With new teaching materials, the biodiversity crisis is being brought to the forefront in high schools across the country, providing both teachers and students with an overview of the very latest research, with a particular focus on possible courses of action and the consequences of the crisis.
Download the new educational workbooks for free on the IPBES in Denmark educational website here
Nature and biodiversity are being mentioned more and more often in public discourse when the topic of the environment comes up. Thus, it is no longer the climate crisis that commands all the attention. And for good reason. Nature and biodiversity form the very foundation of our existence—from the oxygen we need to breathe to the food we depend on for survival. At the same time, nature’s diversity is a source of education, inspiration, and mental well-being, and according to the political agreements adopted at all levels, we also have a moral responsibility not to drive all the other species we share the Earth with to extinction.
Three new educational booklets on the biodiversity crisis from IPBES in Denmark provide a scholarly and unique overview of the crisis’s scope, presented in easy-to-understand language. The target audience is primarily high school teachers and students, but the material can be used by anyone who wants a deeper understanding of the major challenge we currently face—the loss of biodiversity at all levels.
This resource focuses on the nature and progression of the biodiversity crisis, as well as its consequences and—not least—the actions we can take. It consists of three student workbooks, a teacher’s guide, and four videos produced with a grant from the Aage V. Jensen Nature Foundation.
About the Workbooks
The new teaching materials include the following workbooks:
- The Biodiversity Crisis: How serious is it? What is causing the crisis? How can we stop it?
- The Biodiversity Crisis: On Sustainable Economics and Development: Planetary Boundaries, Ecological Footprint, the UN Sustainable Development Goals, Green GDP, and Ecological Economics.
- The Biodiversity Crisis: The biodiversity and climate crises—two crises that are interconnected.
The workbooks can be used in biology classes, but also in social studies and physical geography, as well as at other educational institutions and in other subjects that address one of the greatest challenges of our time. The accompanying videos provide information about the biodiversity crisis and biodiversity monitoring, while the final video serves as a brief introduction to the three workbooks.
Watch the introductory video here:
The early editions of the booklets have been downloaded more than a thousand times by more than a hundred high schools. But many others have also downloaded the booklets, including a number of municipalities, schools, and organizations, as well as businesses and individuals.
Here is an excerpt from a review of the first issues:
The third and final booklet in the series attempts to link the biodiversity crisis and the climate crisis. This booklet is perhaps the most directly applicable when viewed through the lens of biology. Once again, the well-designed illustrations make the booklet useful for biology instruction at multiple levels and in various contexts… The booklet concludes by exploring solutions that address both crises. It then provides a pedagogical framework for possible courses of action that can be discussed in class. Student assignments are a great way to get the essential discussions underway.
Svend Erik Nielsen, Frederiksborg High School
I’ve now been using the “blue” and “green” workbooks in my Biology C classes for three different classes. I’ve really enjoyed using them, and I’ve been looking for a while for inspiration on how to incorporate biodiversity more into my ecology course, so this was really great. I’ve used it for both homework and in-class instruction, but the students also did a mini-project where they were divided into groups and assigned specific chapters to create posters about, which they then presented to each other during a poster session. This worked really well, and the material was excellent for giving them an overview that they could then convey to their peers.
Louise Munch, Borupgaard High School
New booklets—revised and updated
All of the booklets have undergone a comprehensive revision and update—in terms of text, figures, graphics, and layout. The focus remains on the information drawn from the global IPBES reports, which continues to be linked to national knowledge and information.
New reports from IPBES have been published since the first edition, and new global targets have been set to reduce biodiversity loss and the degradation of the ecosystem services provided by nature, which form the basis of human existence. At the same time, there are new trends and documents from the EU, and here in Denmark, the Biodiversity Council, among others, has published several new reports on Danish biodiversity.
A few examples of the content in the new workbooks:
Loss of Genetic Variation
One headline so far has been that up to one million species worldwide are threatened with extinction. The new booklet includes information on the loss of species populations and genetic diversity, which goes unnoticed by most people. Populations of more common species have declined by two-thirds in some groups, and it is estimated that 10% of genetic variation has already been lost.
Planetary Boundaries
Katherine Richardson, who helped with the quality assurance of the three booklets, is also the author of a study that has updated the so-called planetary boundaries. This new information has, of course, also been incorporated into the booklets, along with a review of the 18 ecosystem services used by IPBES researchers. Six of the nine processes that constitute the planetary boundaries have been exceeded, and most by even greater margins than when they were last assessed. One of the limits that has been exceeded is precisely the state of biodiversity and our natural capital, which poses an increased risk to, for example, our food production and a severe deterioration of the majority of the 18 ecosystem services.
The Value of Biodiversity
The IPBES researchers discuss different values of biodiversity, a topic addressed in one of their most recent reports. In it, the human worldview is categorized into four groups, depending on whether we place humans or nature at the center—an important discussion in terms of our understanding of nature and, not least, the way we treat nature.
Read more about the value of biodiversity here
Tipping Points
The booklet on climate and biodiversity places increased emphasis on so-called tipping points and irreversible events. For example, changes in the ocean currents that bring warm water to Northern Europe—including Denmark—and create the conditions for the natural environment and our own means of survival that we see today.
Biodiversity and Private Companies
Biodiversity and the private sector is an area that has received a great deal of attention since the first edition of these booklets, including at the biodiversity summit in Montreal in December 2022. Without the involvement of the financial sector and the private sector, the biodiversity crisis cannot be resolved. The critical role of the private sector has become increasingly clear, which is why this aspect is also included in the booklets.
Quality-assured by leading researchers
The booklets were developed and revised under the auspices of the Danish university partnership with IPBES and prepared by Lars Dinesen, IPBES coordinator in Denmark, in collaboration with Søren Mark Jensen, a senior consultant and former chair of the high school teachers’ association.
The content of each booklet has been quality-assured by leading Danish researchers, including Professor Katherine Richardson (University of Copenhagen), Professor Niels Strange (University of Copenhagen), Professor Henrik Vejre (University of Copenhagen), Associate Professor Anders Barfod (Aarhus University), Professor Sebastian Mernild (University of Southern Denmark), Associate Professor Sara Egemose (University of Southern Denmark), Associate Professor Martin Lindegren (DTU Aqua), and Professor Torsten Nygaard Kristensen (Aalborg University).
The new teaching workbooks can be downloaded for free from IPBES in Denmark’s educational website
