Katie Curtis-Smith

As of 2020, human-made mass outweighed all of Earth’s living biomass. Construction minerals – sand, gravel, limestone – account for almost 90% of this anthropogenic mass, and the unsustainable extraction of these coveted resources poses an intensifying and overlooked threat to global biodiversity. There is limited and dispersed information concerning the magnitude, geography, and profile of this threat. To bridge this knowledge gap, long-term data from the IUCN Red List and new species descriptions have recently been used to systematically evaluate the species threatened by construction mineral extraction globally.

My research project builds on this by exploring previously untapped information sources, such as expert-based assessments and the Natura 2000 protected areas network, with the aim of compiling the most comprehensive database of species threatened by construction mineral mining globally to date. These efforts are vital in supporting an essential global effort to limit the impacts of construction mineral extraction on biodiversity, in line with international policy commitments.