Earth Day is a global day of awareness and action that changes human behaviour and provokes policy changes. The theme this year is ‘Protect Our Species’.

Community contributors from our Ecology & Evolution and Sustainability communities tell us what is most important to them when it comes to protecting our species.    

Camille Delavaux argues that in order to protect species, we first need to know that they exist. She discusses some of the challenges when it comes to being able to discover new species.

From undiscovered to extinct. Tiago Simoes explains what we can learn from mass extinctions of the past to inform our understanding of the modern biodiversity crisis.

Modern conservation began with coffee in Costa Rica says Jeffrey Smith, where coffee farming systems benefit both the environment and the economy.

Rodrigo Zeidan shares his concerns about a potential regulatory change in Brazil that will threaten many species as well as their habitats.

Kris Wyckhuys considers the drivers determining the recent global decline in insect species and what can be done to remediate them. He begins with a childhood memory from 1984…

Staying in the 1980s, Thomas Smith remembers the first time he visited Africa’s Congo Basin 35 years ago. What’s changed since then? You’ll have to read his post!

Looking to the future, here’s a rather timely and poignant message from Moreno di Marco and Sarah Stephen – quoted from their community post.

“Every contribution is critical if we want to stand a chance at winning the battle against climate change and species extinction”.    

You can access all these posts and more here.

Happy Earth Day!

Poster image credit: Mike Arney courtesy of Moreno di Marco (it's a mountain Gorilla)