Editor’s choice
An international team warns that a failure to act quickly and decisively will risk unprecedented species loss in the most diverse parts of the planet.
Ancistrus steam fish. Photo: Rafael Leitao.
The tropics contain the overwhelming majority of Earth’s biodiversity: their terrestrial, freshwater and marine ecosystems hold more than three-quarters of all species, including almost all shallow-water corals and over 90% of terrestrial birds. However, tropical ecosystems are also subject to pervasive and interacting stressors, such as deforestation, overfishing and climate change, and they are set within a socio-economic context that includes growing pressure from an increasingly globalized world, larger and more affluent tropical populations, and weak governance and response capacities. Concerted local, national and international actions are urgently required to prevent a collapse of tropical biodiversity.
Press release / A global biodiversity collapse is imminent unless we take urgent, concerted action to reverse species loss in the tropics, according to a major study in Nature.
Journal article / Tropical forests are central to climate change mitigation, but protecting carbon is not enough. Biodiversity needs to be included in conservation planning.
Journal article / How can better transparency boost sustainability governance in agricultural commodity supply chains?
Journal article / Read one of the first detailed examinations of the growing oil palm sector in the Philippines.
