Why Is Biodiversity Important?

There are about eight million different animal and plant species on earth. Researchers have found that a million of them are in danger of extinction. Today, we share Why Is Biodiversity Important.

Most people find colored butterflies, fragrant flower meadows, and flowering trees beautiful. But the value of biodiversity goes far beyond our aesthetic delights. In addition to biologists and farmers, economists, doctors, and philosophers have now agreed that the decline in biodiversity is one of the biggest environmental problems of today. While biodiversity encompasses the entire natural order, including genes, species, populations, and ecosystems, it stands for the diversity of flora and fauna within a habitat or geographical area.

In Nature, it often happens that the number of species changes and becomes extinct. However, it is frightening that these processes take place around 100-1,000 times faster due to human activities than would be the case without social influence. It includes, among other things, the introduction of invasive species, deforestation, air, and soil pollution, and overbuilding. Over 16,000 animal and plant species worldwide are threatened with extinction. 

Biodiversity is the basis for many economic sectors, from food production to the pharmaceutical industry and the timber industry to tourism. In a study for Nature, economists and scientists calculated that the value of total biodiversity averages $ 33 trillion per year. The biodiversity in our diet has a direct benefit, which depends entirely on animal and plant products. In addition, many other natural products such as wood or cotton are essential for satisfying our basic needs. Biodiversity has indirect value through ecosystem services such as the oxygen production of photosynthetic plants, the formation of humus by microorganisms, or crop pollination by insects. There are several other reasons for Why Is Biodiversity Important.

In addition, biodiversity also promotes innovations, like Medicine, which is largely based on active ingredients that were originally obtained from plants, animals, or microorganisms. Last but not least, biodiversity also has high leisure and recreational value for the people. Access to diverse natural areas improves physical, mental, and social health. A diverse forest has a higher recreational value.

It’s not just because we benefit from biodiversity that we have a duty to protect them. There is a reason above all to Why Is Biodiversity Important. There is no plausible reason why we humans should have the right to exterminate other living beings, who are often exposed to us without protection. Each species is unique and, seen in itself, is essential and valuable. If a species dies out, it is lost forever. We also want to leave our descendants a diverse environment.

The researchers are now raising the alarm because biodiversity is an important issue. It can be seen in the example of bees, of which there are fewer and fewer with us. The bees pollinate the flowers on the fruit trees. It is the only way to grow apples, pears, and other fruits. If the bees die out, there are no more fruits. Forests are also vital because they produce oxygen that humans and animals need to breathe, and they purify the air. If the forests disappear, the air gets worse for all of us. Do we still need to ask Why Is Biodiversity Important?

Today it is mostly humans who are responsible for the extinction of species. They kill animals or build many streets or houses so that animals no longer live there, and plants can no longer grow there. We get so many fish from the sea that some species are threatening to disappear there too. The extinction of individual species can have a devastating effect on ecosystems and the disappearance of other species. Careless handling of Nature could, therefore, have catastrophic consequences faster than we predict.

Now you know Why Is Biodiversity Important. Without the interaction of species, there would be no life on this planet. It needs plants and fungi that can produce biomass from inanimate matter. It needs animals that feed on it and other animals that feed on animals. And it needs living beings to replace dead again and then enable new life.