Biodiversity loss and its significant impact on our lives

Animals help pollinate about 88% of the world's flowering plants — and few are better known than the honeybee. Humans have managed these bees for centuries, harvesting their sweet honey and wax to make items like candles. While domesticated honeybees aren't at risk of extinction, beekeepers worldwide are reporting massive colony losses. Threats include pesticides, climate change …

… and the loss of the plants from which they feed. Honeybees, which belong to the genus Apis, are among the main coffee plant pollinators. But research suggests extreme heat is harming bees and coffee production, with growers in Latin America seeing yield declines. Honeybees constitute only a tiny fraction of pollinators. Many of the species, so vital to our food supply, are under threat.

Insects aren't the only pollinators. Tequila and Mezcal lovers should toast to the long-nosed bat. These winged, nocturnal creatures' favorite tipple is the nectar of the agave plant from which tequila is made. The bats get a dusting of pollen when they stop off for a drink. However, conservationists say populations are in decline due to habitat loss, climate change and agave overharvesting.

The fig tree and fig wasp would not exist without each other. Females lay their eggs inside the plant's fruit, crawling through a hole so narrow they lose their wings, becoming trapped. The eggs hatch and larvae burrow out, transform into wasps and fly away, carrying fig pollen with them. While the tree and the wasp are not in immediate danger, scientists say increasing temperatures are a threat.

Robin populations are strong, but warmer temperatures are changing their behavior. American robins, for instance, are starting their migratory journeys to breeding grounds much earlier. Studies have shown other bird species are having fewer chicks because of climate change. If bird habitats are not protected, availability of food and shelter could be curtailed.

Fish face multiple threats from pollution and over-exploitation to climate change. One study found that sustainable fish catches dropped 4% between 1930 and 2010, with China and Japan seeing declines of 15% to 35%, due to warming waters. Some 90% of fish populations are now over exploited or depleted. Billions of people rely directly on a healthy marine ecosystem for food and work.

The durian. It's a polarizing fruit. To aficionados, it's the delicious king of all fruit. To haters, it's a stinky abomination. Whether you love or despise it, you have the flying fox, which is actually a bat, to thank for its existence. The giant bats help to pollinate the tree. Flying foxes are hunted as pests and are also under threat from habitat loss.

Swarms of midges — what a nuisance! Well, actually, we wouldn't have any chocolate without the chocolate midge. The tiny fly is thought to be the only pollinator that can get into the flowers of the cacao tree. These midges prefer wild cacao to the cultivated stuff and are suffering from habitat loss as forest is cleared for cacao plantations. Improving midge habitat equals bigger fruit yields.

In Montreal, states will try to reach an agreement to prevent mass extinction and to protect our ability to produce food as well as the trillions of dollars in ecosystem services, like pollination, provided by nature. But much of the wealth nature provides is unquantifiable, from the feeling of happiness at the sound of a robin's song to the sense of calm conjured by a forest stroll.