Why bother?
Ethical values: Since humans have the power to change the world they also carry the responsibility
Direct economic value: many species are sources of food, cloths, biomass (for energy or other), medicine
- commercial crops are derived from wild species, less genetic variability than wild species ? loss of wild gene pool if crops need to be adapted to new challenges (climate change, pests)
- unknown sources of medicines and other usable compounds: majority of species not even known yet (tropics, reefs)“gene prospecting” - do some species have genes for new, usable compounds? (e.g. periwinkle from Madagascarproduces 2 compounds effectiveagainst childhood leukemia)