What is the definition of biodiversity?
TheIstituto Superiore per la Protezione e la Ricerca Ambientale (ISPRA) says: Biodiversity can be defined as the richness of life on earth: the millions of plants, animals and microorganisms, the genes they contain, the complex ecosystems they make up in the biosphere
.
The UN Convention on Biological Diversity defines it as:
biological diversity - or biodiversity - is the term given to the variety of life on Earth and the natural patterns it forms. / This diversity is often understood in terms of a wide variety of plants, animals and microorganisms. / Biodiversity also includes genetic differences within each species, for example between varieties of crops and breeds of livestock. Chromosomes, genes and DNA, the building blocks of life, determine the uniqueness of each individual and each species. / Another aspect of biodiversity is the variety of ecosystems such as those found in deserts, forests, wetlands, mountains, lakes, rivers and agricultural landscapes. In each ecosystem, living creatures, including humans, form a community, interacting with each other and with the air, water and soil around them.
Everything that involves life on our planet, from the ocean down to DNA, therefore, falls under the concept of biodiversity.
Biodiversity produces useful, life-giving services.
From biodiversity we receive so-called natural ecosystem services, i.e. practical benefits of all shapes and forms: what we eat, what we heat ourselves with and make our cars move, the material from which the screen you are reading this text is made, medicines and much more, right down to the sunset that makes you dream of the sea in summer.
Understanding biodiversity, its real importance and even more the need to safeguard it is vital. The importance of a tree for the oxygen it produces for us or for the refreshing shade we can enjoy on a sunny day, the decisive role of bees and their pollination, what water represents for life itself on the planet, are all roles of so-called natural ecosystem services that are clear to almost all people.
The more research in this field advances, the more we understand aspects of biodiversity that were not previously known, or clear. For example, the oxygen we breathe is not only produced by trees, but also by the oceans. In fact, more than the trees themselves.
To safeguard biodiversity is to safeguard ourselves.
The loss of biodiversity harms everyone.
That is why scientists and researchers in this field often sound alarms and warnings when they spot an endangered or extinct or threatened species. Even when it is environmental conditions that pose a potential or actual threat. Even when the threat does not come from direct human action.
In biodiversity, everything is balance, everything is useful. In a word: interdependent.
The annoying, stinking bug? It plays a role.
The mosquito we smack in the summer? It has a role.
The wasps and hornets? That's right, they have a role.
Everything in biodiversity has a precise role, is part of a precise balance and above all is vital for our survival: what we eat, what we treat ourselves with when we are sick, even technological innovations benefit from scientific research that observes, studies and analyses biodiversity.
When we speak of interdependence, we do so with good reason: even if it is not immediate, even if it is not clear, even if it is not understandable today, the reason why a given thing exists in Nature is not far-fetched, it is not unfounded. Above all, each thing is connected to the other. Maybe not directly, but it is.
We, we are connected to the whole of biodiversity.
