If we want to affect any change above ground, we also need to change what is going on below.

This also works the other way around. Suppose I remove plants of rich Biodiversity, like logging a forest, and replace them with a monoculture. In that case, the diversity in the soil organic matter dies off, resulting in loss of Soil Biology.

Everything in Nature has a role to play; nothing is incidental. The smallest organism is as important as the largest.

All organisms in an ecosystem – in this case, the Earth’s biosphere – depend on each other and form an interconnected web of life.

Yes, there were always species going extinct in the history of our planet as we know it. Nature is perfectly equipped to compensate for those losses, often coming up with even more ingenious solutions for the role the lost species had played.

According to the UN, however, the current rate of global diversity loss is estimated to be up to 1000 times higher than the naturally occurring background extinction – and is accelerating; driving the precious interconnected web of life to a breaking point.

Spiders are an excellent example for the cascading effects the loss of a species can have on its environment. In a healthy ecosystem, spiders live on every single plant. Their primary food sources are insects, their larvae and eggs. Once spiders disappear from an area, either due to chemical application or loss of plants due to desertification, the food web becomes unbalanced, and insects become rampant. 

Australia is recording the highest extinction rate in the world, tendency rising. Conservative estimates put more than 1,800 plant and animal species at risk. Woodlands, forests and wetlands are at risk due to the 

pressures of Climate Change, Land use, habitat loss and invasive species, contributing to the increased desertification of our continent.

Lack of Biodiversity above and below ground reduces the resilience of soils, plants, animals and humans alike. Erosion increases, water holding capacity declines, exacerbating drought, bushfire risk and desertification; threatening our health, our food supply – and so much more.

For us as Stewards of the Land, we can contribute towards slowing or even reversing the loss of Biodiversity on our properties and in our communities with Regenerative Land Management practices.

Let’s push for Regenerative Land Management becoming the new Normal and restore the lost Biodiversity for us and future generations.

Stefanie Hildmann