Expert perspectives on global biodiversity loss and its drivers and impacts on people
2022/07/18 by Forest Isbell, Patricia Balvanera, Akira Mori +63 · 2 voices · 287 citations
Environmental Science · #Biodiversity #Biodiversity conservation #Biodiversity hotspot #Biology #Conservation, Biodiversity, and Resource Management #Ecology #Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies #Ecosystem #Ecosystem services #Environmental planning #Environmental resource management #Environmental science #Geography #Global biodiversity #Habitat #Habitat destruction #Judgement #Measurement of biodiversity #Political science #Species Distribution and Climate Change #Taxon #Taxonomic rank #Threatened species
paper · pdf · doi:10.1002/fee.2536
published in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 21(2), 94-103 (Wiley)
openalex publication_date 2022/07/18 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
Abstract
Despite substantial progress in understanding global biodiversity loss, major taxonomic and geographic knowledge gaps remain. Decision makers often rely on expert judgement to fill knowledge gaps, but are rarely able to engage with sufficiently large and diverse groups of specialists. To improve understanding of the perspectives of thousands of biodiversity experts worldwide, we conducted a survey and asked experts to focus on the taxa and freshwater, terrestrial, or marine ecosystem with which they are most familiar. We found several points of overwhelming consensus (for instance, multiple drivers of biodiversity loss interact synergistically) and important demographic and geographic differences in specialists’ perspectives and estimates. Experts from groups that are underrepresented in biodiversity science, including women and those from the Global South, recommended different priorities for conservation solutions, with less emphasis on acquiring new protected areas, and provided higher estimates of biodiversity loss and its impacts. This may in part be because they disproportionately study the most highly threatened taxa and habitats. Front Ecol Environ 2022;
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