Ecological and Economic Roles of Agrobiodiversity

Abstract

Biodiversity is a complex, abstract concept. It can be associated with a wide range of benefits to human society, most of them still ill understood. In general terms, the value of biodiversity can be assessed in terms of its impact on the provision of inputs to production processes, in terms of its direct impact on human welfare, and in terms of its impact on the regulation of the nature-ecosystem-ecological functions relationships. The services that agricultural biodiversity provides are critical to the functioning of food support systems. They contribute to human welfare, both directly and indirectly, and therefore represent part of the total economic value of the planet. The main cause of the loss of biodiversity can be attributes to the influence of human beings on the world’s ecosystem, In fact human beings have deeply altered the environment, and have modified the territory, exploiting the species directly, for example by fishing and hunting, changing the biogeochemical cycles and transferring species from one area to another of the Planet. Conserving biodiversity has economic, social, and cultural values. Conservation of biodiversity is integral to the biological and cultural inheritance of many people and the critical components of healthy ecosystems that are used to support economic and social developments. For successful and sustainable conservation there needs to be local community involvement especially for agro ecosystem. Conservation can broadly be achieved into two ways: In-situ -Conservation of habitats, species and ecosystems where they naturally occur. This is in-situ conservation and the natural processes and interaction are conserved as well as the elements of biodiversity and Ex-situ: The conservation of elements of biodiversity out of the context of their natural habitats is referred to as ex-situ conservation. Zoos, botanical gardens and seed banks are all example of ex-situ conservation.

Keywords: Biological diversity, Agrobiodiversity, diversity