Humans have both direct and indirect impacts on biological diversity.
Where humans live, they must exploit the natural resources to survive. As the level of human population has grown and their consumption patterns increased, simple exploitation has led to over exploitation. Over exploitation of resources has led to many species extinctions. Extinction is the primary vehicle through which biological diversity is lost. Extinction is a process that occurs naturally, but usually at a very low rate, perhaps one species lost every 100-1,000 years.