Species Diversity & Values

Spiritual Values: People love living things, a phenomenon called

“biophilia” by E. O. Wilson (1984). We delight in the beauty of an
orchid. We are inspired by the majesty of a golden eagle. We find
spiritual comfort in the transformation of a caterpillar into a
monarch butterfly. It is easy to find evidence of our aesthetic,
spiritual, and emotional affinity for other species. This linkage is
revealed in the symbols we choose for our governments, religions,
businesses, and athletic teams; think of the sugar maple leaf
emblem of Canada. Our language – busy as a bee, an eager beaver
– reveals the depth of this linkage. Sometimes, our feelings for
other species are revealed in the ways we spend our money;
sometimes, they are not. Imagine a woman who lives her whole life
in landlocked Hungary who will never see a living blue whale, but
who derives pleasure from simply knowing that they exist. Her love
for whales is real and valuable, but costs her nothing.
 Case Study
The Neem; When we consider species in terms of the diversity of their
instrumental values, not many species equal the neem tree, a member of the
mahogany family from southern Asia .The most remarkable thing about the neem
that it is used as a health product. People use neem products to treat boils,
burns, cholera, constipation, diabetes, heat rash, indigestion, malaria, measles,
nausea, parasites, pimples, rheumatism, scorpion stings, sleeplessness, snake
bites, stomach aches, tumors, and ulcers, and they drink neem tea as a general
tonic. They clean their teeth with neem twigs and neem-derived toothpaste and
make a disinfectant soap with the oil of neem seeds. Some research suggests that
neem products may provide the basis for a birth control pill for men and as a
spermicide. These marvelous features may account for the spiritual importance
of neem as well. It is considered sacred by many Hindus, and its leaves are hung
in the doors of a house to ward off evil spirits and burnt as an incense to drive
evil spirits out of anyone who inhales the smoke. Some Hindu holy men place
neem twigs in their ears as a charm. The qualities of the neem are well known
among millions of people in the Indian subcontinent: it is often called the “village
pharmacy
Scientific and Educational values: There are many
examples. Birds offered both the inspiration to fly and a model
from which to learn, and, similarly, the ability of bats to fly in
the dark inspired the development of radar. Mendel’s peas
opened the door to genetics, and the convenience of working
with Drosophila fruit flies has greatly facilitated genetic
research. For Charlis Darwin the diversity of some Galápagos
birds that now bear his name – Darwin’s finches – was
instrumental in his development of the theory of natural
selection. Many anthropologists who seek insight into human
social interactions study our nearest relatives, all the other
members of the primate order.
Ecological Values: Every population of every species is part of an
ecosystem of interacting populations and their environment and
thus has an ecological role to play. There are producers, consumers,
decomposers, and many variations of these roles and others –
competitors, dispersers, pollinators, and more. In this sense, every
species has ecological value; it is of instrumental use to other
species that share the same ecosystem, including people. Although
all species have ecological roles, not all roles are of equal
importance. Some species are ecologically important simply
because of their great abundance. Sometimes, they are called
dominant species, a term that usually implies that they constitute a
large portion of the biomass of an ecosystem such as sugar maples
in a sugar maple forest or various species. Sometimes, they are
called controller species, which implies that they have major roles in
controlling the movement of energy and nutrients .
Some species play critical ecological roles that are of greater
importance than we would predict from their abundance;
these are called keystone species (Power et al. 1996). The
classic example of a keystone species is the purple sea star,
an intertidal predator that preys on several species of
invertebrates, apparently allowing many species to coexist
without any one species becoming dominant . After these
sea stars were experimentally removed from a rocky shore
in the state of Washington, the population of one prey
species, the California mussel, dominated the site, and the
system shifted from 15 species of invertebrates and
macroscopic algae to only eight species
The endangered red-cockaded woodpecker might
play a keystone role in those southern United States
pine forests where it persists; because it is the only
woodpecker that routinely excavates cavities in
living trees, it provides habitat for a number of other
cavity-dwelling species incapable of making their
own cavities. Beaver dams produce entire aquatic
ecosystems, thus making beavers a great example of
a keystone species. Many animal species, especially
in the tropics, depend on fruit for the bulk of their
diet, but during certain seasons only a few plant
species bear fruit (Shanahan et al. 2001; Watson
2001). These off-season fruit producers are
keystone species.
Strategic Values: With a large agenda and limited resources,
conservation biologists have to be efficient strategists, and this
often leads them to target certain species to advance their overall
goal of maintaining biodiversity. Best known are the flagship
species, the charismatic species that have captured the public’s
heart and won their support for conservation. Some species have
won converts to conservation across the globe; consider the
cuddliness of the giant panda, the haunting songs of the
humpback whale, and the grandeur of the tiger or gorilla. In
northeastern Peru, for example, conservationists built a program
around the yellow tailed woolly monkey, an endangered species
endemic to the area, using special T-shirts, posters, and other
means. Once the local people learned how special their monkey
was, it was much easier to enlist their support for conservation of
all the local biota. Large mammals, especially those with big brown
eyes, are often the most successful flagships, but many other
species have been successfully used too.
Umbrella species are used to undertake broad conservation based
around the habitat needs of a single species, thus allowing many
species, often whole ecosystems, to be conserved under the umbrella
of one species. Typically umbrella species are relatively large animals
and thus many umbrella species are also flagship species. In
particular, umbrella species usually have large home ranges, and thus
by protecting enough habitat for their populations, adequate habitat
for many other species will also be protected. Umbrella species are
often found in a wide variety of ecosystems across a broad geographic
range and can thereby provide an umbrella for a very large set of
species. One such umbrella is the tiger. With a geographic range
reaching from the Russian Far East south to Indonesia and west to
India (formerly to Turkey and Iran), the tiger ranges across a broad set
of ecosystems – forests, mangrove swamps, rain forests, dry
deciduous woodlands, and more. Efforts to keep the tiger from going
extinct have benefited other wild creatures throughout much of Asia