UN: Billions of people rely on wild species for food, fuel, income

Rampant exploitation of nature is a threat to the billions of people across the world who rely on wild species for food, energy and income, according to a new report from United Nations biodiversity experts published. 

From fishing and logging to the use of wild plants in medicines and perfumes, societies across the planet are deeply dependent on species that have not been tamed or cultivated in farming, with annual global legal and illegal trade in the hundreds of billions of dollars. 

But as humans drive alarming biodiversity loss -- and climate change threatens to accelerate the destruction -- the UN's science advisory panel for biodiversity, known as IPBES, called for "transformative changes" in our relationship with wild species. 

"Billions of people in all regions of the world rely on and benefit from the use of wild species for food, medicine, energy, income and many other purposes," it said, adding that overexploitation and environmental degradation threaten resources, particularly for the most vulnerable.

The report, which took four years to produce and has been written by 85 experts from different specialist fields, comes as the UN steers a crucial international process to lay out a framework for protecting nature in the coming decades.  

The report recognises the fundamental role that these animals and plants play in people's lives and in particular the crucial role of indigenous communities in protecting nature.