Scientists working with an Abu Dhabi environmental protection fund have highlighted the need to protect all of the world’s species, regardless of their relationship with humans.
In a recently published paper, the scientists, part of the Mohammed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund’s advisory board, advocate a philosophy similar to the fund itself – that all species are important, no matter their direct use by humans, apparent value, intelligence or attractiveness.
In The Importance and Benefits of Species, published in the journal Current Biology, they discuss a recent approach to conservation that evaluates the economic value of saving species or ecosystems. While this can be useful for decision-making it could oversimplify matters to the detriment of efforts to preserve some species.
“The default setting for our relationship to all species on Earth should be conservation, not trying to develop arguments for why a species should be saved through its current perceived usefulness to humans,” said the fund.
Research has confirmed the utility of some species to the ecosystems they are part of and to humans. The scientists gave examples such as certain species of fungi which can increase food crop production or a newly described species of catfish in the Amazon basin whose unique gut bacteria can digest wood and may prove beneficial to manufacturing paper using less energy.
Yet, in the case of many animals and plant species, science is yet to fully grasp the complex roles they play within ecosystems.
“The examples in this review highlight a diverse set of species and services, in ways that are direct, complex and often unexpected,” the paper said. “Taken together, they suggest that just because we generally don’t know what most species’ roles in nature are, they are not unimportant.”
Established in 2008, the Mohammed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund has provided backing to experts, non-governmental and public organisations, as well as universities running on-the-ground conservation research. Programmes in more than 100 countries have been supported by the fund.
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