How Can We Prioritise Species For Conservation

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How can we prioritise species for conservation? Species becoming extinct: Species are facing various problems key to their survival such as destruction of animal habitats, damage to the natural environment of living things, for example trees are cut down to build homes, , Oil spills, acid rain and water pollution also add to the destruction of habitats. Moreover another cause for extinction is when animals are over-hunted for their meat, fur and other valuable parts. Another cause could be ‘when animals or plants arrive into a new habitat from a foreign place they sometimes introduce diseases that the native species can't fight. These "exotic" species can also prey on the native species’. [1] [Fig1] [Fig1] ‘Ahmed Djoghlaf, head of the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity stated that, “Extinction rates are rising by a factor of up to 1,000 above natural rates. Every hour, three species disappear. Every day, up to 150 species are lost. Every year, between 18,000 and 55,000 species become extinct. The cause: human activities.” he said ’. [2] Why conserve species: [Fig2] [Fig2] There are many advantages in conserving species not only the fact that we benefit from the diversity of animals and plants, as majority of our plants such as crops. Domestic animals are bred from wild relatives and can importantly benefit from the immense, scarcely tapped wild gene pools. Moreover important requirements such as medicine, ‘as well as sources of energy, fibres and structural materials, come from a few exploited species ’ [3] that have been discovered. Furthermore our solution in tackling poverty, hunger, and diseases may come from species that are not yet discovered. Additionally species have many other vital functions that also benefit humans, for example some species such as Lichens are indicator species meaning that they help monitor harmful pollution

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