The Problem

Ecocide (the killing of the living and abiotic components of our ecological webs (ecowebs^[1]) and jīvacide (the destruction of the jīvadiversity (diversity in living)^[2] of human peoples) have caused irreversible biodiversity loss, the climate crisis, and widespread inequity (injustice, poverty, disenfranchisement, identity loss, hunger, violence). Ecocide and jīvacide are both extractivist global strategies designed to amass unimaginably vast amounts of wealth and privatized resources for a handful of individuals (mostly men) and corporations and destroy the ecosymbiotic self-reliance^[3] of peoples (so they can be exploited).

One of the most effective ways in which this is perpetrated is by severing communities from their ecowebs (through misappropriation, destruction, or both), thereby rendering them dependent on external humans and systems to meet their basic needs. Such forced dependence makes these communities vulnerable to homogenization and exploitation, resulting in the negative outcomes of inequity.

The Solution

The only way to combat ecocide and jīvacide is to restore biodiverse ecowebs across the world and the ability of communities to once more become self-reliant, rooted in their own unique ecowebs and ecoselves^[4] (encompassing identities and Ādi-Knowtep^[5]). 

FiveBecomings (Pañchabhūmi)^[6] projects have precisely this as their goal.

Of course, concomitantly establishing decentralized local, regional, national, and global systems of Economics, Law, Governance, and Education (ELGE) that promote the ecosymbiotic self-reliance of communities, while reducing privatized, profit-maximizing extractivism and other extractivism-based behaviors is essential.^[7] However, given that existing institutionalized ELGE systems are rooted in predominantly anthropocentric ((hu)man-centric) Euro (of European origin/descent) ideologies, transitioning to ELGE systems that optimize ecosymbiotic wellbeing (the interconnected wellbeing of humans and ecologies, i.e., of ecowebs), rather than maximizing human wellbeing, necessitates changing the underlying framework; FiveBecomings is such a conceptual and practical framework^[8].

What Is Ecocide and How Does It Affect Us?

Ecocide is the killing of ecologies by humans, whether through direct or indirection action. Direct action includes, e.g., cutting down forests, open pit mining, and monoculture industrial agriculture, all of which destroy both the living and abiotic components of native ecowebs. Indirect action includes, e.g., overconsumption, pollution, and excessive non-biodegradable waste, all of which harm ecowebs through resource depletion and soil, water, and air contamination. Ecocide results at least in widespread, irreversible biodiversity loss (species loss) and the climate crisis (the emergency of climate change). 

What Is Biodiversity (Biological Diversity)?

In April 2000, in the foreword to ‘Sustaining life on Earth: How the Convention on Biological Diversity promotes nature and human well-being,’ Dr. Klaus Töpfer, the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) wrote: “Biological diversity — the variability of life on Earth — is the key to the ability of the biosphere to continue providing us [humans] with these ecological goods and services and thus is our species’ life assurance policy.”^[9]

In the globally institutionalized ELGE framework, ecosystems (essentially, ecowebs devoid of humans) have value not because all forms of life and non-life intrinsically have dignified importance, but because they provide humans ecosystem services, including food, water, air, and plant-based medicines. 

Thus, in his anthropocentric statement, Dr. Töpfer continued, asserting:^[9]

we are degrading, and in some cases destroying, the ability of biological diversity to continue performing these services. The 20th century saw a fourfold increase in human numbers and an eighteen-fold growth in world economic output. With these came unsustainable patterns of consumption and the use of environmentally unsound technologies.

In describing the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), Dr. Töpfer further wrote, “It came into force at the end of 1993 and has now been ratified by the overwhelming majority of countries, for whom it is now a legally binding commitment to conserve biological diversity, to sustainably use its components and to share equitably the benefits arising from the use of genetic resources.”^[9]

So, biodiversity is crucial for human wellbeing. But what is it?

UNEP’s definition of biodiversity is:^[9]

the variety of life on Earth and the natural patterns it forms. The biodiversity we see today is the fruit of billions of years of evolution…. It forms the web of life of which we are an integral part and upon which we so fully depend. This diversity is often understood in terms of the wide variety of plants, animals and microorganisms…. Scientists reckon that there are actually about 13 million species, though estimates range from 3 to 100 million. Biodiversity also includes genetic differences within each species — for example, between varieties of crops and breeds of livestock…. Yet another aspect of biodiversity is the variety of ecosystems such as those that occur in deserts, forests, wetlands, mountains, lakes, rivers, and agricultural landscapes. In each ecosystem, living creatures, including humans, form a community, interacting with one another and with the air, water, and soil around them. It is the combination of life forms and their interactions with each other and with the rest of the environment that has made Earth a uniquely habitable place for humans. Biodiversity provides a large number of goods and services that sustain our lives.

Why Does Biodiversity Loss Affect Us?

In its 2019 report,^[10] the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), an independent intergovernmental body of almost 150 states, summarized the importance of nature (the sum total of all biodiverse ecosystems) for human wellbeing: 

an estimated 4 billion people [out of 7.8 billion at the time] rely primarily on natural medicines for their health care [biodiverse plant-based healthcare] and some 70 per cent of drugs used for cancer are natural or are synthetic products inspired by nature…. more than 75 per cent of global food crop types, including fruits and vegetables… coffee, cocoa, and almonds, rely on animal pollination. Marine and terrestrial ecosystems are the sole sinks for anthropogenic carbon emissions, with a gross sequestration of 5.6 gigatons of carbon per year (the equivalent of some 60 per cent of global anthropogenic emissions)…. The diversity of nature maintains humanity’s ability to choose alternatives in the face of an uncertain future.

How We Humans Are Causing Biodiversity Loss

Some statistics about the outcome of ecocidal human activities include:^[10]

• 75% of the land surface is significantly altered (due to agricultural, urban, and infrastructure expansion since 1970, which has come mostly at the expense of old-growth tropical forests, wetlands, and grasslands)
• 66% of the ocean area is experiencing increasing cumulative impacts (due to overexploitation of fish and other marine organisms, pollution, and aquaculture)
• >85% of wetlands have been lost
• across much of the biodiverse tropics, 32 million hectares of primary/recovering forest were lost during 2010-2015
• ~half the live coral cover on coral reefs has been lost since the 1870s, with accelerating losses in recent decades
• the average abundance of native species in most major terrestrial biomes has fallen by >20%
• population sizes of wild vertebrate species have generally declined over the past 50 years on land, in freshwater, and in the sea
• rapid declines in insect populations have been documented
• ~25% of species in assessed animal/plant groups are threatened, suggesting that ~1 million species already face extinction (the global rate of species extinction is already 10s to 100s times higher than it has averaged over the past 10 million years)
• fewer varieties and breeds of plants and animals are being cultivated and traded globally, many such species having become extinct (reductions in the diversity of cultivated crops, crop wild relatives, and domesticated breeds mean that agroecosystems are less resilience against future climate change, pests, and pathogens)

[1] K. Mitra, Ecological Webs (Ecowebs): Collaborative Creativity Through Adaptation Feedback Loops, Ecosymbionts all Regenerate Together (EaRTh): DOI-EaRTh092025-006 (3 Sep., 2025).

[2] K. Mitra, Beyond Biodiversity: Jīvadiversity — Diversity in Living, Ecosymbionts all Regenerate Together (EaRTh): DOI-EaRTh082025-003 (21 Aug., 2025).

[3] S. Mukherjee & K. Mitra, Ecosymbiotic Self-Reliance: Fulfilling Basic Needs from Ecowebs, Ecosymbionts all Regenerate Together (EaRTh): DOI-EaRTh092025-010 (11 Sep., 2025).

[4] K. Mitra, Individual Ecoself and Community Ecoself: Importance in FiveBecomings, Ecosymbionts all Regenerate Together (EaRTh): DOI-EaRTh092025-011 (10 Sep., 2025).

[5] K. Mitra, Ādi-Knowtep and Their Importance in Ecosymbiotic Resilience of Human Communities, Ecosymbionts all Regenerate Together (EaRTh): DOI-EaRTh092025-008 (4 Sep., 2025).

[6] K. Mitra, Restoring the Interconnected Wellbeing of Humans and Ecologies Through FiveBecomings, Ecosymbionts all Regenerate Together (EaRTh): DOI-EaRTh082025-010 (26 Aug., 2025).

[7] K. Mitra, LivingConfluence: Community Wellbeing-Rooted Economics, Law, Governance, and Education (ELGE), Ecosymbionts all Regenerate Together (EaRTh): DOI-EaRTh012025-002 (10 Jan., 2025).

[8] K. Mitra, Reestablishing Integrated Self-Reliant Wellbeing for Communities: Implementing FiveBecomings, Ecosymbionts all Regenerate Together (EaRTh): DOI-EaRTh012025-001 (9 Jan., 2025).

[9] Convention on Biological Diversity, Sustaining life on Earth: How the Convention on Biological Diversity promotes nature and human well-being, Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (2000).

[10] E.S. Brondizio, J. Settele, S. Diaz, H.T. Ngo (eds)., Global assessment report of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, IPBES secretariat, Bonn, Germany: ISBN: 978-3-947851-20-1 (2019).