What is biodiversity?
Biodiversity is the complete variety of all the living things that make up our natural world, from animals to plants, insects to fungi right down to microorganisms like bacteria. All organisms living today, including humans, evolved together over the course of the earth’s existence, and have come to rely on each other, like an intricate web.
That interconnected web of living things generates the air we breathe, the food we eat and water we drink but also medicines, fuel & materials, and livelihoods. To continue to survive, we all depend on the continued abundance and variety of organisms that together, maintain the world as we know it. Declining biodiversity disrupts & degrades the intricate web of life, which makes it much more vulnerable to shocks like floods, fire, and drought.
The film & TV industry impacts on biodiversity through its production practices, supply chain and through its portrayal of biodiversity on screen. Production impacts can be negative in relation to damage or disturbance of habitats or species and through use of materials.
Editorial impacts can also be negative due to increased demand for biodiversity damaging products, increased visitors to sensitive locations and impact on individual species. There is great potential, however, for the impact of the industry to be positive and promote biodiversity.
There is a need to normalise the language of biodiversity across the industry.
