If the resource base on which these industries depend is damaged, the industries themselves suffer. For example, overfishing of pilchards off the west coast of South Africa and Namibia resulted in the 1970s crash in fish populations, and harvests dropped dramatically. In addition, plants are chemical factories able to make vast numbers of complex and unusual substances, many of which are potential medicines for humankind. Few problems are less recognised, but more important than the accelerating disappearance of the earth's biological resources. The beauty and peacefulness of the mountains, the sea and the bushveld attracts people for recreation, rest and refreshing inspiration.
Nature is a refuge to which people turn, time and again, to be nourished and revitalised.
The good of going into the mountains is that life is reconsidered. Environmental and Development Agency. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1987. R. Fuggle and M. Rabie. Juta and Co., Cape Town, 1992.