What is Biodiversity?
Biological diversity – or biodiversity – is the term given to the variety of life on Earth
Why is Biodiversity important?
Biodiversity is essential to sustaining the living networks and systems
that provide us all with health, food, wealth, fuel and the vital
services our lives depend on.
Here are six reason why we should all value the biodiversity of the earth.
1) Moral reasons. A culture that encourages respect
and stewardship for wildlife and landscapes is preferable to a culture
which does not take these things seriously.
2) Aesthetic reasons. Landscapes and species should all be conserved because they are beautiful and enrich the lives of humans.
3) Providing important natural functions. Ecosystems
serve humans because they provide natural functions. For example, the
microbes in an ecosystem are vital in the breakdown of dead plant and
animal remains and in the recycling of nutrients.
4) Biodiversity provides actual and potential material and economic benefits to people.
5) Continuance of evolutionary processes.
6) Insurance. No one knows what humans may need in the future. If species have become extinct, humans can never benefit from them.
