Dear Colleagues,

Biodiversity constitutes a basic component of life at the different scales at which it is expressed, from the genetic variability of populations to the total number of taxons existing on Earth and the many intermediate levels existing in between. Biodiversity is essential to support the variety of ecosystem services (including those still unknown) which benefit human populations, from food to the maintenance of landscape and scenic values, as well as for providing basic resources for physical and emotional health. However, Global Change is fueling an accelerated loss of biodiversity, with cascading effects in many other problems. The reduction of biodiversity is taking place at multiple scales, from loss of genetic variability to extinction of species at local and global levels, where the mass extinction of species is estimated at rates several hundred or thousands of times higher than background or natural extinctions. Many scientists openly speak of a Sixth Mass Extinction on a planetary scale.

The loss of biodiversity is destroying multiple biological and ecological interactions, increasing the vulnerability of organisms, species, and ecosystems and making them less resilient to climate change and other processes of global change. Another important problem is the breakdown of the main biogeographic barriers, which are key for the evolutionary processes and for the conservation of local or endemic biotas. Biological communities are increasingly similar to each other, regardless of their geographical location, due to the differential extinction of endemisms and the expansion of exotic and invasive species. Furthermore, this is also favoring the spread of diseases and pests. This massive loss of species is also very worrying in economic terms: It is estimated that biodiversity has a value between 10 and 100 times greater than the cost of its conservation. Part of this value is linked to the services that ecosystems provide us free of charge. It is considered that in the first decade of the 21st century, services worth around 50,000 million euros per year have been lost worldwide, only in terrestrial ecosystems.

The purpose of this Special Issue is to present the state-of-art regarding theoretical and practical approaches to the conservation of biodiversity, focusing on interdisciplinary approaches linking ecological, social, and economic perspectives to show a) how biodiversity is linked to the needs of society, b) how biodiversity can be better conserved, and c) how the services that biodiversity provide and the ways biodiversity can be conserved in addition to flagship species are widely understood and supported by people, including local communities, the public opinion, and the entire society.

Dr. Miguel Angel Esteve-Selma
Dr. Julia Martínez-Fernández
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• interdisciplinary approaches
• biodiversity conservation
• species extinction
• genetic erosion
• ecosystem services provided by biodiversity
• social support to biodiversity conservation
• economic value of biodiversity