The world's biodiversity has fallen below the 'safe limit', researchers suggest -and the UK has only half of its entire biodiversity left, putting it in the bottom 10% of the world's countries.

Ahead of the UN’s Biodiversity Conference 2021 (COP 15), the Natural History Museum has launched the Biodiversity Trends Explorer, an online tool that will allow everyone, from members of the public to policymakers, to see how the biodiversity of different regions has changed over time.

As habitat destruction and agriculture take their toll on nature, according to new analysis of over 58,000 species by Museum scientists, the UK has only half of its entire biodiversity left, putting it in the bottom 10% of the world's countries.

With an average of just 53% of its native wildlife intact, it falls behind countries including the USA and China following widespread destruction of its habitats from the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries.

Globally - biodiversity intactness, which represents the proportion of the original number of species in an area that remain and their abundance - is measured at 75%. This is significantly below the 90% average set as the 'safe limit' to maintain the ecological processes such as pollination and nutrient cycling that are vital to our survival.

The researchers behind the new analysis have called on governments around the world for ambitious action to preserve and enhance biodiversity globally ahead of the COP15 Biodiversity Conference.

Professor Andy Purvis, who researches biodiversity at the Museum and carried out the analysis, commented:

'Biodiversity loss is just as catastrophic as climate change, but the solutions are linked. Stopping further damage to the planet requires big change, but we can do it if we act now, together.

'Muddling through as we currently are doing is nowhere near enough to halt, let alone reverse, this devastating decline in biodiversity.

'Governments possess the power - economic, political and legal - to address the planetary emergency, and there may still be time, but they must act now.'

The Biodiversity Trends Explorer tool will to allow people around the world to track biodiversity changes from 2000 to 2050.

Industrial Revolution contributed to much of British biodiversity loss

Under the analysis, scientists looked at data from ecological studies from around the world covering over 58,000 species, including animals, plants and fungi. The data was used to produce a metric, known as the Biodiversity Intactness Index (BII), for countries and island groups around the world.

Five different scenarios were modelled to predict how the BII could change in the years to 2050. These scenarios range from Taking the Green Road, where the world moves gradually to a more sustainable future, to Taking the Highway, where fossil fuels are used to fuel growth. Other scenarios imagine countries competing with each other and becoming more unequal.

Under the scenario where current trends continue, the researchers found that the UK lags behind much of the world. In the 2021 figures, only a handful of countries such as Denmark and Ukraine were found to have a lower BII.

The low figure has been attributed to the events of the Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions which saw traditional farming and industry increasingly replaced by more intensive practices and mechanisation, which destroyed swathes of habitat.

Professor Purvis continued:

'It's over 200 years, probably, since we passed the safe threshold in terms of having enough biodiversity to reliably meet our needs in the UK.

'But since then, we've in effect been exporting biodiversity damage elsewhere by importing materials from those places.

'We've done that because our spending power has been high. Basically, we cashed in our natural capital for economic capital hundreds of years ago.'

The impacts mean the UK is one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world. Even in the twenty-first century, the nation's BII fell from 53.88 in 2003 to a low of 52.31 by 2007. It is yet to return to its former level. While gains are predicted until 2050, this will only reach 56.32 in the most generous scenario.

Warning over future biodiversity loss caused by developed countries

While the UK is starting from a low baseline, scientists are concerned that countries with high BII values now may see them collapse as resources are exploited to fuel development in wealthy countries.

'Taking the Green Road is the fairest route,' Andy Purvis continued.

'We, the developed world, mustn't export our biodiversity loss to lower-income countries which often have more unique biodiversity and whose people depend critically on what their local ecosystems can provide them with.'

'Because we have purchasing power in the UK, it's easy to massively improve the state of nature as we could just stop farming. But what that would mean is that the UK would just buy everything in, usually from places that have more unique biodiversity than the UK ever had.”

Cooperation between everyone is vital to protect global biodiversity, with negotiators set to meet in China for COP 15 in October 2021, where it is hoped they will set binding targets for the preservation of biodiversity.

Agreements such as the Convention on Biological Diversity are based on a principle of fairness, with some suggesting wealthier countries with poorer biodiversity should provide funding to lower-income countries to preserve theirs.

Professor Purvis concluded:

'The negotiations at COP 26 [the UN Climate Change Conference] and COP 15 can only be successful if the validity of both sides' positions is clearly understood, by providing each country with accurate information, not only on its recent biodiversity trend but also how much nature it has retained.

'Accessing the Biodiversity Intactness Index via our BTE tool can help negotiators reach equitable agreements.'