YEREVAN, Armenia — Like the dark spaces they often prefer, mushrooms, yeasts and some 160,000 known species of fungi are often in the background in conservation efforts. But their crucial role as ecosystem engineers makes protecting them vital, said Greg Mueller, chief scientist emeritus at the Chicago Botanic Garden.
“They really are responsible for life on Earth,” he said, “and life as we know it would not exist without fungi.”
Mueller called fungi “nature’s recyclers” at the launch of the first global conservation strategy for fungal conservation on Oct. 21 at the United Nations biodiversity conference (COP17) in Armenia. Many fungi also form symbiotic relationships with plants, helping shuttle nutrients and water between them; they can sock away carbon in soil and help provide food for animals and people.
Historically, international negotiations to stem the loss of species haven’t fully considered fungi. Now, a team of fungi conservationists from 30 countries led by Mueller has set out to integrate fungal conservation into the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, a central part of negotiations at COP17.
To date, mycologists — scientists who study fungi — have little data on the conservation status for most species known to science.
“When we talk about … halting extinction risk, how can we talk about it [while] ignoring a whole kingdom of life?” Cátia Canteiro, a conservationist with U.K.-based NGO Plantlife International who co-led the strategy, said during the launch.
The guidelines aim to spur new research and the protection of rare species, make fungi part of restoration and rewilding efforts, and balance the sustainable use of species that provide humans with food and medicine. Its authors also collected real-world examples of how fungi boost ecosystems, wildlife and communities.
In Uganda and Rwanda, mushroom cultivation provides households with income while easing the pressure on wetland areas that support threatened cranes. And women in Benin, home to 70 species of edible mushrooms, have benefited from learning to grow and sell them.
The country’s fungal diversity is “incredible,” said Bernice Bancole, a plant pathologist from Benin.
Bancole, now with the University of KwaZulu-Natal and GreenHill Laboratories in South Africa, contributed to the strategy specifically around the array of fungal species that affect forestry and food production, she told Mongabay in an interview. Her work has looked at how fungi can be used as “biocontrols” for insect pests such as cereal borers that can decimate critical food crops including sorghum, rice and maize.
The strategy draws on the global work of scientists who, like Bancole, bring their unique expertise to bear on the case for protecting fungi around the world.
“There is so much Africa can bring to the table when we are talking about fungi conservation and fungi being incorporated into biodiversity strategy,” she said.
Cannon writes for Mongabay, an independent news organization focused on nature.
