The UK and Chile are proposing at the UN’s biodiversity conference COP16 in Colombia this week that fungi should receive a similar status to animals and plants.
In the “Fungal Conservation Pledge”, the initiative aimed at establishing fungi as an independent and prioritized kingdom of life within global biodiversity agreements, the two countries aim to instensify fungi protection and estabmish the separate realm called “funga.”
This declaration, which is presented to other countries between Oct. 21 and Nov. 1, emerged from the collaboration between the two countries and the Fungi Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to fungal conservation: “At the Fungi Foundation, we’ve been working for over 12 years to integrate fungi into the highest levels of conservation policy and legislation,” said Giuliana Furci, the a Chilenian-British executive director of the foundation.
This move could significantly increase awareness about the essential role fungi play in ecosystems, correcting misconceptions that cast fungi solely as harmful organisms, while increasing funding for this field of research.
Why Fungi Matter
Fungi, including mushrooms, mold, yeast, mildew, and lichen, are critical to maintaining natural habitats. These organisms most often are stigmatized to moldy bread or poisonous mushrooms while they are instea essential to life on Earth.
Underground, fungi are responsible for generating and maintaining much of the life we see above ground. Fungi form symbiotic relationships with bushes and trees, helping them absorb nutrients from the soil while receiving sugars in return. Fungi – working both underground and above – help keeps the soil healthy, and store over a third of global carbon emissions each year.
However, despite these crucial functions, fungi have historically not received much consideration. Mycologists—scientists who study fungi—are quick to point out that fungi are under-documented. Of the estimated 2.2 to 3.8 million fungal species, only about 8% have been scientifically identified, with approximately 2,000 new species discovered each year.
“They have been overlooked in climate solutions, biodiversity assessments, and conservation targets due to a lack of data, and a misunderstanding that fungi were plants, rather than an independent kingdom with unique chemical and physical attributes,” said Dr. Toby Kiers, executive director and chief scientist at the The Society for the Protection of Underground Networks (SPUN).
The Case for ‘Funga’
The U.K.’ and Chile’s proposal at the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP16) in Colombia states that fungi should be recognized as ‘an independent kingdom of life in national and international legislation, policies and agreements’.
This step would bolster efforts to conserve and protect wild fungi both above and below ground: “The aim of this Pledge is to ensure that fungi are fully incorporated on equal terms with plants and animals in national and international legislation, policies, and agreements,” said Furci who has coined the terms ‘3F realms’: Fauna, Flora and now, of course, Funga.
The South American country has been a fertile ground to start legislations linked to these organisms: “Chile has been a pioneer in recognizing fungi within its conservation framework, largely due to our advocacy efforts,” said Furci who works in the country and stricly collaborate with British partners.
The proposal also recognizes the important role that fungi have within multiple sectors such as mining, food, biotechnology and farmaceutical industry. In recent years, a surge in interest of fungal fermentation technology has also brought startups to harness the potential of mycelium, the network of fungal threads found underground, which can be used in various applications to and break down plastics, and produce sustainable alternative to textiles or alternative proteins.
Fungi protection from climate change through AI
With limited knowledge about fungi, there is an urgent need to accelerate the ability to efficiently collect data on them. SPUN’s executive director noted that this goal is now within reach: “We stand at a critical juncture in our ability to provide fungal datasets.” The non-profit has explored how AI can advance the cause of fungi conservation.
Emerging technologies offer new approaches for monitoring living systems: “Novel applications of AI are helping us decode algorithms of hidden fungal processes. To fully monitor fungi, we need to capture high-resolution data across scales, from microscopic fungal interactions to global patterns,” said Kiers, mentioning that global collaboration will be key to creating a comprehensive protection strategy.
SPUN plans to showcase its emerging machine-learning technology able to build a global monitoring system that can then help identify fungal declines.
Unlike for plants and animals, we lack long-term data needed to understand which fungi are disappearing and where these declines are happening: “We use AI models to help us predict the underground ecosystems experiencing the most severe threats – like temperature increase, drought, deforestation – and this helps us prioritize where we need to sample,” said Kiers, adding this is is often ‘a race against time’ as ecosystems are deteriorating fast and fungi communities might disappear.
“In a recent expedition in Ghana, we were collecting samples along the coast, where our models predict a biodiversity hotspot for soil fungi. But this is an ecosystem facing severe sea level rise, so we need to collect before it is too late,” she told.
A Call to Action and More Funding
As part of the COP16 initiative, UK and Chile are urging all parties to prioritize fungal conservation and sign the pledge.
The pledge state that ‘the success of this agreement will depend on the political will of each nation, but also on international cooperation’ According to KIers, who’s also professor of Evolutionary Biology and Universiteit of Amsterdam (UvA), policymakers are actively seeking to understand fungi’s role in regulating ecosystems and is positive of many countries willing to sign the pledge.
With a growing awareness of fungi’s essential roles, from soil regeneration to carbon storage and sustainable innovation, the push to recognize the “funga” realm could mark a turning point also for research: “Despite fungi representing 16 times more of Earth’s biodiversity than plants, mycology receives less than a third of the funding that plant research does,” said Kiers.
“We hope that, once the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity develops a work agenda to address the conservation of macroscopic and microscopic fungi globally, fungal research will experience an increase in funding,” concluded Furci.
