Why Conserve Biodiversity?
Biodiversity is the variety and variability of life on Earth. This includes all of the plants and animals that live, grow, breathe, walk, fly, and swim on the Earth’s surface, all of the habitats that they call home, and all of the natural processes that they are a part of.
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USAID’s biodiversity conservation activities protect flora
and fauna throughout the world. |
Biodiversity is the very foundation for all the Earth’s essential goods and services. The air we breathe, water we drink, and the food we eat all depend on the Earth’s rich biodiversity.
Plants and animals provide people with food and medicine. Forty percent of all prescriptions written today are composed from the natural compounds found in different species. An estimated 80,000 edible plants are found in the world, and one in every three mouthfuls of the food you swallow is prepared from plants pollinated by wild insects and animals.
While plants and animals keep you well fed and healthy, trees play an important role in absorbing greenhouse gases. Through photosynthesis, trees absorb and store atmospheric carbon, helping to combat global warming and purifying the air we breathe. Forests also control soil erosion and purify water.
Every aspect of our life is sustained by the Earth’s biodiversity. Biological resources must be conserved if they are to continue supporting life on Earth.
USAID supports biodiversity conservation principally through habitat conservation and supports limited species specific conservation efforts as well.
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