Raymund V.

Samar BSCE2A

Environmental Science

What is the importance of Biodiversity?

Biodiversity promotes and maintains life, sustaining every other system that correlates
to one another. Because of the diversity of life inside a system, evolution of organisms is
possible and continues even today. It also brings us sustainable resources that we use for our
everyday lives. The oxygen that we breath, the water that we drink, the woods and fruits that
we can use and eat, are all provided by nature, the closest definition of biodiversity. This also
supports the statement that biodiversity accepts "differences" in order to support "life". These
"differences" are the different resources that we use that come from nature and the different
organisms that are present in our environment that support us in our everyday life.

What are the threats to biodiversity and the ways to minimize those threats?

  Even though biodiversity supports life, it is still threatened by the things that it
supports, especially us humans. Our population is growing exponentially, which means that we
are going to consume more and more of the resources that nature is providing us with. This
results in the overuse of those resources, permanently damaging the "life-giver" that has
supported us from the beginning. One example of this misuse of resources is deforestation.
Whenever we are faced with a limited space in which we are about to build our homes, we are
"forced" to use these forests as an expansion for us to be able to build those "homes" that
ironically destroy others' homes, endangering different species of animals in those areas. This
also affects the overall ecosystem in that certain area, causing an imbalance that negatively
affects all of its components.

In order for us to lessen the threats to biodiversity, we should always start with
ourselves. We certainly know that our population growth negatively affects not only ourselves
but also the environment. We should promote family planning to accommodate the already-
growing number of humans. Even though the effects of it are not going to be seen immediately,
it will come to a point where we, the supported ones, can be supported again by nature itself.
Recycling and reusing different resources that we are given will also make a difference if we
continuously practice it , recovering most of the damaged resources that we can still use
instead of being trashed, ultimately changing our outlook in life.

References:

https://royalsociety.org/topics-policy/projects/biodiversity/why-is-biodiversity-important