No one knows the true scope of biodiversity how many species of plants and animals share the planet with human beings. Whatever the actual number of species, preservation of biodiversity itself is vital to humanity.
Biodiversity is essential to agriculture.
Without repeated infusions of new genes from the wild, geneticists cannot continue to improve staple crops. Humans share the planet with at least 10 million other animal and plant species. Biological diversity is crucial to the world's ecology, and probably to the future of humanity itself. Yet human actions and numbers are sending thousand of species into extinction most in areas where human population density is highest. Human Exploitation Humankind's current patterns of resource exploitation do not bode well for the future of biodiversity.