Biodiversity is the living fabric of our planet. It underpins human wellbeing in the present and in the future, and its rapid decline threatens nature and people alike.
This is how the International Day for Biological Diversity is introduced on the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) website. They declared 22nd May to be the International Day for Biological Diversity to raise awareness that biodiversity is not only essential for the continuation of life on earth, but also hugely under threat.
This blog takes a look at what biodiversity means to the work we do at Freedom for Animals, and how zoos and aquariums are part of the problem, not the solution.
What is biodiversity?
Biodiversity is the variety of animal and plant life in a particular area. Put simply, the more different species of animals or plants in a place, the higher the biodiversity there. This doesn’t simply mean birds, squirrels and trees, but insects, fungi, parasites, and even microorganisms like bacteria that might be living in and on all of them. It is the result of millions of years of species evolving around each other, some becoming extinct, while others adapt into new species with unique functions and abilities. All life on earth relies on this intricate web, and when it is under threat, so are we all.
Why is biodiversity important?
2024’s Living Planet Report found an average 73% decline in global populations of mammals, fish, birds, reptiles and amphibians since 1970 – a huge loss of biodiversity. Every species on earth is reliant upon others. All animals eat other species, whether we are consuming animals or plants. In 2025, many humans are fortunate enough to have the option to choose to eat only plants in order to live a less destructive lifestyle. Nonetheless, from the orangutan who makes their home in the rainforest canopy, to the insects that live in that animal’s fur, life on earth depends on others for shelter, support, and sustenance. When a population of plants or animals is decimated, other individuals lose their homes or their food source, and this creates a knock-on effect that sees wildlife pushed to the brink of extinction.
What threatens biodiversity?
The Living Planet Report demonstrates that the highest number of animal and plant species in human history are now under threat of extinction – around one million. This is as a result of various factors such as climate change, deforestation, and direct human interventions such as hunting and trapping animals for food, sport, or supposed medicinal properties and the ‘exotic’ pet trade. Whilst deforestation is a well-publicised threat to land habitats, less visible to humans is marine life, which has been particularly vulnerable to climate change, and over 90% of global warming occurs in the ocean. Some of the most biodiverse marine habitats are tropical, and the species that live there are incredibly sensitive to changes in temperature, and are dying at incredible rates. Some important marine species known to be under threat are kelp forests and seagrass beds, which act as massive stores for the planet’s carbon, preventing climate change. This is a perfect example of how biodiversity loss in itself is a threat to biodiversity.
The problems with zoos and aquariums
Biodiversity and conservation are inseparable concepts. You cannot carry out meaningful conservation work without taking biodiversity into account. This is because that intricate web of life is incredibly delicate. It is not possible to breed a large number of endangered species in a controlled environment, such as a zoo or aquarium, and then place them into the wild and expect them to thrive. This would only result in a huge shock to that ecosystem, as the newly introduced population would overwhelm the resources of that habitat, causing more biodiversity loss. For this reason, zoo and aquarium ‘conservation’ programmes, which typically involve breeding generations of captive exhibits who will never know the wild, do not have any positive impact on wild populations. Very few zoo-bred animals are ever released to the wild and even when this does happen, reintroductions are rarely successful.
In fact, zoos and aquariums are causing significant damage to the wild. By misleading the public into thinking that the cost of their ticket will fund meaningful conservation work, they are helping themselves to vital funds which could otherwise help real in-situ conservation. They are also allowing the public to falsely believe that keeping endangered animals in captivity provides a security net in the event of their extinction in the wild. It actually requires a huge amount of genetic diversity in a species to allow for a healthy population to be bred from them, and according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, 250-500 individuals would be required to produce generations of offspring without inbreeding resulting in genetic problems. However, even more would be required to maintain a population genetically diverse enough to adapt and evolve, potentially 2,500 to 5,000 individuals. For that reason, zoos’ claims that keeping a handful of endangered individuals in cages protects the future of the species is, quite simply, a lie.
Beyond these deceptive and manipulative claims by the zoo and aquarium industries, even more shocking is the direct destruction of biodiversity caused by aquariums. Zoos can no longer get away with taking animals directly from the wild, so it is rarely seen in the UK today, however, the aquarium industry is a different story. Aquariums are still routinely supplied with animals taken directly from their homes in the sea. Around 73% of fish in the aquarium industry die as a result of the stressors experienced in capture, transportation and handling. There is also a considerable carbon cost to catching and transporting fish, let alone the maintenance of heated and filtered tanks, and all that goes into providing for visitor experience. The industry that is claiming to protect marine life is the very same one that is actively destroying it.
What can we do?
It’s true that biodiversity has never been more under threat than it is right now, but there is still hope. Ecosystems are vulnerable to huge changes, but in their absence they’re incredibly resilient. If we, as individuals and as the human species, protect wild environments by not contributing to their destruction, nature can heal, and populations can bounce back. Biodiversity is the reason that life on earth has been evolving for millions of years, and if we protect it, there can be millions more. As individuals, we can boycott industries that harm biodiversity, such as zoos and aquariums, and support organisations that seek to protect the planet.
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Sources:
The Marine Conservation Society
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