Value of Biodiversity

Why is biological diversity important? Many arguments can be made from scientific, philosophical, economic, ethical, and aesthetic perspectives. Scientists argue that much remains to be learned about many species and ecosystems around the world and that the loss of these species would foreclose that opportunity. Certain rare species are singled out as worth saving for their sake; the loss of the Sumatran tiger, for example, or the rhinocerous would be mourned by many who have never seen these animals in the wild. There is great beauty in forests, coral reefs, savannahs, and other landscapes that is worth preserving for future generations, as well as our own, to appreciate.

Natural resources also provide critical ecosystem services. Forests retain moisture in the soil and prevent erosion; hillside areas can be subject to mudslides where forests are cleared, resulting in loss of life and property. Of the approximately 1.4 million species that are known, almost one million are insects and other invertebrates, and these are, as E.O. Wilson has said, “the little things that run the world” by breaking down plant and animal matter and making it available as nutrients. Crop and forest lands provide food and wood for shelter and sustenance. The interactions between the living and the non-living parts of the environment provide essential ecosystems services of soil formation, climate control, and water recycling. In one study, published in 1997 in the science journal Nature, researchers estimated the value of these ecosystem services at between $16 trillion and $54 trillion a year.

Arguments for increased international efforts to conserve habitats and ecosystems often emphasize the value of biodiversity to humans: the "un-mined riches" that we may discover in plants and animals and the potential of new food sources. For example, approximately 25 percent of all prescription drugs in the United States are derived from plants. The rosy periwinkle from Madagascar is the source of a drug used in the treatment of Hodgkin's disease and leukemia. The Pacific yew tree is the source of Taxol, a drug which has been found effective in treatment of ovarian cancer. Some drugs found have been identified through native folklore. Peruvian Indians, for example, treated malaria with an extract from the bark of the Cinchona tree. Study of this extract led to discovery and use of quinine. the first effective treatment for malaria.

The potential for discovering medicines is often cited as an argument for international cooperation in preserving tropical forests, but also as a means for doing so, by finding useful products that can be extracted profitably from the plants and animals of the rainforest, through bioprospecting. For example, Glaxo Wellcome, a British pharmaceutical company, funds the Centre for Natural Products Research in Singapore, which surveys species in Asia for medicinal purposes. Conservation International has initiated an agreement between Bristol-Meyers Squib, Suriname, and the National Institutes of Health.

There are concerns about bioprospecting, however. Some developing countries maintain that they will not receive a sufficient portion of the profits from drugs developed from plants found within their borders. On the other hand, the costs of isolating useful species, developing drugs and other products, and testing them for use is enormously expensive, and those costs are borne by the drug companies.