“The ongoing decline of biodiversity has left us with a planet that is depleated”

Awarded the 11th Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Ecology, ecologist Georgina Mace reflects in this interview on the challenges of conserving biodiversity on a planet subjected to unprecedented human pressures. Drawing on her extensive scientific career, Mace explains how extinction metrics, population patterns, and species management allow us to better understand the current state of life on Earth and the strategies needed to protect it. Her perspective combines rigorous science with a call to integrate nature conservation into social and political decisions to ensure a sustainable future.

The BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the Ecology and Conservation Biology category has gone in this eleventh edition to Gretchen Cara Daily and Georgina Mace, two “visionary” ecologists who have developed vital tools facilitating science-based policies “to combat species loss.”