In a landmark intervention, Morocco's Economic, Social and Environmental Council (CESE) has elevated biodiversity from an environmental afterthought to a question of national sovereignty. An advisory opinion adopted unanimously last December, and presented on 20 May, indicts the kingdom's current development model for its severe toll on the living world. The CESE calls for a complete overhaul of how the state approaches agriculture, water management and territorial planning, warning that ecological collapse threatens not just nature but the very foundations of sustainable development.

Viewed from Stockholm, the tone is more hopeful. On the International Day for Biological Diversity, Swedish green politicians pointed to measurable declines — blueberries down 50% since 1950, the eel critically endangered, the snowy owl extinct in Sweden — but insisted that restoration works. They cite research showing every krona invested in nature repair yields between eight and 38 kronor in societal returns, a pragmatic argument for stepping up restoration of meadows, grazing lands and free-flowing waterways.

Meanwhile, from the scientific community, a more unsettling idea is gaining ground: dark diversity. Coined by ecologists and now reaching a broader audience through outlets like Wired Italia, the concept shifts attention from species present to those absent — species that could thrive in a habitat but have been eliminated by human activity. It suggests that conventional biodiversity metrics may systematically underestimate degradation, and that many ecosystems are already so depleted that their full potential remains invisible.

These three perspectives — Morocco’s sovereignty-based call for structural change, Sweden’s restoration optimism, and the conceptual challenge of dark diversity — converge on a single point: incremental tinkering is insufficient. As the CESE report makes clear, the scale of loss demands a fundamental rethinking of how societies value and govern the natural world. The coming years will test whether nations can translate such diagnoses into action before the next generation of species slips into the dark.