Paraguay is below the global and Latin America average for remaining biodiversity

Paraguay has about 68% of its biodiversity left, below the global average of 75%. A figure of 90% is considered the "safe limit" to prevent the world from tipping into an "ecological meltdown", according to researchers. The average for Latin America is slightly below 80%.

Biodiversity is the variety of all living things on Earth and how they fit together in the web of life, bringing oxygen, water, food and countless other benefits. It's also what provides us with so many of our basic needs. It's the foundation of our society. We've seen recently how disruptive it can be when supply chains break down - nature is at the base of our supply chains.

A new tool uses the Biodiversity Intactness Index to estimate the percentage of natural biodiversity that remains across the world and in individual countries. Paraguay’s low position in the league table is linked to ranching and agriculture development, which transformed the landscape.

Biodiversity indicators are important tools for understanding, monitoring and communicating biodiversity changes and for tracking our progress towards UN development goals. The Natural History Museum of London has developed a tool called the Biodiversity Trends Explorer to track biodiversity change. This change is given as the Biodiversity Intactness Index (BII).

The Biodiversity Trends Explorer uses abundance data on plants, fungi and animals from around the world. The explorer shows how local, terrestrial biodiversity is responding to human pressures such as land use change and intensification.

The BII complements other biodiversity indicators that tell the story of extinction risk, such as the Sampled Red List Index for Plants. If the Biodiversity Intactness Index is 90% or more, the area has enough biodiversity to be a resilient and functioning ecosystem. If the Biodiversity Intactness Index is 30% or less, the area's biodiversity has been depleted to such an extent that it is below the most generous boundary of what is needed for a functioning ecosystem.

The Biodiversity Intactness Index complements other indicators that are based on species’ global conservation status or population trends. These different measures of biodiversity can be combined to provide a roadmap towards restoring global biodiversity.

The Biodiversity Intactness Index for Paraguay is the following:

Year                                       BII

2000                                       72%

2010                                       70%

2020                                       68%

2030                                       67%

2040                                       65%

2050                                       64%

Biodiversity is declining faster than at any time in human history. Since 1970, there has been on average almost a 70% decline in the populations of mammals, birds, fish, reptiles and amphibians. It is thought that one million animal and plant species - almost a quarter of the global total - are threatened with extinction.