Naturevolution is an environmental association working to preserve biodiversity and improve knowledge of living organisms.
Why?
Because biodiversity is essential to us
Three concrete examples among thousands of others of the value of biodiversity:
- Did you know that trees transpire and, by injecting water into the atmosphere, make a major contribution to rainfall? In fact, they are veritable rain factories, and on some continents, forests are even the main source of rain. To give you an idea, something like 20 billion tonnes a day of water vapour are absorbed by the trade winds in the Amazon, eventually falling as rain along the La Plata Basin. This rain feeds the region’s agricultural economy to the tune of 190 billion euros a year.
- Did you know that nearly 70% of our current medicines are based on the study of plant molecular structures? Just in Madagascar, of the 12,000 species of plant known there, over 900 are used for therapeutic purposes.
- Do you know the role of pollinating insects? Their action has been estimated at 150 billion euros a year. Without them, the cost of global agricultural production would rise by 8%. In other words, a disaster among these organisations would have enormous and dramatic economic and social consequences.
In short, biodiversity provides us, free of charge, with everything we need to eat, breathe, drink and look after ourselves – in short, to live.
Because biodiversity is being lost at a very rapid rate
We know this, but we’re still sawing off the branch we’re sitting on. At the current rate of degradation we are inflicting on nature, it is estimated that half of all species will have disappeared by the end of the 21st century. This is the 6th mass extinction crisis, the fastest the Earth has ever seen, and we are the only ones responsible. Many species will disappear before we even know they exist.
Because we still know so little about biodiversity and its interactions
We don’t yet know when these degradations will be such that they will lead to a real ecological crash.
We already know about 1.8 million species (animals, plants and fungi), but it’s estimated that our planet contains almost 9 million in total. Of these, in addition to the 400,000 plants already described, nearly 100,000 remain to be discovered. At the current rate of discovery (around 16,000 new species every year), it would take almost a millennium to complete the global inventory of the planet’s biodiversity. But what will be left to inventory in 1,000 years’ time, when the degradation of natural areas is accelerating?
To help us in our mission, find out more about our projects to protect exceptional biodiversity sanctuaries, make a donation to Naturevolution, or make a concrete contribution to our projects via a useful trip to protect nature with us in the field.
