Maintaining Biodiversity
- Resilience of the environment, its people and its agricultural productivity depend on biodiversity.
- Biodiversity is essential to global food security and nutrition and also serves as a safety net to poor households during times of crisis.
- Diversity of genes within species, as represented by livestock breeds or strains of plants, is important for agriculture and food security as the source of new varieties and products.
- Increased diversity reduces risk from diseases and increases our potential to adapt to changing climate.
- A large proportion of species are now extinct or facing extinction.
It is no longer satisfactory to accept loss of biodiversity. Thus we need better understanding of biodiversity and its role and we need to have better management systems in our natural and production ecosystems. This opens up opportunities for new scientists and natural resource managers to address this challenge. An agricultural degree or related qualification will provide the background and understanding needed to integrate biodiversity into production systems.