text: Biodiversity is also crucial for safeguarding**EU and global food security.**Biodiversity 
  loss threatens our food systems6, putting our food security and nutrition at risk. 
  Biodiversity also underpins healthy and nutritious diets and improves rural livelihoods 
  and agricultural productivity7. For instance, more than 75% of global food crop types rely 
  on animal pollination8. 
  
  Despite this urgent moral, economic and environmental imperative,**nature is in a state**
  **of crisis**. The five main direct drivers of biodiversity loss9 – changes in land and sea use, 
  overexploitation, climate change, pollution, and invasive alien species – are making 
  nature disappear quickly. We see the changes in our everyday lives: concrete blocks 
  rising up on green spaces, wilderness disappearing in front of our eyes, and more species 
  being put at risk of extinction than at any point in human history. In the last four decades, 
  global wildlife populations fell by 60% as a result of human activities10. And almost 
  three quarters of the Earth’s surface have been altered11, squeezing nature into an ever- 
  smaller corner of the planet. 
  
  The biodiversity crisis and the climate crisis are intrinsically linked. Climate change 
  accelerates the destruction of the natural world through droughts, flooding and wildfires, 
  while the loss and unsustainable use of nature are in turn key drivers of climate change. 
  But just as the crises are linked, so are the solutions.**Nature is a vital ally in the fight**
  **against climate change**12. Nature regulates the climate, and nature-based solutions13, 
  such as protecting and restoring wetlands, peatlands and coastal ecosystems, or 
  sustainably managing marine areas, forests, grasslands and agricultural soils, will be 
  essential for emission reduction and climate adaptation. Planting trees and deploying 
  green infrastructure will help us to cool urban areas and mitigate the impact of natural 
  disasters. 