Tag Archives: edward o wilson

Biodiversity: The most common issues

Biodiversity can be considered as an imperative factor that plays a crucial role in poverty reduction owing to its basic goods and the ecosystem services it provides. Over three billion people rely on coastal and marine biodiversity and about 1.7 billion people depend upon non-timber forest products and forests for biodiversity.

Common issues relating to biodiversity can be classified as:

Biodiversity as a source of income and food

World’s poor population, especially living in rural areas are dependent on biological resources for meeting most of their needs. At least, 90 percent of their needs relating to fuel, shelter, medicines and food come from biological resources. (more…)

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Nature’s Backbone at Risk

ANN ARBOR, Mich.— One-fifth of the world’s vertebrate species are threatened with extinction, but the situation would be worse if not for current global conservation efforts, a new study finds.

University of Michigan biologist Ronald Nussbaum is one of 174 researchers from 115 institutions and 38 countries who authored the study published this week in Science Express.

The study used data for 25,000 species from the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species to investigate the status of the world’s vertebrates (mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles and fishes) and how this status has changed over time. The results show that, on average, 50 species of mammal, bird and amphibian move closer to extinction each year due to the impacts of agricultural expansion, logging, over-exploitation, and invasive alien species. (more…)

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