One million species are threatened with extinction.

An extensive report released by a United Nations organisation, shows there are more threatened animal and plant species than ever before in human history.

The report says the essential, interconnected web of life on earth is getting smaller, due to a direct result of our human activity.

Director of the Biological Heritage National Science Challenge, Dr Andrea Byrom, told Mike Hosking things like pollution and over-exploitation are to blame.

"Some pretty damning evidence that our footprint is large [and] that there are a number of global environmental processes that are impacting on nature and biodiversity."

She said we're highly dependant on things like pollination and good soils.

"All the things that we take for granted at the moment, we are going to have to think about different ways of conserving those."