Fungi, long overlooked despite their essential contributions to soil creation, carbon sequestration, and the global economy, are receiving increased scientific and policy attention. Advocates push for their recognition on par with plants and animals amid threats like habitat loss. Efforts include conservation pledges and research initiatives highlighting their symbiotic relationships with plants.
Fungi underpin much of terrestrial life, forming symbiotic networks with up to 90 percent of plants to enhance nutrient and water uptake. Mycorrhizal fungi, for instance, partner with 80 percent of terrestrial plant species, providing nutrients like phosphorus and nitrogen in exchange for carbohydrates. These networks have enabled plant life on land since fungi began breaking down rocks over 900 million years ago, forming primitive soils and recycling nutrients today. Soils hold 75 percent of terrestrial carbon, with mycorrhiza sequestering 13 billion tons of carbon dioxide annually—equivalent to a third of global fossil fuel emissions. Fungi also contribute nearly $55 trillion to the global economy, including sequestered carbon values, and support products from penicillin to fermented foods. Yet knowledge remains scarce: of an estimated 2.2 to 12 million species, only 155,000 are known. Only two U.S. fungi, including the endangered agarikon, are officially listed as such, despite agarikon's 70 percent decline over the past century in old-growth conifer forests. Jessica Allen of NatureServe noted, “In the past hundred years, it declined 70 percent, and we don’t have evidence that decline is stopping.” Mycologist Merlin Sheldrake wrote in Entangled Life, “Without this fungal web, my tree would not exist... All life on land, including my own, depended on these networks.” Recent milestones include Toby Kiers receiving the Tyler Prize and a 2025 MacArthur grant shared with Giuliana Furci. In 2024 at COP16, Chile and the U.K. launched the Fungal Conservation Pledge, backed informally by 13 countries, aiming for formal adoption at COP17 in 2026. Chile’s environment minister Maisa Rojas Corradi stated the goal is “to integrate fungi into global conservation strategies and frameworks.” Initiatives like SPUN, FUNDIS, and California’s Fungal Diversity Survey map and protect these vital organisms.