Photo: iStock
Norbert Csizmadia
31/03/2025 23:05
Biodiversity is essential for human well-being as it provides services that sustain our economies and societies. Today, there are 36 areas on Earth that are considered the most important in terms of biodiversity. These biodiversity "hotspots" are the planet’s biologically richest "eco-regions," Earth’s green zones.
These 36 areas are home to the greatest plant and animal diversity in the world, collectively accounting for at least 50 percent of the world’s plant species and 42 percent of terrestrial vertebrates. A total of 142 countries are part of these key biodiversity sites, which encompass 391 eco-regions and contain 422 cities.
A Witness’s Testimony and Vision for the Future of the Earth
"Something is happening!" – begins David Attenborough’s argument in his book A Life on Our Planet. "In the long run, our planet can only function efficiently and healthily if billions of living beings utilise countless resources and life opportunities, if millions of species live interwoven, mutually supportive, sustainable lives. The greater the biological diversity, the greater the security for us humans," explains the renowned naturalist.
In the more than four billion years of life on Earth, there have been five mass extinction events, but after each, the process of life began anew. Finally, 11,600 years ago, with the retreat of the last glaciers, the climate stabilised, and a new geological era began: the present era, the Holocene. During the Holocene, which has brought the least change in the history of our planet, the average temperature has neither increased nor decreased by more than 3 degrees Celsius over the course of 10,000 years. This extraordinary stability has allowed the incredible richness of life to flourish.
The Holocene Era was humanity’s Garden of Eden
The first human civilisations were born. The hunting and gathering lifestyle was replaced by permanent settlements, agricultural revolutions began, and the first cities emerged. For millions of years, the wildlife of Africa, Asia, and Europe mixed at the junction of these three continents. On Earth, agriculture developed independently in eleven places. Agriculture also brought with it the technological revolution of its time. Trade began, people from overpopulated valleys set out to conquer new lands, while nature remained constant and ensured all the conditions needed by humanity.
Human activity affects the whole planet as humanity reshapes nature. Every year, we catch 80 million tonnes of fish, shellfish, and other edible sea creatures from the oceans, and we have reduced the populations of 30 percent of fish species to critically low levels. Nearly half of shallow sea coral reefs have begun to bleach. Today, the average temperature has increased by 1.8 degrees Celsius in some areas, and Arctic summers are getting longer, causing glaciers and ice sheets to melt, even though the planet needs the ice.
There is a solution
According to the latest scientific data, if the sustainability turn does not occur, nature will head towards collapse, with four of nine critical thresholds already being crossed. The stability of our planet tips when biodiversity begins to decline. This is why it is important to "rewild the world" and return it to its natural state. We must create a new form of sustainability. Humans today must once again find harmony with nature. By reducing greenhouse gases, we must reverse radical climate change, put an end to the overuse of artificial fertilisers, stop the process of tearing large areas from nature, and protect the ozone layer. It is also important to reduce ocean acidification and curb the pollution of the soil and air. If we succeed in addressing these issues, the decline in biodiversity will slow down, and recovery and growth will begin.
We need green growth, renewable energy, green financial solutions, and a sustainable mindset. Sustainable revolutions have begun in many parts of the world, from Iceland to Paraguay to Rwanda. This is particularly important in the 36 biodiversity areas! The global components of our planet’s resilience model include human well-being, secure housing, healthcare, clean water, healthy food, access to energy, good education, and defining an ecological ceiling, so that the future is safe and liveable for everyone!
The author is a geographer and the president of the board of of the John von Neumann University Foundation