Conservation and Sustainability

This lesson covers sustainable management, conservation methods, international agreements, and the economic arguments for conservation, as required by the Edexcel A-Level Biology specification (9BI0), Topic 10 -- Ecosystems.

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Why Conserve Biodiversity?

Conservation is the management of the Earth's natural resources and ecosystems to maintain biodiversity. There are several categories of argument for conservation:

Ethical Arguments

• All species have an intrinsic right to exist, regardless of their usefulness to humans
• Humans have a moral responsibility to protect species and ecosystems for future generations
• Many cultures have deep spiritual and cultural connections to nature

Ecological Arguments

• Biodiversity is essential for healthy, functioning ecosystems
• Ecosystems with higher biodiversity are more resilient (better able to recover from disturbance)
• Loss of one species can have cascading effects on others through food webs

Economic Arguments

• Ecosystems provide ecosystem services worth trillions of dollars globally: