Two-thirds of the world’s species may disappear in the 21st Century and “a great majority” of them may be gone before they are even identified by human beings due to climate change and increasing human activities, a biologist from the United States warned on Sunday.

“Currently, several thousand species are lost every year and very soon the number could rise to more than 10,000,” President of the Missouri Botanical Garden, Peter Raven said.

Species on the earth were disappearing at a rapid rate due to habitat destruction, climate change and a wide spread of invasive alien species caused by expanding human activities, Raven said in his keynote speech at the 23rd International Congress for Conservation Biology (ICCB) here.

China, thanks to its large territory, numerous mountain ranges and rich tropical ecosystems along the southern border, boasts about one-eighth of the world’s total species of eukaryotic organisms, said Raven.

“But China’s biodiversity is being destroyed at least as fast as in other parts of the world,” he was quoted as saying by Xinhua news agency.

To prevent the rapid loss of world species, he proposed that information on the species be collected and disseminated as fast and as much as possible to raise public awareness on wildlife protection.

Bureau Report
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