maintaining biodiversity

• Humans cause a huge amount of damage to the environment whether it's climate change, deforestation or dumping waste
• The end result is a reduction in biodiversity and a damaged ecosystem
• Ways to reverse this trend

  1. Reducing the bad practices that cause the damage in the first place

  2. Reducing the impact of those bad practices

  3. Helping the ecosystems withstand them
• Breeding programs for endangered species

  • Breed the animals in captivity to safely build up their numbers
  • Reintroduce them to the wild to join an existing population or form a new one
• Unless the natural habitat is safe, the endangered species population will probably just decline again
• Creating protected areas and regenerating rare habitats

  1. Protect areas like mangroves and coral reefs properly

  2. Won't need breeding programs because all organisms living there will be safe
• Reducing the impact of harmful but necessary practices like farming
• Practices encouraged by governments to increase biodiversity

  • Field margins
  • Hedgerows
• Governments regulate things like deforestation quotas and carbon dioxide emissions
• Individuals can make a difference by recycling waste and not buying unnecessary junk
• Theoretically, the environmental problems are fixable
• Challenges in practice


  • Protecting biodiversity is expensive
  • Individuals, companies and governments often overlook the benefits of high biodiversity
  • Maintaining our current high standard of living requires damaging the environment
  • Developing countries rely on the environment for their livelihood