Insects quietly becoming extinct, and why we should be worried

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Johannesburg - Without insects, nature as we know it will be lost, says Dr James Baxter-Gilbert of the Centre for Invasion Biology (CIB) at Stellenbosch University. Long overlooked in conservation, it’s insects that shoulder much of the ecological function that allows life on earth to continue. They are vital to human food production with numerous species pollinating crops and acting as biological pest control. But they are are quietly slipping into extinction. Last year, a global review found 40% of insect species are threatened with extinction, which “jeopardises both the natural world and human persistence”, says Baxter-Gilbert. “In the face of global biodiversity loss, conservation actions are needed more than ever. If we are to protect typical conservation target species - vertebrates, fuzzy or feathery ones, all the individual favourite charismatic species each one of us has - then we must first protect the insects since they shoulder the burden of so much of the ecological function that allows the rest of life to persist.” Last month, he was one of 73 co-authors of a roadmap for global insect conservation and recovery. Insect expert Professor Michael Samways from Stellenbosch University also contributed. Led by Professor Jeffrey A Harvey from the Netherlands Institute for Ecology, the roadmap was published in the journal, Nature Ecology & Evolution.

It calls for action in the short, medium and long-term and contains a list of immediate “no regret” steps to safeguard global insect populations.

This includes efforts to educate people on the important role of insects; enhancing restoration and conservation programmes; phasing out the use of pesticides; reducing the import of ecologically harmful products; avoiding and mitigating the introduction of alien species; and increasing landscape heterogeneity in agriculture.

Long-term actions include partnerships to restore, protect and create new habitats for insects and a global monitoring programme.

More and more, research is showing how habitat loss and fragmentation, pollution, climate change and overharvesting are “seriously reducing insect and other invertebrate abundance, diversity and biomass across the biosphere”, the roadmap states.

“There is now a strong scientific consensus that the decline of insects, other arthropods and biodiversity as a whole, is a very real and serious threat that society must urgently address.”

The voice of the public is often the driving force in conservation but insects are typically not “people favourites”, says Baxter-Gilbert. “That's not to say everyone hates them, by no means. Many people like insects and acknowledge they are important. But often the drive to ‘save a species or taxa’ comes because people love them. We see this with rhinos, pandas, whales, elephants, fur seals and so on.

“The cute and fluffy factor helps get people on board and that is what conservation needs. However, there’s a great big world of animals that are not your typical iconic charismatic megafauna drawcard it’s important people understand that no single species is a proverbial island. Ecosystems are complex support networks with more working parts than most can imagine.”

That’s where insects, which contribute to the wondrous diversity of life on earth, come in.

“They play such integral roles in maintaining ecosystem functions that the dramatic declines of their population threatens not just overall biodiversity, or could lead to specific species going extinct, but something much larger and far more pervasive - widespread ecological collapse.”

While this is worst-case scenario, it’s not impossible, he says. Without many types of insects providing their many ecological services, “we cannot maintain the types of habitat and ecosystems required to sustain all of the other animals that people already love, and are already pouring time, effort, and money into protecting”.

Saturday Star