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Biodiversity Values: Biodiversity Value May Be Classified As Follows: 1. Consumptive Use Value

Biodiversity provides several types of value: 1. Consumptive use value includes direct uses like food, fuel, and medicines derived from plants and animals. Around 75% of medicines are plant-derived and many were discovered by studying biodiversity. 2. Productive use values refer to commercially traded resources from biodiversity like animal products, fibers, and resources used in various industries. 3. Biodiversity has social value as many species are integral to social customs, religion, and culture. It also has ethical value in that all life deserves to exist, and option value in potential future benefits yet to be discovered.

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178 views

Biodiversity Values: Biodiversity Value May Be Classified As Follows: 1. Consumptive Use Value

Biodiversity provides several types of value: 1. Consumptive use value includes direct uses like food, fuel, and medicines derived from plants and animals. Around 75% of medicines are plant-derived and many were discovered by studying biodiversity. 2. Productive use values refer to commercially traded resources from biodiversity like animal products, fibers, and resources used in various industries. 3. Biodiversity has social value as many species are integral to social customs, religion, and culture. It also has ethical value in that all life deserves to exist, and option value in potential future benefits yet to be discovered.

Uploaded by

Ankit Modi
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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BIODIVERSITY VALUES

Some of the classifications of biodiversity value are: 1. Consumptive use Value 2. Productive use
Values 3. Social Value 4. Ethical Value 5. Aesthetic Value 6. Option Values 7. Ecosystem Service
Value.
The value of biodiversity in terms of its commercial utility, ecological services, social and aesthetic
value is enormous. We get benefits from other organisms in innumerable ways. Sometimes we
realize and appreciate the value of the organism only after it is lost from this earth.

Biodiversity value may be classified as follows:

1. Consumptive use Value:


These are direct use values where the biodiversity products can be harvested and consumed directly
e.g. fuel, food, drugs, fibre etc.
(a) Food:
A large number of wild plants are consumed by human beings as food. About 80,000 edible plant
species have been reported from the wild. About 90% of present-day food crops have been
domesticated from wild tropical plants.
(b) Drugs and medicines:
About 75% of the world’s population depends upon plants or plant extracts for medicines. The
wonder drug Penicillin used as an antibiotic is derived from a fungus called Penicillium. Likewise,
we get Tetracycline from a bacterium. Quinine, the cure for malaria is obtained from the bark of
Cinchona tree, while Digitalin is obtained from foxglove (Digitalis) which is an effective cure for
heart ailments.
Recently Vinblastine and Vincristine, two anticancer drugs, have been obtained from Periwinkle
(Catharanthus) plant, which possesses anticancer alkaloids. A large number of marine animals are
supposed to possess anti-cancer properties which are yet to be explored systematically.
(c) Fuel:
Our forests have been used since ages for fuel wood. The fossil fuels like coal, petroleum and natural
gas are also products of fossilized biodiversity. Firewood collected by individuals is not normally
marketed, but are directly consumed by tribes and local villagers, hence falls under consumptive
value.

2. Productive use Values:


These are the commercially usable values where the product is marketed and sold. It may include
number of wild gene resources that can be traded for use by scientists for introducing desirable traits
in the crops and domesticated animals.
These may include the animal products like tusks of elephants, musk from musk deer, silk from
silkworm, wool from sheep, fir of many animals, lac from lac insects etc, all of which are traded in
the market. Many industries are dependent upon the productive use values of biodiversity e.g. the
paper industry, plywood industry, railway sleeper industry, silk industry, textile industry, ivory-
works, leather industry, pearl industry etc.

3. Social Value:
These are the values associated with the social life, customs, religion and psycho-spiritual aspects of
the people. Many of the plants are considered holy and sacred in our country like Tulsi (holy basil),
Peepal, Mango, Lotus, Bael etc. The leaves, fruits or flowers of these plants are used in worship.
Thus social life, songs, dances and customs are closely woven around the wildlife. Many animals like
cow, snake, bull, peacock, owl etc. also have significant place in our psycho-spiritual arena and thus
hold special importance. Thus, biodiversity has distinct social value, attached with different societies.

4. Ethical Value:
It is also sometimes known as existence value. It involves ethical issues like “all life must be
preserved”. It is based on the concept of “Live and Let Live”. If we want our human race to survive,
then we must protect all biodiversity, because biodiversity is valuable.
The ethical value means that we may or may not use a species, but knowing the very fact that this
species exists in nature gives us pleasure. We all feel sorry when we learn that “passenger pigeon’ or
“dodo” is no more on this earth. We are not deriving anything direct from kangaroo, zebra or giraffe,
but we all strongly feel that these species should exist in nature. This means, there is an ethical value
or existence value attached to each species.

5. Aesthetic Value:
Great aesthetic value is attached to biodiversity. No one of us would like to visit vast stretches of
barren lands with no signs of visible life. People from far and wide spend a lot of time and money to
visit wilderness area where they can enjoy the aesthetic value of biodiversity and this type of tourism
is now known as eco-tourism.
The “willingness to pay” concept of such eco- tourism gives us even a monetary benefit for aesthetic
value of biodiversity. Eco-tourism is estimated to generate 12 billion dollars of revenue annually that
roughly gives the aesthetic value of biodiversity.

6. Option Values:
These values include the potentials of biodiversity that are presently unknown and need to be
explored. There is a possibility that we may have some potential cure of AIDS or cancer existing
within the depths of marine ecosystem, or a tropical rainforests.
Thus option value is the value of knowing that there are biological resources existing on this
biosphere that may one day prove to be an effective option for something important in the future.
Thus, the option value of biodiversity suggests that any species may prove to be a miracle species
some day.
The biodiversity is like precious gifts of nature presented to us. We should not commit the folly of
losing these gifts even before unwrapping them. The option value also includes the values, in term of
the option to visit areas where a variety of flora and fauna, or specifically some endemic, rare or
endangered species exist.

7. Ecosystem Service Value:


Recently, a non-consumptive use value related to self maintenance of the ecosystem and various
important ecosystem services has been recognized. It refers to the services provided by ecosystems
like prevention of soil erosion, prevention of floods, maintenance of soil fertility, cycling of
nutrients, fixation of nitrogen, cycling of water, their role as carbon sinks, pollutant absorption and
reduction of the threat of global warming etc.

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