December 13, 2025 Our civilization would be unthinkable without plant diversity. But our way of life endangers many wild plants.
They emerged more than 400 million years ago and, together with insects, they have shaped the entire course of evolution: without ferns, conifers and flowering plants, the world of today would be unthinkable. We modern humans emerged around 300,000 years ago amidst an abundance of plant species that had already grown over many epochs in the earth. Since then, plants have served us as food, firewood, protection, building materials, medicine, cosmetics, table decorations, inspiration and much more. Without plant diversity there would be no human civilization.
Indigenous peoples have been very familiar with the plant species in their territories for thousands of years. Scientists have been able to track down, collect and describe around 350,000 different species since the 18th century – 9,000 have been added since 2020 alone. Experts at the Royal Botanic Gardens of Kew in the United Kingdom estimate that another 100,000 species are unknown, at least to Western science. If you look at it purely in terms of possible medical benefits, that’s a hundred thousand chances for new active ingredients.
But the diversity of the plant world is acutely threatened. Agriculture in Europe used to create species-rich habitats such as flower meadows and orchards. Today, through intensive use of nitrogen fertilizers and pesticides, it creates predominantly empty landscapes with often only a few types of grass. In the tropics, on a long-term average, an area of rainforest measuring 320 by 320 kilometers is cut down or burned down – per year. And due to climate change, entire habitats are experiencing drought stress or are barely able to recover after fires.
