Why Conserve?
Why should we conserve our wildlife?
You will be curious to know why we should save endangered species. Why is that all policy makers, scientists and interest citizens argue that species extinction is one of the most serious environmental problems? The importance of the need for protecting endangered species is discussed below.
i) Value as genetic reservoir:
Plants and animals possess undiscovered or undeveloped traits, which are very important for the survival of a particular species. When all the genes of all the individual members in a given population are added together, a gene poll is created which is representative of that species. It is important to preserve all gene pools, as they might prove useful to us in future. In any case, we do not know enough about interspecies relationships and ecosystem balance and its stability to allow any gene pool to get eroded or obliterated.
Large gene pools are also important to agriculturists. All domestic crops and livestock have originated from native plants and animals. All those native species are still needed to provide the new genetic characterizes that we need to help solve our present and future food production problems. If steps are not taken to preserve endangered species then these gene pools will be swept away. ii) Value in maintaining ecosystem stability:
As you know, ecosystem includes abiotic factors like temperature, humidity etc. and biotic factors like plants and animals. The ecosystems maintain a delicate balance of nature.
Each species interests with other species and plays a role in the transfer of energy and materials within and between ecosystem, hence each one, in its own way, contributes to the stability of ecosystems. The function of a species whether plant or animal is very critical to ecosystem stability.
As you may know, the plants occupy the base of food webs, so extinction of a single plant species may lead to the extinction of animal species dependent on that particular plant
You will be curious to know why we should save endangered species. Why is that all policy makers, scientists and interest citizens argue that species extinction is one of the most serious environmental problems? The importance of the need for protecting endangered species is discussed below.
i) Value as genetic reservoir:
Plants and animals possess undiscovered or undeveloped traits, which are very important for the survival of a particular species. When all the genes of all the individual members in a given population are added together, a gene poll is created which is representative of that species. It is important to preserve all gene pools, as they might prove useful to us in future. In any case, we do not know enough about interspecies relationships and ecosystem balance and its stability to allow any gene pool to get eroded or obliterated.
Large gene pools are also important to agriculturists. All domestic crops and livestock have originated from native plants and animals. All those native species are still needed to provide the new genetic characterizes that we need to help solve our present and future food production problems. If steps are not taken to preserve endangered species then these gene pools will be swept away. ii) Value in maintaining ecosystem stability:
As you know, ecosystem includes abiotic factors like temperature, humidity etc. and biotic factors like plants and animals. The ecosystems maintain a delicate balance of nature.
Each species interests with other species and plays a role in the transfer of energy and materials within and between ecosystem, hence each one, in its own way, contributes to the stability of ecosystems. The function of a species whether plant or animal is very critical to ecosystem stability.
As you may know, the plants occupy the base of food webs, so extinction of a single plant species may lead to the extinction of animal species dependent on that particular plant