Why States Should Care About Biodiversity Biological diversity, or biodiversity, encompasses the richness of life on earth. It includes the variety and quantity of living organisms, the genetic differences among them, the communities and ecosystems in which they occur, and the myriad ways in which they interact to provide the basic ecological services on which all life depends. Yet biodiversity is now threatened by a wave of extinction unparalleled since dinosaurs became extinct 65 million years ago. The Environmental Protection Agency's independent Science Advisory Board in 1990 identified habitat loss and species extinction as two of the four most critical global environmental problems. The tangible benefits to humanity of plants and wildlife are numerous.
Humans rely on the natural world for food and new curative drugs.
Wildlife and ecosystem-based tourism is a source of economic growth. Ecosystems sustain natural processes such as soil creation and the oxygenation of air and water. Continued rapid loss of biodiversity eventually would disrupt essential natural processes on which human survival depends. In addition, the emotional benefits to humans of biodiversity cannot be overstated. As part of the natural world, humans feel a powerful affinity for and connection to that world.