Human activity has altered almost 75 per cent of the earth’s surface, squeezing wildlife and nature into an ever-smaller corner of the planet and increasing risks of zoonotic diseases like COVID-19.

Forests

* Around 1.6 billion people depend on forests for their livelihood, including 70 million indigenous people.
* Forests are home to more than 80 per cent of all terrestrial species of animals, plants and insects.
* Between 2010 and 2015, the world lost 3.3 million hectares of forest areas. Poor rural women depend on common pool resources and are especially affected by their depletion.
* Currently, land degradation has reduced productivity in 23 per cent of the global terrestrial area, and between $235 billion and $577 billion in annual global crop output is at risk as a result of pollinator loss.

Desertification

* Arable land loss is estimated at 30 to 35 times the historical rate
* Due to drought and desertification, 12 million hectares are lost each year (23 hectares per minute). Within one year, 20 million tons of grain could have been grown.
* 74 per cent of the poor are directly affected by land degradation globally.
* Habitat loss and deterioration, largely caused by human actions, have reduced global terrestrial habitat integrity by 30 per cent relative to an unimpacted baseline.

Biodiversity

* Illicit poaching and trafficking of wildlife continues to thwart conservation efforts, with nearly 7,000 species of animals and plants reported in illegal trade involving 120 countries.
* Of the 8,300 animal breeds known, 8 per cent are extinct and 22 per cent are at risk of extinction.
* Of the over 80,000 tree species, less than 1 per cent have been studied for potential use.
* Fish provide 20 per cent of animal protein to about 3 billion people. Only ten species provide about 30 per cent of marine capture fisheries and ten species provide about 50 per cent of aquaculture production.
* Over 80 per cent of the human diet is provided by plants. Only three cereal crops – rice, maize and wheat – provide 60 per cent of energy intake.
* As many as 80 per cent of people living in rural areas in developing countries rely on traditional plant-­‐based medicines for basic healthcare.
* Micro-organisms and invertebrates are key to ecosystem services, but their contributions are still poorly known and rarely acknowledged.
* While protected areas now cover 15 per cent of terrestrial and freshwater environments and 7 per cent of the marine realm, they only partly cover important sites for biodiversity and are not yet fully ecologically representative and effectively or equitably managed.

Facts and Figures
> Every year, 13 million hectares of forests are lost, while the persistent degradation of drylands has led to the desertification of 3.6 billion hectares, disproportionately affecting poor communities.
>1.6 billion - Around 1.6 billion people depend on forests for their livelihoods.
> 80% - Forests are home to more than 80 percent of all terrestrial species of animals, plants and insects.
> 2.6 billion - 2.6 billion people depend directly on agriculture for a living.
> 33% - Nature-based climate solutions can contribute about a third of CO2 reductions by 2030.
> $125 trillion - The value of ecosystems to human livelihoods and well-being is $US125 trillion per year.
> 60-80% - Mountain regions provide 60-80 percent of the Earth's fresh water.
> A recent UN report on biodiversity found that around 1 million animal and plant species are now threatened with extinction, many within decades, more than ever before in human history.
> Every year, some two million people, mostly in low- and middle-income countries, die from neglected zoonotic diseases. The same outbreaks can cause severe illness, deaths, and productivity losses among livestock populations in the developing world, a major problem that keeps hundreds of millions of small-scale farmers in severe poverty.
> In the last two decades alone, zoonotic diseases have caused economic losses of more than $100 billion, not including the cost of the COVID-19 pandemic, which is expected to reach $9 trillion over the next few years.