Biodiversity conservation

Abstract

Biodiversity refers to the variety of all forms of life on earth, including the different plants, animals, micro-organisms, the genes they contain and the ecosystem they form. It is considered at three main levels including species diversity, genetic diversity and ecosystem diversity. Relative to the variety of habitats, biotic communities and ecological processes in the biosphere, biodiversity is vital in a number of ways including promoting the aesthetic value of the natural environment, contribution to our material well-being through utilitarian values, maintaining the integrity of the environment through; maintaining CO2/O2 balance, regulation of biochemical cycles, absorption and breakdown of pollutants and waste materials through decomposition, determination and regulation of the natural world climate, protective services, e.g. by acting as wind breaks and acting as indicators of environmental changes. Despite the benefits from biodiversity, today's threats to species and ecosystems are the greatest recorded in recent history and virtually all of them are caused by human mismanagement of biological resources often stimulated by misguided economic policies, pollution and faulty institutions in-addition to climate change. To ensure intra and intergenerational equity, it is important to conserve biodiversity. Some of the existing measures of biodiversity conservation include; zoological gardens, botanical gardens/arboretums, seed banks and national parks and game Reserves.