many of the most productive ecosystems are losing their functions.

The current loss of biodiversity is about more than endangered pandas and extinct river dolphins. It threatens the long-term prosperity and security of billions of people. We know what is causing the loss. We know how to slow it, and we know how to reverse it. Yet each of the pressures directly driving the decline of biodiversity continues unchecked, or is even increasing in intensity.

This website complements the exhibition “Nature – Our Precious Net”. It is about the intricate web of life that sustains life on Earth and what we can do to keep it.

Next chapter: Beauty in jeopardy

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Keepers of life on Earth –
the 2010 biodiversity target

The Convention on Biodiversity is among the international environmental agreements enjoying the broadest support worldwide: 189 states and the European Community have ratified it. In 2002, a decade after the Convention on Biological Diversity was created, the signatories agreed collectively “to achieve, by 2010, 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.” Achieving this 2010 biodiversity target is a major challenge for the world: How can governments and citizens worldwide act fast enough to save biodiversity? How can we measure the progress we are making?

To meet this challenge, world leaders identified seven focal areas in which action must be taken:

1. The rate at which the various components of biological diversity are lost is to be reduced.
   Regardless if we talk about genes or ecosystems, plants or animals or else: The diversity of life shall not be destroyed by our negligence.
2. The functional capacity of intact ecosystems is to be preserved.
   A stable climate, clean air, pure water, food and medicine are amongst the crucial services provided by healthy, diverse ecosystems for human well-being and must be sustained.
3. The principal threats to biodiversity are to be tackled.
   Habitat change, overexploitation, nutrient loading and pollution, invasive alien species, and climate change continue to threaten biodiversity. If we do not address these direct drivers of biodiversity loss, there is no way to reverse the trend.
4. The sustainable use of biodiversity is to be broadened.
   Humanity needs to learn to get by with limited resources. Old traditions and new discoveries can help us to use natural systems to their best. Sustainability needs to cover the entire chain of production, trade and consumption.
5. Traditional knowledge relevant to the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity is to be maintained.
   On our way to an information society, traditional knowledge can provide specific solutions to local problems and global challenges, for example in medicines.
6. Fairness and equity in the sharing of benefits arising from the utilisation of genetic resources are to be ensured.
   A regime providing an equitable share of the benefits for the guardians of genetic resources, and transparent rules governing access to their resources for all that harness the wealth of such resources, can create strong incentives for all to conserve biodiversity.
7. Financial and technical assistance is to be mobilised, especially for developing countries.
   The richer nations must support the poorer, who are often richer in biodiversity, by transferring financial, human and material resources to ensure the sustainable management of natural resources worldwide.

Next chapter: Beauty in jeopardy