Economic and Environmental Benefits of Biodiversity

Abstract

A 11 ecosystems and human societies depend on a healthy and tlroductive natural environment that contains diverse plant and animal species. The earth's biota is comtlosed of an estimated 1 0 million species of plants, animals, and microbes (Pimm et al. 1995). In the United States, there are an estimated 750.000 stlecies. of which small organisms, such as arthropods and microbes, make up 95%.' Although approximately 60% of the world's food supply comes from rice, wheat, and corn (Wilson 1988), as many as 20,000 other plant species have been used by humans as food. Some vlants and akimals provide human; with essential medicines and other diverse, useful ~r o d u c t s. For instance. some plants i n d microbes help to d&rade chemical pollutants and organic wastes and recycle nutrients throughout the ecosystem. The rapidiy growing world population and increased human activity threaten many of these species. The current extinction rate of species ranges from approximately 1000 to 10,000 times higher than natural extinction rates (Kellert and Wilson

Anthropogenic Effects in Landscapes: Historical Context and Spatial Pattern

“…This recognition of space as a limited resource underlines the importance of landscape ecology in preserving sufficient space with an optimal configuration to enable a coexistence of the development of anthropogenic activities with the preservation of ecosystem services (Costanza et al 1997;Pimentel et al 1997), even in an urban context (Bolund and Hunhammar 1999;Tratalos et al 2007). For the foreseeable future, the fate of terrestrial ecosystems and the species they support will be intertwined with human systems: most of "nature" is nowadays embedded within anthropogenic mosaics of land use and land cover; while climate and geology have shaped ecosystems and evolution in the past, human forces may now outweigh these across most of Earth's land surface today (Ellis and Ramankutty 2008).…”

Capturing genetic variation in crop wild relatives: An evolutionary approach

“…Such exploitation of CWRs in crop improvement programmes has grown steadily since the middle of the last century (Heywood, Casas, Ford‐Lloyd, Kell, & Maxted, 2007; Maxted & Kell, 2009). Accordingly, it has previously been estimated that about 30% of gains in crop yield worldwide—corresponding to an annual value of US $151 billion—could be attributed to the incorporated use of CWR germplasm (Pimentel et al., 1997). Furthermore, the frequency of release of cultivars containing CWR genes is set to further increase into the future (Dempewolf et al., 2017; Hajjar & Hodgkin, 2007; Lane & Jarvis, 2007), highlighting the renewed role for research in helping to meet this demand.…”

On Measuring Economic Values for Nature

“…[See Costanza et al (9), Pimentel et al (10), and Ehrlich and Ehrlich (11). The first paper is not exclusively authored by ecologists.…”

“…[See also Ehrlich and Ehrlich (10), who provide an estimate of the total value of ecosystem services, and Pimentel et al (11), who provide an estimate of the total economic and environmental value of biodiversity.] This paper has stimulated considerable debate.…”