Elsa Tsiumani, Ph. D. , Asterios Tsiumanis, Ph.D.
Nature is vanishing before our eyes. As many as one million plant and animal species are threatened with extinction because of habitat loss, farming, poaching, pollution, invasive species and, increasingly, global warming. Over the past few hundred years, population growth and increased, unsustainable production and consumption patterns have expanded demand for biological resources, which has in turn caused a dramatic loss of biological diversity.
Recognition of this problem is not new. However, successfully addressing it has become increasingly urgent, as biodiversity decline has accelerated to an unprecedented rate and the pressures driving this decline are intensifying. Transition pathways to a sustainable future are needed to
simultaneously reverse biodiversity loss, limit climate change, and improve the capacity to adapt to it and meet other goals such Biological Diversity: Protecting the variety of life on Earth as improved food security. This requires a significant shift away from “business as usual.” Failure of the international community to meet internationally agreed targets, mainly due to economic priorities leading to inequitable and unsustainable development, underlines the urgency of such shift.