ABSTRACT
Fungi are vital to the process by which available nutrients from dead organismal material are recycled to be made available to new plants and animals, moving these through deserts of poor nutrition, and passing them onto the dominant ecosystem components in exchange for organic compounds. Without these organisms, life as we know it would be very different indeed. In addition, they are enjoyed by many people as part of the landscape, and along with many birds and small animals, humans include them as component to their diets. Without fungi, whole ecosystems would fail or be replaced by very poor substitutes. But despite fungi being so important, they are forgotten in everyday conservation policies. Effective conservation depends on high degrees of knowledge of the biology, especially ecology, of the individual fungal species. This is generally not available, and when it is, it is not in the depth necessary to formulate useful rules.
