A Discovery of the True Relationship Between Biodiversity and Economic Growth in Light of COVID-19

ABSTRACT

For decades, societies have been planting the seed of their own destruction. The environmental degradation catastrophe has become so voluminous and complex, seen in many forms and extending across various dimensions of nature. Air pollution, water pollution, and soil pollution have caused tremendous amounts of damage. Species extinction and the loss of various forms of life have been massively increasing at an unprecedented rate. It is calculated that approximately 0.01–0.1% of all known species will become extinct each year. This raises a major concern Could biodiversity loss affect the wellbeing of nations through hindering economic growth? If so, to what extent? This is the question that this study aims to investigate. The case of COVID-19 has been a powerful example enabling the world to witness how biodiversity loss could affect economic growth, which has posed as an economic threat to all nations. This study, therefore, investigates the relationship between biodiversity and economic growth utilizing a fixed effects panel regression conducted using a selected sample of OECD countries. Findings of this study indicate that biodiversity does in fact hinder GDP growth in the long run. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.