Socio-Economic Context of Saving Biodiversity

Rjaz Gul

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: Since the beginning of time mankind has depended upon the available natural resources for survival, although the contribution of biodiversity to the sustainable development has recently been acknowledged. The need for this recognition arose from the fact that biodiversity provides a variety of socio- cultural and economic services for the humankind such as food, water, shelter, medicines, energy and aesthetic value. Despite realization of biodiversity as essential factor for human life and welfare, we are facing problems of global nature. Pakistan is fortunate to have a rich biodiversity and is blessed with more than nine distinct ecological zones. These ecological zones provide a range of habitats to a great variety of flora and fauna, besides a vast variety of plant species having great medicinal and food value. However, deforestation, over development, lack of awareness and control measures have negative effects on biodiversity. These actions are leading to loss of species, habitats and degradation of ecosystems. Presently, the rate of regeneration of resources is much slower than the rate at which these natural assets are being consumed inducing a socio-economical recession. There is a need to adopt a sustainable approach towards biodiversity conservation and establish a balance between gains and loss to bridge this gap between resource generation and consumption. Preservation of biodiversity without sustainability could impact the overall economic conditions leading to further poverty and affect the quality of life of the people. This paper thoroughly reviews significance of biodiversity, its socio-economic benefits and problems currently being faced to save this natural wealth.

Keywords: Biodiversity; ecological zones; socio-economical gains; sustainability; balance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q23 Q26 Q57 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013-07-17
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr and nep-env
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/48401/1/MPRA_paper_48401.pdf original version (application/pdf)
https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/48459/1/MPRA_paper_48401.pdf revised version (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Economic Risk Exposure of Selected Projects and Risk Attitude of Investors; Evidence from Liberia (2013)
Working Paper: Economic Evaluation of Project Site Using Cardinal Numbers Approach (2013)
Working Paper: URMI and its Integration into a framework for Ethics in Economics (2013)
Working Paper: Economic Evaluation of Road Traffic Safety Measures (2013)
Working Paper: Economic Efficacy of Road Traffic Safety Measures (2013)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pra:mprapa:48401

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany Ludwigstraße 33, D-80539 Munich, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Joachim Winter ().