Biodiversity, fungal Conservation and Climate Change in Egypt: Current status and future prospective | ||
| Microbial Biosystems | ||
| Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript, Available Online from 01 September 2025 | ||
| Document Type: Reviews | ||
| DOI: 10.21608/mb.2025.151810.1060 | ||
| Author | ||
| Ahmed M. Abdel-Azeem* | ||
| Botany and Microbiology Department, Faculty of Science, Suez Canal University, Ismailia 41522, Egypt | ||
| Abstract | ||
| Fungi are vital, intriguing, and biotechnologically valuable group of organisms have amazing biotechnological potential for economic exploitation. If we are to solve the climate catastrophe, we must confront a global blind spot: the vast underground fungal networks that absorb carbon and sustain a significant amount of Earth's life. Fungi are largely overlooked despite being the ecological engineers exist as networks of mycelium and the entire length of fungal mycelium in the top 10 cm of soil on earth is more than 450 quadrillion km, or about half the width of our galaxy. Fungi, however, are largely ignored in climate change strategies, conservation plans, and restoration initiatives in favour of aboveground ecosystems. Formal fungal conservation efforts in Egypt began in the first decade of the 21st century when Abdel-Azeem and his co-workers founded the Arab Society for Fungal conservation (ASFC) to promote, protect and develop fungal ecosystems, habitats and wildlife, to raise awareness of the importance of fungal conservation, and to develop economically viable methods of supporting the beneficial relationship that fungi have with humans in Egypt. This review will discuss how fungi are critically important in efforts to mitigate climate change along with the current status of fungal biodiversity and conservation efforts in Egypt. A proposed strategy for fungal conservation in Egypt will be provided to get the attention of politicians, stake holders and decision makers towards the important role of fungi in the ecosystem as climate warriors. | ||
| Keywords | ||
| Ancient Egyptians; COP27; National Biodiversity Strategy; Red list; Taxa | ||
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