User:Macs944/Habitat conservation

Biodiversity
Habitat conservation is important in maintaining biodiversity, which refers to the variability in populations, organisms, and gene pools, as well as habitats and ecosystems. Biodiversity is also an essential part of global food security. There is evidence to support a trend of accelerating erosion of the genetic resources of agricultural plants and animals. An increase in genetic similarity of agricultural plants and animals means an increased risk of food loss from major epidemics. Wild species of agricultural plants have been found to be more resistant to disease, for example the wild corn species Teosinte is resistant to 4 corn diseases that affect human grown crops. A combination of seed banking and habitat conservation has been proposed to maintain plant diversity for food security purposes. It has been shown that focusing conversation efforts on ecosystems "within multiple trophic levels" can lead to a better functioning ecosystem with more biomass.

Values of natural habitat
Natural habitats can provide Ecosystem service s to humans, which are "any positive benefit that wildlife or ecosystems provide to people." The natural environment is a source for a wide range of resources that can be exploited for economic profit, for example timber is harvested from forests and clean water is obtained from natural streams. However, land development from anthropogenic economic growth often causes a decline in the ecological integrity of nearby natural habitat. For instance, this was an issue in the northern Rocky Mountains of the US.

However, there is also the economic value in conserving natural habitats. Financial profit can be made from tourist revenue, for example in the tropics where species diversity is high, or in recreational sports which take place in natural environments such as hiking and mountain biking. The cost of repairing damaged ecosystems is considered to be much higher than the cost of conserving natural ecosystems.

Measuring the worth of conserving different habitat areas is often criticized as being too utilitarian from a philosophical point of view.

Habitat Restoration
Habitat restoration is a subset of habitat conservation and its goals include improving the habitat and resources ranging from one species to several species The Society for Ecological Restoration International Science and Policy Working Group define restoration as "the process of assisting the recovery of an ecosystem that has been degraded, damaged, or destroyed." The scale of habitat restoration efforts can range from small to large areas of land depending on the goal of the project. Elements of habitat restoration include developing a plan and embedding goals within that plan, and monitoring and evaluating species. Considerations such as the species type, environment, and context are aspects of planning a habitat restoration project. Efforts to restore habitats that have been altered by anthropogenic activities has become a global endeavor, and is used to counteract the effects of habitat destruction by humans. Miller and Hobbs state three constraints on restoration: "ecological, economic, and social" constraints. Habitat restoration projects include Marine Debris Mitigation for Navassa Island National Wildlife Refuge in Haiti and Lemon Bay Preserve Habitat Restoration in Florida.