The Importance of Species

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.

Now that you have a better idea of what a species is, you might be asking yourself the following question: why are species important? Species play a vital role as building blocks of biodiversity, interacting to form the ecosystems upon which we all depend for survival, and providing us with what are known as ecosystem goods and services (discussed extensively in the next chapter).

Goods are things that we can physically use or sell, including food, fuel, clothes and medicine, whilstservices include the purification of water and air, crop pollination and cultural values.