What is Biodiversity?

Biodiversity is all the different kinds of life you’ll find on our planet—the variety of animals, plants, fungi, and even microorganisms like bacteria that make up our natural world. Biodiversity is also the relationships between these lifeforms and their habitat. Each of these species and organisms works together in ecosystems, like an intricate web, to maintain balance and support life (WWF). A few of these examples include the relationship between pollinators and flowering plants that sustain our food system, seeds and rhinos, which promote new plant growth through the spreading of seeds in their dung, and forests and soils that absorb and store vast amounts of carbon.

Biodiversity is measured by looking at how many different species live in an area, how healthy and genetically diverse their populations are, and how intact the ecosystems are that support them. The highest quality of biodiversity is often found in two types of places: protected areas and territories stewarded by Indigenous Peoples.

Why does biodiversity matter?

Earth’s biodiversity is the foundation of life on our planet, including our own. Biodiversity keeps ecosystems healthy and resilient, supporting things we rely on every day, such as clean air and water, food, medicine, climate stability, and pollination. When we lose biodiversity, we reduce our ability to fight climate change, grow sustainable and healthy crops, have access to clean and abundant water, prevent pandemics, and plan for a future where all lifeforms can thrive.

Today, biodiversity is rapidly declining due to human activity. A recent IPBES assessment warns that up to one million species face extinction within the coming decades. Wildlife populations are already collapsing, where tigers have lost more than 95% of their historical numbers, and migratory bird populations have declined by roughly 70%.

Biodiversity needs space to survive. Every species needs a home. That home is wilderness. When we convert wilderness into industrial production spaces, we don’t just remove nature, we dismantle the living systems that produce life itself.

Primary threats to biodiversity include:

Habitat loss and fragmentation from deforestation, development, and agriculture
Climate change, which disrupts ecosystems faster than many species can adapt
Pollution of air, water, and soil, including plastics, chemicals, and runoff
Overexploitation through overfishing, logging, hunting, and wildlife trade
Invasive species that outcompete native plants and animals

How is biodiversity a part of WILD's work?

Protecting biodiversity requires protecting nature and science shows that species and ecosystems need large, intact, and connected landscapes to survive. At WILD, we believe Nature Needs Half.

Research, beginning as early as the 1970s, consistently indicates that protecting at least 50% of Earth’s land and ocean is the minimum amount required for biodiversity to recover, climate systems to stabilize, and life on Earth to thrive. By committing to a 50% spatial conservation target, we move beyond incremental protection and align conservation with planetary limits.

Protecting half the planet is not about excluding people, it is about safeguarding the living systems that make human life possible. Indigenous and local communities already steward many of the world’s most biodiverse places, demonstrating that conservation and human presence are not mutually exclusive.

Recent Biodiversity Posts

IUCN Motion 107: Protect the Sacred

Protecting the sacred means protecting life. IUCN World Conservation Congress Motion 107 calls for safeguarding sacred landscapes, species & Indigenous stewardship worldwide.

Learn More