All of our food comes from either wild plants, animals and fungi or from domesticated versions of these species. Biodiversity in the form medicinal plant species is also the foundation of many healthcare practices worldwide. This indicator topic has been identified by the CBD to highlight the importance of biodiversity for human health and well-being. There are not yet indicators defined for this topic, but it is recommended that indicators describe the conservation status of plant species used for medicine, and terrestrial vertebrate species used for food and medicine.

This indicator topic is complementary to the CBD headline indicators on trends in abundance of species, change in status of threatened species, trends in genetic diversity of domesticated animals and cultivated plants, and proportion of products derived from sustainable sources. Subsets of the data for these indicators may be appropriate for examining the conservation status of wild populations of species used in food and medicine.