It has been scientifically proven that, very early on, humankind dispersed many species very effectively, although often unwittingly. In Belgium like in other places around the world, in terms of species richness, the many intentional and unintentional human ‘introductions’ of non-native species of flora and fauna are said to have more than compensated for the current loss of native species, with the result that biodiversity in Belgium could be higher today than it was 100 years ago. These findings, surprising though they are, were made by the panel of experts present at the Mass Extinction Conference - 30.05.2024 | Institute of Natural Sciences. Assessing the threats to the Belgian population as a result of this loss of biodiversity calls for a number of comments, including:
- biodiversity and its evolution over time must be assessed in order to serve a clear objective and using appropriate methodologies and datasets, at the risk of producing confusing if not misleading/biased results;
- along with other drivers, increasing global interconnectedness means that more non-native living organisms (including viruses) are being introduced into our territory, making even more challenging the prevention/limitation of biological invasions by our competent authorities;
- the presentations and debates at this conference were not intended to assess the risks posed by the loss of biodiversity. However, it is already clear that the current loss of biodiversity has cascading repercussions likely to have a negative impact on our population, for example in terms of the loss of ecosystem services provided by these species and the ecosystems they constitute;
- lastly, scientists seem to agree that humanity has not yet entered a phase of mass extinction, of the kind that has occurred 5 times in geological time, but rather a situation of already severe biodiversity crisis.