Our planet, the unknown

Naturalists and systematic biologists have travelled the world for more than 250 years now in order to discover its flora and fauna. Thanks to the patient efforts of generations of scientists, about 1.8 million species are today known and can be described. However, the scope of the tasks still to be accomplished remains enormous: according to estimations, there are still between 8 and 30 million unknown species on our planet. But time is of the essence since the sixth big extinction has already begun. A large number of these organisms are already seriously threatened and many will have already disappeared before they have even been discovered.

It is against this background, on the eve of the International Year of Biodiversity that the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle (MnHn) and Pro-Natura International (PNI) start the initiative “La Planète Revisitée” in cooperation with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).