Why should we conserve biodiversity?

This article summarizes the narrowly and broad utilitarian arguments for conserving biodiversity, and briefly reviews the ethical argument for the same.

What does it mean to conserve biodiversity? Does it simply involve ensuring that the numbers of species of different living organisms stay the same? Why would it matter if a species or two died out?

It may not seem obvious why at first, but it actually does matter! Each species contributes to the ecosystem in its own way. Biodiversity can also help prevent climate change, and even make humans money! Different people have different types of arguments for why it is important to protect biodiversity. Broadly, these can be divided into two types.

One school of thought is very simple - biodiversity offers us (humans) useful resources, and therefore must be conserved. This is known as a utilitarian approach or argument, because it involves thinking about utilizing, or using, biodiversity. The other, very different approach tends to involve ethics, or emotions, and a sense of duty towards our planet. This is known as a non-utilitarian approach.

Let's take a brief look at both these types of arguments.

The utilitarian approach itself has two types of arguments - narrow and broad.

Narrowly utilitarian
This type of argument puts humans at the centre; it points out simply how much people benefit directly from diversity in nature. For example, we use countless types of vegetables for food, rely on microorganisms like yeast for baking, source rubber from trees for various purposes, and so on.

There is even a process, known as bioprospecting or biodiversity prospecting, that studies different natural resources and checks if they can be used commercially. The narrowly utilitarian argument is all about how much money there is to be made from biodiversity, and therefore how important it is that we conserve it.

Broadly utilitarian
This approach zooms out a bit and looks at the benefits of biodiversity at a larger scale. It points out that biodiversity carries out very large services that are essential for life on earth. For example, trees produce oxygen, capture carbon dioxide, provide shade, and are home to several other living organisms. Some of these organisms, like birds and bees, can pollinate flowers, and thus propagate plants.

This argument, therefore, focuses on how useful biodiversity is at performing important and priceless services.

This type of approach can be considered an ethical approach. Here, the focus is on our responsibility, as human beings, to take care of a planet that has sustained us for millions of years. It also looks at protection of biodiversity as a moral necessity, to ensure that future generations inherit a planet with a future.