ABSTRACT
The anthropogenic rate of extinctions is on the scale of the catastrophic mass extinctions which punctuate geological time. Unquestionably, biological resources are the most significant component of natural capital. This chapter reviews the significance of this loss, indicates the profoundness of people's ignorance of this cornucopia of riches and explains how they are squandering their heritage. Biological diversity incorporates the idea of distinctiveness at every level of life from molecules, to cells, to individuals, to species, to assemblages of species and to ecosystems. This distinctiveness derives from the influences of very many different genes. The greatest immediate threat to terrestrial biodiversity is the loss and fragmentation of natural habitats, especially in the tropics. Two principal uses of wild plants and animals are cited as providing a strong economic justification for conservation of global biodiversity. One is concerned with sustaining people's food production and the other with protecting their health.
