<p>Biodiversity is crucial for maintaining ecosystem stability and achieving sustainable development. However, land use change, pose a significant threat to biodiversity. While global trade, as an important means of food resource allocation, contributes to food security, it can also exacerbate biodiversity loss. This study focuses on global staple food trade in 1995–2022, constructing a trade based global staple food biodiversity loss network and employing complex network analysis to investigate the impact of global staple food trade on biodiversity loss. The results indicate a significant increase in biodiversity loss associated with global staple food trade, exhibiting complex patterns of spatial transfer and network interdependence. Soybean trade is identified as the primary driver of this increase. Major agricultural trading nations, such as Brazil and China, play a critical role in global staple food trade-related biodiversity loss, acting as both exporters and importers of this loss. Complex network analysis reveals the increasing complexity of the global food trade network, with enhanced interdependence among nations and accelerated global dissemination of biodiversity loss. However, the flow patterns of this trade network demonstrate an imbalance, with a few major agricultural trading nations bearing the majority of the biodiversity loss burden. This study highlights the challenges facing global food security and biodiversity conservation, calling for integrated measures, including promoting sustainable agricultural practices, optimizing food trade structures, strengthening international cooperation, and raising consumer awareness, to mitigate the negative impacts of global staple food trade on biodiversity and achieve a win-win situation for both food security and biodiversity protection.</p>