Why Biodiversity Matters – Living Green Series
The Living Green Series takes us through our responsibilities towards green living and environmental stewardship. In this segment, Leslie Adams speaks about the importance of biodiversity and why we have a responsibility to protect it.
Leslie Adams from the Ontario Biodiversity Network, begin by giving an overview of biodiversity and its functions.
Biodiversity is the different organisms that are found within an ecosystem. The relationship between these organisms forms a unique environment which is crucial to our living. A biodiverse ecosystem provides food, clothing, and medicine. It covers genetic diversity, species diversity and ecosystem diversity. As humans, we depend on all the species and ecosystems that exists, because they all have a part to play towards the quality of our environment.
Ecosystems provide us with goods and services. Goods include things like food, wood, air and water. Services are the benefits that the ecosystems provide us. They are sometimes less obvious but equally important, and they include things like water filtration, temperatures, and pollination.
One of the largest problems of the modern age, is that ecosystem services are taken for granted. Because of this, a monetary value can be easily attached to them, which is quickly paid by development companies eager to construct buildings on natural land. However, the replacing a natural ecosystem such as a forest, with concrete jungle destroys the services it was providing. Since the forest no longer exists, pollination of nearby crops and plants can no longer take place, and the water that the people drink becomes dirty.
When we learn more about biodiversity, we begin to understand how important it is to preserve the natural habitat.
About the Series
What is the place of green and environmental stewardship in Islam? How does the Qur’an view concern for the environment? What is your responsibility towards the environment? Shaykh Faraz Rabbani, Ustadh Amjad Tarsin and Shaykh Ali Hani answer these are other critical questions by citing several prophetic traditions emphasising environmental consciousness and awareness.
