At the University of Helsinki, valuable research is being conducted to curb biodiversity loss, for example, through bird and pollinator monitoring schemes. With the help of research-based knowledge, conservation measures can be targeted where the need is the greatest.
Today, the amount of insects squashed on car windscreens is smaller than 40 years ago. You can no longer find bladder wrack, or bladder fucus, on the shore at your summer cottage. Such everyday observations are linked with biodiversity loss, a hot topic in recent public discussion.
Even in Finland, one in nine species is threatened, and many previously common ones have declined.
According to Pasi Sihvonen, Director of the Zoology Unit of the Finnish Museum of Natural History, biodiversity loss is a dominant topic for a reason.
"It's about the survival of humanity as well. Without well-functioning ecosystems and ecosystem services, we will not cope. We need clean water and the food produced as a result of pollinators' activities. For the time being, our understanding of the progress of biodiversity loss is deficient. We know that the number of mammals and amphibians has decreased. In contrast, our understanding of the state of most insect groups is patchy."
