The United Nations biodiversity summit, known as COP16, comes amid growing concerns over plummeting populations of plants and animals, and damage to the habitats that sustain life on earth, from forests to rivers and oceans. At the last UN global summit on biodiversity, held in December 2022, nearly 200 countries signed up to an ambitious plan to reverse nature loss by the end of the decade. The Cali summit is expected to be the biggest of its kind – and the first chance to hold leaders to account over their national plans for protecting nature………Continue reading….

Source: BBC News

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Biodiversity is the variability of life on Earth. It can be measured on various levels, for example, genetic variability, species diversity, ecosystem diversity, and phylogenetic diversity. Diversity is not distributed evenly on Earth — it is greater in the tropics as a result of the warm climate and high primary productivity in the region near the equator. Tropical forest ecosystems cover less than one-fifth of Earth’s terrestrial area and contain about 50% of the world’s species.

There are latitudinal gradients in species diversity for both marine and terrestrial taxa. Since life began on Earth, six major mass extinctions and several minor events have led to large and sudden drops in biodiversity. The Phanerozoic aeon (the last 540 million years) marked a rapid growth in biodiversity via the Cambrian explosion. In this period, the majority of multicellular phyla first appeared. The next 400 million years included repeated, massive biodiversity losses.

Those events have been classified as mass extinction events. In the Carboniferous, rainforest collapse may have led to a great loss of plant and animal life. The Permian–Triassic extinction event, 251 million years ago, was the worst; vertebrate recovery took 30 million years. Human activities have led to an ongoing biodiversity loss and an accompanying loss of genetic diversity. This process is often referred to as Holocene extinction, or the sixth mass extinction.

For example, it was estimated in 2007 that up to 30% of all species will be extinct by 2050. Destroying habitats for farming is a key reason why biodiversity is decreasing today. Climate change also plays a role. This can be seen for example in the effects of climate change on biomes. This anthropogenic extinction may have started toward the end of the Pleistocene, as some studies suggest that the megafaunal extinction event that took place around the end of the last ice age partly resulted from overhunting.

Biologists most often define biodiversity as the “totality of genes, species and ecosystems of a region”. An advantage of this definition is that it presents a unified view of the traditional types of biological variety previously identified:

• taxonomic diversity (usually measured at the species diversity level)
• ecological diversity (often viewed from the perspective of ecosystem diversity)
• morphological diversity (which stems from genetic diversity and molecular diversity)
• functional diversity (which is a measure of the number of functionally disparate species within a population (e.g. different feeding mechanisms, different motility, predator vs prey, etc.)

Biodiversity is most commonly used to replace the more clearly-defined and long-established terms, species diversity and species richness. However, there is no concrete definition for biodiversity, as its definition continues to be reimagined and redefined. To give a couple of examples, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) defined biodiversity in 2019 as “the variability that exists among living organisms (both within and between species) and the ecosystems of which they are part.”

The World Health Organization updated its website’s definition of biodiversity to be the “variability among living organisms from all sources.” Both these definitions, although broad, give a current understanding of what is meant by the term biodiversity. Biodiversity is not evenly distributed, rather it varies greatly across the globe as well as within regions and seasons.

Among other factors, the diversity of all living things (biota) depends on temperature, precipitation, altitude, soils, geography and the interactions between other species. The study of the spatial distribution of organisms, species and ecosystems, is the science of biogeography. Diversity consistently measures higher in the tropics and in other localized regions such as the Cape Floristic Region and lower in polar regions generally. 

Rain forests that have had wet climates for a long time, such as Yasuní National Park in Ecuador, have particularly high biodiversity. There is local biodiversity, which directly impacts daily life, affecting the availability of fresh water, food choices, and fuel sources for humans. Regional biodiversity includes habitats and ecosystems that synergizes and either overlaps or differs on a regional scale.

National biodiversity within a country determines the ability for a country to thrive according to its habitats and ecosystems on a national scale. Also, within a country, endangered species are initially supported on a national level then internationally. Ecotourism may be utilized to support the economy and encourages tourists to continue to visit and support species and ecosystems they visit, while they enjoy the available amenities provided. International biodiversity impacts global livelihood, food systems, and health.

Problematic pollution, over consumption, and climate change can devastate international biodiversity. Nature-based solutions are a critical tool for a global resolution. Many species are in danger of becoming extinct and need world leaders to be proactive with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.

National Biodiversity Authority crosses Rs 200-crore milestone in access and benefit-sharing disbursement  13:07 Sun, 06 Sep 

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