Why biodiversity is important

Nature provides the raw materials we need for survival, and forms the basis for the global economy. The world food supply today is derived from 30 crops which supply about 90 per cent of calories to the human diet. And just 14 animal species make up 90 per cent of the livestock we raise. Since we depend so few plant and animal species to supply us with food, we are vulnerable to environmental changes and crop diseases.

Scientists have identified and named about 270,000 species of plants. Some experts estimate the total number of plants could be as high as 320,000 worldwide. Tropical rain forests support some of Earth’s highest levels of biodiversity. At least 1,650 known tropical forest plants have the potential to be grown as vegetable crops, which could reduce our reliance on the few crops grown today

Nature is also the source for many medicines such as aspirin, heart stimulants, antibiotics, anti-malarial and cancer fighting compounds. For example, a drug called Taxol, derived from the Pacific yew tree, has shown promise in the treatment of ovarian and breast cancers in trials conducted by the U.S.-based National Cancer Institute.

About a quarter of all prescription drugs are taken directly from plants or are chemically modified versions of plant substances. More than half are modelled on natural compounds. About 121 prescription drugs are derived from higher plants. Yet less than 1 per cent of rainforest plants have been tested for their medicinal properties. It has been estimated that of the world’s 250,000 known plant species, only 5,000 have been tested for their medicinal potential. In the US, more than $6 billion (US) is spent annually on medicines derived from tropical plants.

Everything we use in our daily lives was originally derived from the natural world. In 1997, a team of ecologists and economists estimated the monetary value of nature’s services to society to be at least $33 trillion (US) each year, nearly twice the $18 trillion combined gross national product (GNP) of all the world’s 194 countries that year.

Climate regulation, water purification, soil regeneration, nutrient cycling, waste recirculation, crop pollination and production of timber, fodder, and biomass are provided by our living environment for free. This dollar estimate is purely a thought experiment since nature’s services can’t be replaced, but it demonstrates why maintaining biodiversity is essential for sustaining the global economy.

From aboriginal creation myths and other ancient religions to the work of generations of artists, poets, musicians and storytellers, nature has been the foundation of human cultural identities, spirtual practices and creative expression throughout the ages.

The planet’s cultural diversity is rooted in its vast biodiversity. According to Vandana Shiva, a scientist and agricultural activist in India who has been instrumental in advocating the importance of indigenous plant diversity, "The co-evolution of culture, life forms, and habitats has conserved the biological diversity of this planet. Cultural diversity and biological diversity go hand in hand in hand."

Canadians only need to look at their fragile coastal ecosystems to understand the peril that human communities face when biological diversity is at risk. In Newfoundland, the collapse of the Atlantic cod stocks ended a unique way of life – a cherished part of the Canadian mosaic – for thousands of people whose seafaring culture had gone back generations. Climate change now threatens delicate boreal and tundra ecosystems in the Arctic, and the wildlife on which the Inuit depend for food, income and ceremonial purposes.

In coastal British Columbia – a region rich in biological diversity—decades of mismanagement of the province’s forests and fisheries has meant that in the last five years more people have left BC’s rural coastal communities than at any time in their modern history. This is a population loss unprecedented outside wartime conscription and the diseases which devastated many aboriginal communities in the late 1800s. Destructive logging and mismanaged fisheries have caused the decline and extinction of numerous salmon runs and the subsequent loss of their gene pools. The decline of salmon, in turn, has altered the way of life of First Nation and other communities on the BC Coast.

Just as genetic diversity allows a single species to survive in the face of changing conditions, so diversity of traditional knowledge and cultures has been at the root of the development of Canada. Canadians – from the aboriginal people to immigrants from every country of the globe – have adapted to environments as diverse as the Arctic tundra, coastal rainforests, prairie grasslands, the Canadian shield and modern megacities. Our diverse indigenous, ethic, linguistic and regional cultures, combined with the biological wealth of Canada, lay at the root of our identity as a people and a country.

The loss of a Newfoundland out-port, an Inuit village, a prairie town should be seen as a weakening of our national fabric. More often than not, the decline of human communities is directly related to the health of ecosystems on which these communities depend. In this way, cultural diversity is an extension of the biological diversity we see in our planet’s ecosystems.

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