BIOLOGICAL diversity — or biodiversity — is the term given to the variety of life on Earth and the natural patterns it forms. The biodiversity we see today is the fruit of billions of years of evolution, shaped by natural processes and, increasingly, by the influence of humans. It forms the web of life of which we are an integral part and upon which we so fully depend.

Biodiversity provides a large number of goods and services that sustain our lives. By consuming ever more of nature’s resources, we have gained more food and better shelter, sanitation, and health care, but these gains are often accompanied by increasing environmental degradation that may be followed by declines in local economies and the societies they supported.

At the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, world leaders agreed on a comprehensive strategy for “sustainable development.” One of the key agreements adopted at Rio was the Convention on Biological Diversity. This pact among the vast majority of the world’s governments sets out commitments for maintaining the world’s ecology as we go about the business of economic development. The Convention establishes three main goals: the conservation of biological diversity, the sustainable use of its components, and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits from the use of genetic resources.

In 1999, the world’s population hit 6 billion. United Nations experts predict the world will have to find resources for a population of 9 billion people in 50 years. Yet our demands on the world’s natural resources are growing even faster than our numbers: since 1950, the population has more than doubled, but the global economy has quintupled. And the benefits are not equally spread: most of the economic growth has occurred in relatively few industrialized countries.

Protecting biodiversity is in our self-interest. Biological resources are the pillars upon which we build civilizations. The loss of biodiversity often reduces the productivity of ecosystems, thereby shrinking nature’s basket of goods and services, from which we constantly draw. It destabilizes ecosystems, and weakens their ability to deal with natural disasters such as floods, droughts, and hurricanes, and with human-caused stresses, such as pollution and climate change.

The reduction in biodiversity also hurts us in other ways. Our cultural identity is deeply rooted in our biological environment. Plants and animals are symbols of our world, preserved in flags, sculptures, and other images that define us and our societies. We draw inspiration just from looking at nature’s beauty and power.

Yet, we’re creating the greatest extinction crisis since the natural disaster that wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.

May 22 is World Biodiversity Day. As the world commemorates this day, let’s pause for a few moments and try answering this: ‘Can we save the world’s ecosystems, and with them the millions of species, some of which may produce the foods and medicines of tomorrow?’

The answer will lie in our ability to bring our demands into line with nature’s ability to produce what we need and to safely absorb what we throw away. Unless we take action now, children born today will live in an impoverished world.—Samina Iqbal