“Just as there is a serious problem of deforestation in the planet’s ecosystems, there is also a serious problem of ‘defaunation’: the decline of animal species”

After receiving the 16th BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Ecology, Rodolfo Dirzo explains how his research on defaunation has revealed the profound impact of animal loss on the structure of ecosystems. His perspective brings together science, conservation, and education, underscoring the need to reconnect society with nature in order to halt the loss of biodiversity.

The BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Ecology and Conservation Biology has gone in this sixteenth edition to Gerardo Ceballos and Rodolfo Dirzo, “for establishing that current species extinction rates in many groups of organisms are much higher than throughout the preceding two million years.”