Billions of people benefit daily from the use of wild species for food, energy, materials, medicine, recreation, inspiration and many other vital contributions to human well-being. The accelerating global biodiversity crisis, with a million species of plants and animals facing extinction, threatens these contributions to people.
This report offers insights, analysis and tools to establish more sustainable use of wild species of plants, animals, fungi and algae around the world. It examines range of possible future scenarios for the use of wild species, confirming that climate change, increasing demand and technological advances — making many extractive practices more efficient — are likely to present significant challenges to sustainable use in the future.
Actions are identified for each practice that would help to address these challenges.