Conservation

Biodiversity matters for several overlapping reasons:

Practical (instrumental):

• Food: 75% of crop varieties have been lost in the past century — we depend on a few crops, leaving us vulnerable to disease.
• Medicine: ~25% of modern drugs come from plants. Aspirin (willow bark), morphine (poppy), Taxol (yew tree).
• Ecosystem services: pollination, pest control, water filtration, soil formation — worth trillions of dollars annually.
• Climate regulation: forests and oceans absorb CO₂.

Ethical (intrinsic):

• Species are unique products of billions of years of evolution.
• Future generations have a right to inherit a rich planet.
• Other species matter for their own sake, not just because they're useful.
• Many cultures place spiritual or religious value on nature.

Resilience: a more diverse ecosystem is better able to withstand shocks (drought, disease, fire).

In-situ (in place):

• Protected areas — national parks, marine reserves, wildlife refuges. ~17% of land and ~8% of sea are protected. Goal: 30% by 2030.
• Wildlife corridors — connect fragmented habitats.
• Sustainable use — let local people earn from a conserved landscape (eco-tourism, certified timber).
• Indigenous land rights — research shows indigenous-managed land has the lowest rates of habitat loss.

Ex-situ (off site):

• Zoos and aquariums — captive breeding programmes for the most endangered (Arabian oryx, Californian condor, giant panda).
• Seed banks (Svalbard Global Seed Vault) — store crop and wild plant seeds against future loss.
• Gene banks for animal sperm and eggs.

Legal / policy:

• CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, 1973) — bans trade in 38,000+ species.
• National endangered-species laws.
• Fishing quotas; whaling bans.

Examples of success:

• The Arabian oryx: extinct in the wild by 1972, captive bred in zoos, reintroduced in Oman from 1982 → wild population now ~1,000.
• The bald eagle: nearly wiped out by DDT, recovered after the ban → removed from US endangered list in 2007.
• The giant panda: downgraded from endangered to vulnerable in 2016 after decades of conservation work in China.

Examples of failure / ongoing risk:

• Northern white rhino: only 2 individuals (both female) remain — functionally extinct.
• Sumatran orang-utan: critically endangered from palm-oil deforestation.
• Most pollinator insects: declining at alarming rates.

Personal choices that help:

• Eat less red meat (livestock = ~14% of global GHG emissions and a major driver of deforestation).
• Choose certified sustainable products (FSC timber, MSC fish, RSPO palm oil).
• Reduce/reuse/recycle — especially plastic and electronics.
• Travel less by air; use public transport, cycle, walk.
• Choose efficient electricals + a low-carbon energy supplier.
• Plant native species in gardens; let some grass grow long.

Why policy matters more than personal sacrifice:

• The richest 10% of humans emit ~50% of CO₂. A policy that targets that 10% would do far more than individual virtue across the other 90%.
• Carbon prices, building standards, fishing quotas, protected areas — these are POLICY tools that scale.
• Personal choices SIGNAL preferences to producers and politicians; that signal can shift policy over time.

MYP criterion D: 'Should we keep animals in zoos?' A grade-7 answer doesn't give a yes/no. It identifies:

• ARGUMENTS FOR: education, conservation breeding for the most endangered, scientific research.
• ARGUMENTS AGAINST: welfare concerns, unnatural behaviour, money could fund in-situ conservation more efficiently.
• COMPROMISE: distinguish breeding centres (genuine conservation function) from entertainment-focused zoos (less defensible). Different zoos have different ethics.