Environment

Sub-Saharan Africa has now lost around 25% of its pre-industrial biodiversity

To map the biodiversity of sub-Saharan Africa, 200 specialists in African plants and animals were asked to estimate local species abundances. The results estimated that the region has on average lost 24% of its pre-colonial and pre-industrial faunal and floral population abundances, ranging from losses of <20% for disturbance-adapted herbaceous plants to 80% for some large mammals.