Biology · Ch 13 — Biodiversity and Conservation
Why Should We Conserve Biodiversity?
Why Should We Conserve Biodiversity?
Why Should We Conserve Biodiversity?
The reasons for conserving biodiversity range from the obvious to the subtle, but all carry equal weight. They fall into three broad categories: narrowly utilitarian, broadly utilitarian, and ethical.
Narrowly Utilitarian Arguments
These are the most direct and visible reasons. Humans depend on nature for countless economic benefits that we can see, touch, and use every day.
-
Direct economic products from nature:
- Food: cereals, pulses, fruits
- Firewood and fibre
- Construction material
- Industrial products: tannins, lubricants, dyes, resins, perfumes
- Products of medicinal importance
-
Medicinal value is enormous:
- More than 25 per cent of all drugs sold worldwide today are derived from plants.
- Around 25,000 species of plants are used in traditional medicines by native peoples across the globe.
- Countless more medicinally useful plants likely exist in tropical rain forests, still unexplored.
-
Bioprospecting — the exploration of molecular, genetic, and species-level diversity for products of economic importance — is a growing field. Nations rich in biodiversity stand to gain enormous benefits as investment in bioprospecting increases.
Broadly Utilitarian Arguments
These reasons are less obvious but arguably more fundamental. Biodiversity underpins the ecosystem services that make life on Earth possible.
-
Oxygen production: The rapidly shrinking Amazon forest alone produces, through photosynthesis, 20 per cent of the total oxygen in Earth's atmosphere. Try putting an economic value on that — compare it to what a hospital pays for a cylinder of oxygen.
-
Pollination: Without pollinators — bees, bumblebees, birds, and bats — plants cannot produce fruits or seeds. Imagine the cost of artificially pollinating every crop on Earth without nature's help.
-
Intangible benefits: These are the aesthetic pleasures we derive from nature — walking through thick woods, watching spring flowers in full bloom, waking up to a bulbul's song. No price tag can capture such experiences.