Biodiversity is the foundation of life on Earth, sustaining ecosystems, plants and animals, and the natural resources we depend on daily. However, human activities such as unsustainable land use and urban expansion are causing widespread habitat loss, threatening biological diversity and disrupting natural habitats.
These changes directly impact human health, compromise food production, and challenge the stability of human settlements. In the long term, the loss of biodiversity jeopardizes the planet’s ability to recover and adapt to environmental challenges. The United Nations emphasizes the urgent need to protect biodiversity, ensuring a sustainable future for all living beings.
What is Biodiversity Loss?
Some people say that we are living in the 6th mass extinction, dubbed the ‘Anthropocene extinction’.
The first was from rapid global cooling and glaciation, the second from ocean anoxia and cooling likely triggered by volcanic activity, the third from massive volcanic eruptions causing global warming and ocean acidification, the fourth from volcanic activity linked to the breakup of Pangaea, and the fifth from a massive asteroid impact resulting in climate disruption.
While the first 5 were nature-led, the 6th is entirely human-led, and happening 100-1,000 times faster than the natural rates. This is due to habitat destruction, climate change, pollution, overexploitation, and invasive species, with biodiversity loss at its core.
Biodiversity is the variety of living things on the planet, such as the trillions of genes, the billions of species, the thousands of ecosystems, and the countless ecological functions they all perform.
Together, this intricate web of life is what sustains our planet, and the ongoing biodiversity loss in the 6th mass extinction underscores the urgent need to protect and restore it before more irreversible damage is done.
Consequences of Biodiversity Loss for the Human Race
1. Food Insecurity
A significant consequence of biodiversity loss is food insecurity, which is impacting people all over the world.
Declines in crucial species such as pollinators leads to less production of crops like nuts, fruits, and vegetables. Without this in the human diet, there would be widespread malnutrition, risk of disease, premature death, and weakened immune systems.
Vegetables pollinated by wind, such as grains and rice are less at threat from biodiversity loss, however would still be at risk from climate change like soil degradation, instability, or water scarcity.
Moreover, without sufficient nutrient cycling and soil structures, all agricultural productivity declines, leading to less crop variety and resilience to disease. Without the natural pest controls such as ladybirds or birds of prey, more crop diseases and pests could significantly harm yields.
Overfishing leads to declines in fish populations, which many communities rely on for a protein source. In West Africa, for instance, depleted fish stocks have negatively impacted the livelihoods of millions of people, from losses of jobs, to people’s inability to afford rising fish prices.
Amazingly, many communities have taken charge of this, introducing managed fishing zones with regulated fish stocks, and initiatives like the West Africa Regional Fisheries Program (WARFP) which curbs illegal fishing and encourages sustainability.
2. Health Impacts
With ecosystems disrupted and unstable, the risk of zoonotic diseases arises—meaning diseases that transfer from animals to humans.
It’s estimated that 60 percent of known infectious diseases and 75% of new or emerging diseases are zoonotic. Beyond this, zoonotic diseases can account for around 2.5 billion cases of human illness a year (such as rabies, salmonellosis, or ringworm).
Moreover, the disruption of ecosystems leads to losses in predators and habitat fragmentation. This lack of ecological balance can instead boost populations of bats or rodents, which mostly carry the zoonotic diseases, increasing the likelihood of human illness.
Nature is also crucial for mental health, proven to benefit anxiety, depression, and stress, meaning that biodiversity loss could reduce wellbeing in humans.
Significantly, it can lead to losses of cultural identities, with many rural and Indigenous communities dependent on biodiversity for their traditions, spiritual practices, and ways of life. These communities often hold deep, generational knowledge about their local ecosystems, integral to their cultural heritage. Beyond cultural impacts, biodiversity loss can also reduce their access to vital resources like food, medicine, and clean water.
3. Loss of Medicinal Resources
While only 6% of FDA-approved drugs come directly from natural sources, many crucial medicines derive from nature. Cancer, for instance, is one of the top causes of deaths worldwide, however over 60% of current anticancer drugs are derived from natural sources (microorganisms, marine organisms, and plants). For example, Pacific yew is endangered due to its role in the cancer-fighting drug Taxol.
Aspirin comes from willow tree bark, morphine comes from the opium poppy, and digoxin (heart condition medicine) comes from foxglove.
Did you know that scientists estimate only 1 – 5% of the rainforests’ plants have been studied for medicinal value? Though this is the case, their ecosystems are being rapidly destroyed, with 50-100 acres of rainforest predicted to be lost every minute.
Over 80% of developing countries rely primarily on traditional medicine, hence depend on biodiversity for their livelihoods. For instance a fungus-caterpillar (Yarsagumba) is known for treating asthma, immune deficiencies, kidney and liver disease, fatigue and weakness in traditional Tibetan and Nepalese medicine. Due to its overharvesting, many individuals are left without remedies.
4. Reduced Ecosystem Services
‘Ecosystem services’ encompass any positive benefit from wildlife or ecosystems provided to people. This could be climate regulation, water purification, soil fertility, food and fuel, or pollination.
Due to human activities, losses in biodiversity equate to a loss in ecosystem services, such as degraded quality of water and eutrophication (loss of aquatic biodiversity). Without natural water filters such as forests and wetlands, pollutants could flow in excess into waters, further harming aquatic life and destabilising soils. Without species managing nutrients, nutrient overload can cause algal blooms, which float on top of a water surface and suffocate everything beneath it.
With pest populations not controlled by predators like birds, amphibians and bats, farmers are left to rely on harmful chemical pesticides to manage agriculture, encouraging short-term yields but doing long-term lasting damage to the environment.
For instance, nutrient overload is occurring in the Gulf of Mexico due to massive agricultural runoff, primarily from fertilizers and animal waste. As a result, waters are eutrophicated, leading to harmful algal blooms that deplete oxygen levels, creating “dead zones” where marine life cannot survive. Local fishers are disrupted, with reduced shrimp and fish populations, impacting many coastal communities and contaminating seafood and water.
5. Economic Losses
A recent study revealed that around 55% of the world’s GDP—the monetary value of all final goods and services in a country over a set time period—is either moderately or highly dependent on nature.
That means that when nature fails, majorities of industries, and subsequent livelihoods, could fail too. Some of the most nature-dependent industries include agriculture, forestry, fishing and aquaculture, tourism, and pharmaceuticals.
If human-led biodiversity loss leads to the collapse of many central industries, there could be widespread job loss and economic hardship.
Many rural communities would face cultural erosion, such as fishing and farming communities, with their trade embedded heavily into years of tradition, culture, and ways of life. Where livelihoods are directly connected to rural jobs, communities could suffer with rising costs and food scarcity.
The lack of diversity of jobs might encourage people to flee from rural areas with degraded quality of life, to urban areas with more opportunity. If this happened on a major scale, it could cause overcrowding, unemployment, poverty, public health challenges, environmental degradation, and economic ruptures.
6. Climate Instability
Climate instability is primarily caused by greenhouse gas emissions, ocean changes (rising temperatures and acidification), and deforestation. This involves clearing out forests for agriculture, monocultures depleting soil biodiversity, overfishing, pollution, and fossil fuel combustion.
From decades of unsustainable practices on a global scale, weather patterns become unpredictable, including rising global temperatures, disruptions in weather cycles, and extreme weather events.
For example, Typhoon Haiyan in 2013 was exacerbated by the destruction of mangrove forests and coastal wetlands from ocean warming and deforestation. These habitats usually absorb storm surges and reduce coastal erosion.
Another example were the Australian bushfires. The increased temperatures, prolonged droughts, and destruction of vegetation that was fire-resistant intensely worsened the event. They lasted from September 2019 to March 2020.
If rising sea levels submerge coastal cities, millions could be displaced, and many species could go extinct. Extreme weather events could devastate agriculture, infrastructure, and communities.
Global efforts such as reforestation, marine conservation, sustainable farming, and renewable energy transitions are being adopted to reverse the damage.
7. Increased CO2 emissions
Before the Industrial Revolution, pre-1750, concentration of CO₂ in the atmosphere was 280 parts per million (ppm)—a stable, healthy level. 275 years later, concentrations have risen to 420 ppm, with 450 deemed a critical threshold to avoid catastrophic climate change.
At our current trajectory, we could hit 450 ppm by the 2040s. This would mean widespread global warming, triggering sea-levels to rise due to the melting ice caps, ocean acidification and loss of essential marine ecosystems, and more frequent extreme weather events.
Despite many global efforts, the fact remains that CO₂ continue to rise, with our increased population, industrialisation, and reliance on fossil fuels. The Paris Agreement shines some hope, however it remains that many countries are not meeting the commitments they made—due to greed, systemic challenges, a lack of time, economic challenges, or a potential lack of political will.
Biodiversity loss is a major contributor towards increased CO₂ emissions. Forests, once prominent carbon sinks, are being cleared at alarming rates to account for urbanisation, agriculture, or logging. Wetlands and peatlands can store twice as much carbon as forests, but are being degraded and destroyed. Thousands of restoration projects are underway.
More Information
https://unfoundation.org/blog/post/how-biodiversity-loss-harms-human-health/
https://wwf.panda.org/discover/our_focus/biodiversity/biodiversity_and_you/
https://earth.org/effects-of-biodiversity-loss/
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanplh/article/PIIS2542-5196(19)30113-5/fulltext
https://www.fairplanet.org/story/causes-effects-biodiversity-loss/
https://unfoundation.org/blog/post/how-biodiversity-loss-harms-human-health/
https://www.greenpeace.org.uk/challenges/wildlife-and-biodiversity/biodiversity-loss/