Q. Extractive use of biodiversity?
This includes direct use such as harvesting of wild plant species for use as food, fuel, fodder, fibre, shelter or medicine and hunting animals for food or sport and fisheries.
In terms of ecosystems, forests have been converted for agriculture and settlements, wetlands have been drained and reclaimed for various uses and coral reefs have been used for extraction of corals for producing lime. Sometimes, in the case of species for which there are no substitutes (such as tigers, whales, and bluefin tuna), their prices increase exponentially as the resource becomes more and more scarce due to extraction. This in turn increases the incentives to extract such resources due to the high prices they fetch. Thus, the price and demand keep increasing until the species in question is on the brink of extinction or finally becomes extinct. A case in point is the stock of western bluefin tuna, which has declined to less than 20% of its 1970 level, while its price has increased 20 fold. Ecosystems that contain economic value in the form of minerals, wildlife, wood and land have resulted in the final destruction of the ecosystem due to excessive extractive use.