Alexandre Antonelli is director of science at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and a professor of systematics and biodiversity at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. He spoke to the Observer ahead of this week’s launch of the organisation’s seminal report The State of the World’s Plants and Fungi, which last took stock in 2020. He is also the author of The Hidden Universe: Adventures in Biodiversity (Ebury Press, £14.99).
What do you do at Kew – what are the best and the worst things about your job?
My responsibility is to develop the strategy for science and conservation work and coordinate efforts across all our sites: Kew Gardens, Wakehurst, the Millennium Seed Bank and Madagascar. The best part is ensuring that the quality and impact of sciences is as large as possible. We have talented staff who have immense knowledge about different parts of the world, and of plants and fungi. So for me, it’s been very inspirational and a huge learning opportunity as well.
The worst part is, on one hand, we are very ambitious – we’re really trying to make a difference – but the sheer amount of work tackling the challenge we face is so large that we are very busy and always having to prioritise, and are perhaps not able to develop every good idea.
What challenge do you mean?
I mean the global challenge we’re facing: we are at the crossroads of having to figure out how to protect our environment, and feed a growing population in the face of climate change and biodiversity loss. We know we cannot work in isolation so we are working with over 100 countries – developing nature-based and science-based solutions. We absolutely see the urgency of protecting our environment. For instance, at Kew we have estimated that at least two in five plant species are at risk. In the new report, we will be providing a revised estimate.
You were born in Brazil, and then studied and worked at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden. Can you tell me about your own scientific interests?
I am a practising scientist – and I think that combination [with being director] is very important to help keep up to speed. I trained as a botanist but I have become a biogeographer, understanding the links between life and our planet, and the abiotic [non-living] environment. So how does change in climate, or geography impact biodiversity over time, and in different regions? For instance, the formation of mountains, changes in river systems and wetlands have impacted biodiversity in the past: what can we learn from those changes for the future?
We do think there are comparable cases. If you think about mega-dams in the Amazon for example – they are actually quite similar in size to some of the large wetlands we’ve seen in the past in the Amazon which have prevented the speciation [new species evolving] of terrestrial plants and dispersal. And with climate change we’ve had periods of global warming in the past – and we can learn what kind of features make some species more vulnerable than others. We can start to understand what the likely impact is, so we are one step ahead before those things occur.
My main area of work has been in Latin America because that’s where the highest biodiversity is, but that’s also where we’re facing increasing and acute challenges to biodiversity.
How will the research at Kew help safeguard future biodiversity?
A lot of conservation work has been based on cute animals. But we really want to bring plants to the table when it comes to finding the key areas for conservation. And that’s in order to help governments deliver on the commitments of the new UN global biodiversity framework: the “30 by 30” commitment to protect 30% of the planet by 2030. We must make sure that it’s the right 30%, that really brings the strongest benefits – that will require the best available data and methods.
Which are the areas where, if you protect 30%, you’re covering as many species as possible? Otherwise, there’s a big danger you’re just protecting the cheapest areas. You know, just check the box. And we know from research we’ve done that is always the worst idea, because you would have substantially worse outcomes for biodiversity.
There are other areas where we are helping the government, such as Cites [the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora], which deals with the illegal trade in threatened species. We’re the UK’s representative [on flora].
This week, Kew will be publishing it’s fifth State of the World’s Plants and Fungi report. Explain to us what it is.
The report is an extremely exciting summary of everything we know about plants and fungi. It’s a bit of a health check – how are they doing? We are going to present estimates of the total number of species, summarise the levels of threat they face, and the key areas where more knowledge is needed for effective conservation.
We will also be outlining some new species discovered over the past few years: there are some amazing discoveries and some amazing stories.
It isn’t out yet, so you can’t talk about specifics, but what can you tell our readers about the report?
One thing that is very novel here is that we’re not only talking about what we know, but what we don’t know – which can be equally fascinating. So you know, what proportion of species we have no idea exist, but we can actually predict where they are. This is the outcome of research involving 200 scientists in about 30 countries, and this really allows us to focus our attention on where this [conservation efforts] would be most effective.
The other big novelty will be the release of the first ever list of all plants: how many plants there are and where they are. I won’t say much more than that, but it’s really exciting.
Do you mean a list of all the living plants known to science? Did we not have one already?
People assume we know all the species on the planet – but we don’t! It’s a list of every single plant species that we know of, and we are making new discoveries: scientists globally find about 20 new species of plants every day.
It’s a huge and exciting time to be working in plants and fungi, there are so many discoveries that anyone who wants to join will most likely find new species. But there’s a race against time because we also know that we may be losing species before we even notice or describe them.
What are the biggest threats to biodiversity?
First, it’s land use change; mainly for agriculture, but also for urban development, roads and mining. Second, it’s the direct exploitation of species, such as timber felling and the illegal trade in threatened species. The third is climate change. We still don’t really know what temperatures plants will be able to tolerate, and it’s not only the slowly increasing mean temperatures, but the extremes – it’s about drought, extreme heatwaves and how the whole climate system is being disrupted – and many species are very sensitive to that. In addition, we have invasive species. We also have pollution. All those factors can interact and combine.
When it comes to the environment, can you see a way out? What can we do as individuals?
We know exactly what we need to do, based on the science. It’s quite simple really, because it’s about protecting what we’ve got, restoring what we’ve degraded. It’s about more sustainable production, and also reducing consumption overall. It’s about fighting climate change, invasive species and new diseases. And we have to do all those things in combination.
At the individual level, I really believe we can all make a difference. For instance, what we eat has played a huge role, because food production is the main driver of biodiversity loss. Agriculture contributes about 37% of greenhouse gases. It’s a huge contributor to pollution as well. By eating more plants and fungi, we will replace the main protein source that doesn’t require as much land use. So we can help fight climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution at the same time.
Meat has a disproportionate impact on land use. By just reducing your meat intake – and there are fantastic alternatives, for instance in the legume family – you can have fantastic meals, it’s good for our pocket, it’s good for our health, and it’s good for the planet.
There are many different ways. My book The Hidden Universe had a chapter on what we can do ourselves. For instance, if you have a garden you can grow plants that will help the local biodiversity, or set up nests for animals. If you have any savings, you can make sure that those savings are not contributing to deforestation. We can all influence our families, our friends, our workplaces. It’s really important that we all do a bit more, because we can really see that difference very quickly, I think.
The Hidden Universe by Alexandre Antonelli is published by Ebury Press (£14.99). To support the Guardian and Observer, order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply
