In the process of making room for our growing numbers, we plow under and pave over, split up and cut down, drain, pollute, contaminate, and sell away previously intact landscapes, and thereby destroy invaluable habitat for thousands of species. Industrial and agricultural pollutants poison individuals of many species and make their habitats unfit for continued survival. As habitats dwindle, so does the possibility for species to move and migrate. This becomes particularly dangerous given the threat of global climate change. Should weather patterns change, plants and animals cannot shift their range as they were able to in the evolutionary past, and are thus more vulnerable to extinction.
Deforestation is quite possibly the greatest threat to biodiversity at present.
The alarming rates of deforestation are clearly linked to the actions and aims of commercial logging companies, large landowners, distant consumers, international development agencies, and government officials. Socio-economic and political factors like inequities in wealth and land ownership also play key roles in the loss of habitat. These are highly adaptable plant or animal species that, once introduced into a new environment, manage to reproduce successfully, and then compete with native species for valuable resources. Endemic species are especially threatened by the invasion of non-native species. The archipelago's unique bird populations were among the hardest hit.