ABSTRACT
The past decades have seen a more rapid change in the world than ever before. Negative consequences thereof have included increasing environmental problems, such as global climate change, depletion of the atmospheric ozone layer, pollution, soil degradation, loss of biological diversity, and problems related to the quantity and quality of freshwater resources. Environmental degradation is also closely linked to food production and food security. Our ability to feed the ever increasing population is contingent on the health of the biological resource base.
