AVOIDING THE CONFLATION BETWEEN BIODIVERSITY AND NATURE
Biodiversity as living organisms
In my first Biodiversity Affairs editorial, I challenged the “multifaceted” view of biodiversity. Here, I sharpen the distinction: biodiversity is the living component of nature—and the only living things are organisms. Below, I share a simple conceptual framework to keep biodiversity and nature separate.
Monarch butterflies at El Rosario reserve, Michoacán, Mexico. Photo taken in December 2025.
Biodiversity consists of living organisms; the environment consists of abiotic conditions; ecosystems emerge from their interactions. We call this large system Nature.
This is not new, but it is critical for putting living organisms back on the center stage. Too often, we claim to measure “biodiversity” using ecosystem or environmental proxies.
A conceptual framework for clarifying the differences between nature, biodiversity, and the environment
On the same line, I was pleased to see some recent, very interesting work in Nature Finance by Stefano Giglio, a professor at the Yale School of Management.
He and his colleagues have developed a very clean, hierarchical framework where economic output depends jointly on human-made inputs (X) and ecosystem services (E), which they directly link to species richness and abundance.
I recommend this article, in which he and his colleagues summarize some of their recent research, The economics of biodiversity loss: Implications for Asia and the Pacific a summary of their work for the Asia-Pacific Climate Report 2025: Unlocking Nature for Development.
Nature as Infrastructure
A concept I've been drawn to recently is nature-as-infrastructure. I think it's a surprisingly effective way to communicate why nature matters in policy and finance and how it is different from biodiversity.
I encountered this concept while reading the working paper by Terrasos titled: “Biocredits and Habitat Banks: Rethinking the Development and Maintenance of Ecological Infrastructure.”
The report cites two papers, of which the first one has over 600 citations and seems pretty foundational, and the other is reviewing the concept:
Carse, A. (2012). Nature as infrastructure: Making and managing the Panama Canal watershed. Social Studies of Science, 42(4), 539-563
Nelson, S. H., & Bigger, P. (2021).Infrastructural nature. Progress in Human Geography, 46(1), 86-107.
So the idea isn’t new, but it’s clearly gaining institutional traction. For example, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) published a major 2023 report titled Nature as Infrastructure, and its chief economist, Erik Berglöf, has also pushed the argument in a separate opinion piece
If you want one takeaway: treating nature as infrastructure shifts it from “nice to have” to “must maintain”, and that changes how governments, banks, and companies justify investment, manage risk, and think about long-term sustainability.
A new governance framework
A paper coming out from Chile in the latest issue of Environmental Science & Policy has proposed a very complete and rich framework for environmental governance: Rethinking governance for the Global Biodiversity Framework: Legal gaps and lessons from Chile.
We propose a place-based governance framework that integrates structural principles of good governance—such as polycentric coordination, resilience, and legal pluralism—with normative dimensions including legitimacy, inclusion, accountability, and equity (Wyborn et al., 2021). Grounded in legal design, the framework provides a forward-looking lens for diagnosing where institutional reforms, coordination mechanisms, and accountability structures are needed.
The Biodiversity Brief
New Reports
The World Economic Forum Global Risks Report 2026, published on 14 January, ranked "Biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse" as the second global threat after "extreme weather events."
In January 20, the UK released a report called: Global biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse and national security: A national security assessment, where the #1 takeaway was that "Global ecosystem degradation and collapse threaten UK national security and prosperity", with a high confidence score.
The origin of this report is very interesting:
It seems to have been produced by an intelligence committee. Although it was supposed to be released in October last year, the UK government tried to withhold it, and it took a freedom of information (FOI) request from the Green Alliance to make it public.
In January 22, UNEP released theState of Finance for Nature 2026, which, among the key messages are that the private sector has a 30:1 ratio favoring investments that destroy nature.
A landmark agreement
The High Seas Treaty (BBNJ Agreement) took effect on January 17, 2026, marking a historic moment in ocean conservation. This UN agreement aims to safeguard marine biodiversity across international waters, which make up two-thirds of the world's oceans. The treaty introduced the first binding mechanism for designating marine protected areas beyond national jurisdiction, mandates environmental impact assessments for ocean activities, and promotes fair distribution of benefits from marine genetic resources.
Ongoing Biodiversity Events
The IPBES 12 is meeting from 3 to 8 February 2026 and will see the release of the report on Business and Biodiversity Assessment. It's gonna be huge, and I hope to unpack it as soon as it lands.
Noteworthy Biodiversity Facts
I was checking the latest issue of the journal Global Change Biology, testing a system where I will systematically choose the best papers to communicate their findings, and two papers with nice facts got my attention:
The habitat that looks right, but is a trap
Ecological traps are poor-quality habitats that still attract animals, lowering survival or reproduction. Here's an interesting example with coral reef fishes:Protists: overlooked, but crucial in soils.
Most people don't know what protists are, or they've never had them on their radar, but a recent paper highlights their roles in soil ecosystems:
By the way—if you’d be interested in getting curated research insights, please let me know (just hit reply). I’ll focus on papers with clear, decision-relevant takeaways for policy and practice—plus the occasional fun fact like the ones above.
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