Through these palaeostudies, the IGCP is helping us to understand how human societies and ecosystems coped with a changing environment in the past and why some civilizations failed.

UNESCO: Open Access to Scientific Information

"Many economies remain blind to the huge value of the diversity of animals, plants and other lifeforms and their role in healthy and functioning ecosystems, " said Achim Steiner, executive director of the UN Environment Programme (Unep).

BBC: Nature loss 'to damage economies'