We are totally dependent on the biological capital. The diversity within and between species has provided us with food, timber, fiber, energy, raw materials, chemicals, industrial and medical.
Biodiversity is the variability among living organisms, terrestrial, marine and aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part: this includes diversity within species, between species and within and between ecosystems.
Human cultural diversity could be considered as part of biodiversity. Because it has some attributes that could be considered solutions to problems of survival in particular environments (nomads, crop rotation). It also help people adapt to environmental change.
Cultural diversity is reflected in the diversity of language, religious beliefs, practices of land management, art, music, social structures, the selection of crops in the diet and all attribute of society.
Many of the least disturbed ecosystems in biodiversity across the planet are in Latin America (Patagonia, Amazon, tropical mountain forests, the concentrations of marine Atlantic or the South Pacific and the Tepuyes to them must also add the Antarctic).
Tropical forests are the key to store the world’s biological diversity. The same was developed by 100 million years of evolutionary activity (forming an irreplaceable gene bank). Occupy only 6% of land area, and live there for more than half of all species on earth.
The reduction of biodiversity is a direct consequence of human development, because many ecosystems have been converted into impoverished systems that are less productive, economically and biologically. You might say, inappropriate use of ecosystems and disrupt their operation also involves a cost.
The conservation of biodiversity is a change in attitude from a defensive posture (protection of nature against the impact of development) to active work that seeks to meet the needs of biological resources of the population while ensuring the sustainability over time of Earth’s biotic wealth.
