Species Biodiversity and Goods

Source: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2013, Kathryn Pintus, IUCN , "The Youth Guide to Biodiversity" 1st Edition (Chapter 4) Youth and United Nations Global Alliance. Reproduced with permission.

Chapter 4. Verbatim.

Many of the goods we obtain come from domesticated species, including cows, pigs and sheep, and various agricultural crops such as wheat, rice and corn. All of these domesticated species originally descended from wild ones, which were selected and bred for specific purposes. The food produced from domesticated species sustains the lives of billions of people around the world, by forming the essential components of our daily diets. Despite there being thousands of species that we could potentially eat, we routinely consume only a small handful of these!

Wild species are just as important as domesticated species; people across the globe rely on marine, freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems for food and materials they need to survive. The oceans, for instance, cover more than 70 percent of the Earth’s surface, and house an astonishing array of biodiversity, some of which provides essential food and income for millions of people. 

Freshwater ecosystems are just as valuable to humans; an estimated 126 000 described species including fish, molluscs, reptiles, insects and plants rely on freshwater habitats, many of which are an extremely important component of the livelihoods of local people. Rainforests such as those found in South America contain thousands upon thousands of species, some of which are extremely important in both modern and traditional medicine. As such, healthy biodiversity is essential to human well-being.