Chile and the United Kingdom present an innovative initiative to protect fungi at COP 16 on Biodiversity

Chile and the United Kingdom will present an important initiative at this COP16 on Biodiversity.Both nations will come together at the Conference of the Parties organised by Colombia to present to the world an innovative project: theConservation Commitment of the Fungi Kingdom.This statement emerged from collaboration between both countries and the Fundación Fungi, with the aim of positioning fungi as an independent biological kingdom in legislation and policies and giving them priority within multilateral biodiversity agreements.

“The purpose of this agreement is clear: to integrate fungi into global conservation strategies and frameworks, highlighting the key role they play in the fight against climate change, biodiversity loss and the promotion of sustainable economic development,” says Chile’s Minister for the Environment, Maisa Rojas.

Despite being essential to the functioning of ecosystems, fungi have historically been ignored or underrepresented in international biodiversity agreements. Their roles are fundamental:They form symbiotic associations with plants, without which plants cannot live in terrestrial environments; they decompose organic matter, forming soil; they sequester carbon; they help to filter water; and they contribute to bioremediation, among other things. They are also crucial for the pharmaceutical, food and agricultural industries, as well as offering new economic opportunities based on technologies derived from this biological group.

Gideon Henderson, Chief Scientific Adviser at the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, points out that “fungi are a critical component of how ecosystems function, providing key services such as nutrient recycling and carbon storage. However, they are often overlooked when it comes to protecting life on land and in the ocean. That is why the UK is pleased to co-launch the fungi initiative at COP16, so that we do not lose sight of these important organisms. The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in the UK, has what is considered the largest fungarium in the world, with around 1.25 million specimens. They are embarking on an innovative initiative to sequence the genomes of thousands of these, which will enable scientists to understand the landscape of fungal diversity and unlock its potential for medicine, agriculture and environmental restoration. Around 160,000 species of fungi are known, but this is only a small fraction of the 2.5 million species estimated to exist.”

The commitment that Chile and the United Kingdom will present at COP16 aims not only to recognise the ecological significance of the fungi kingdom, but also to ensure its protection through concrete policies spanning from the local to the global level. At the heart of this initiative is the need to create a regulatory framework that facilitates the inclusion of fungi in biodiversity monitoring and protection systems, in order to achieve broader objectives set out in the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, adopted in 2022.

“The joint launch of this Commitment between countries currently described as part of the Global South and the Global North is the most significant action for the conservation of the fungal kingdom. It will accelerate the full incorporation of fungi, which are neither plants nor animals, into national and international environmental treaties and frameworks, into local conservation and environmental initiatives, and into agricultural laws and policies. This supports a hopeful vision for the conservation and protection of nature. This action also provides a firm basis for countries to be able to consolidate mycology as a crucial science and to allocate the necessary funds to expand mycological research,” emphasises the Executive Director of Fundación Fungi, Giuliana Furci.

This commitment follows the pioneering path that Chile has maintained with regard to the conservation of fungi, organisms that have formed part of environmental legislation and Environmental Impact Assessments since 2010 and 2013, respectively. The country is home to a great diversity of species, with more than 5,000 known, many of which are native and some threatened. In the context of a triple environmental crisis, the presence of fungi in ecosystems such as the Valdivian forest is key to carbon sequestration, a process essential in the fight against climate change, and in turn is also important for local economies, for example, in harvesting ofRamaria flava,commonly known as “changle”, an edible species native to the central-southern region of Chile and used in Mapuche cuisine.

The United Kingdom, for its part, has been a pioneer in promoting fungal conservation at European level and now, together with Chile, will lead this effort on a global scale. The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew houses the world’s largest collection of fungi, including hundreds of specimens from which species have been named.

**About the Commitment**

The “Fungal Conservation Pledge” seeks to encourage member countries of the Convention on Biological Diversity to commit to prioritising fungal conservation within multilateral environmental frameworks and to make progress in including concrete measures in their National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans.The success of this commitment will depend on the political will of each nation, but also on international cooperation and the funding needed to implement fungal conservation strategies that can mitigate the effects of climate change and biodiversity loss.

In this way, it is hoped that fungi will cease to be the great forgotten ones in conservation efforts. For this reason, collaboration between Chile and the United Kingdom will mark a milestone in the fight to ensure a sustainable future, where the entire fungal kingdom is valued and protected, guaranteeing an ecological balance that is indispensable for future generations.

Click here to read the Fungi Kingdom Conservation Commitment..