The National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine will convene an international committee to produce a brief, clear summary of the state of knowledge on the ongoing global declines of plant and animal populations; the impact on and significance of these declines on biodiversity; the scientific questions surrounding these events that must be addressed; and actions that decision makers in government and the private sector could take to reverse species declines and loss of biodiversity.

Two recent publications, Climate Change: Evidence and Causesand Climate Change and Ecosystems, were produced by the to inform policy makers and the public about climate change. Using these as models, the committee will design, create, and distribute a brochure that articulates for a public audience what we know about biodiversity and why and how it needs to be protected. Like Climate Change: Evidence and Causes, the proposed document may be structured as a “question-based” interaction – a series of succinct questions and evidence-based answers to questions such as the following:

· What is biodiversity?

· Why is biodiversity important and in what ways does human existence benefit from biodiversity?

· What is our current state of knowledge about the status of biodiversity in the world’s ecosystems?

· What changes have already happened and are continuing to happen to the numbers of plants and animals, and what, if known, have the resulting impacts of these changes on biodiversity been?

· What were the causes of these changes?

· Where have these changes occurred, and have some ecosystems been more highly affected than others?

· Are there existing measures to reverse the trend toward increased numbers of declines and extinctions of animal and plant species or is research required to develop new ones?

The intent is to capture the publics’ imagination and attention by using plain explanatory language designed for non-scientists and accompanied by numerous color graphic illustrations. The goal for the activity is to produce a strong, evidence-based document that articulates the crucial importance of biodiversity, what we know has happened to biodiversity thus far, the implications of these events, and possible actions that can be taken to counteract them. The effort will build on past Academy studies, work by other international science academies, and that of individual scientists. The resulting brochure will undergo standard Academies review and will be widely distributed in hard copy and electronically through various means, including via other science academies throughout the world.