Chapter 10. Chapter 10: Biodiversity
What can be done to protect biodiversity?
Guiding Question 10.5
What can be done to protect biodiversity?
Why You Should Care
By now, you have learned several reasons that biodiversity is important to our lives and the biosphere as a whole, so it may not be surprising to learn that many people are interested in protecting it. There are non-governmental agencies, like the Sierra Club, Nature Conservancy, and World Wildlife Fund, which raise awareness and monetary support to either preserve natural areas or endangered species. Governmental agencies that protest biodiversity include the National Park System and the Environmental Protection Agency. Laws, the most prominent being the Endangered Species Act, function to prevent the actions of other parties to threaten or endanger species. Lastly, there are international agreements like the International Biosphere Preserve program, which is governed by the United Nations.
There are many ways that you yourself can protect biodiversity. Simply living as "green" as possible protects natural resources and decreases the pressure put on natural areas. Supporting smart urban planning is another way to protect biodiversity: Re-developing land that has already been in human use and strategically locating new development both serve to protect natural areas. What other choices that you make could possibly impact biodiversity?
Personal Choices that Help
1.
The following was established to help document and protect the biodiversity of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park:
| A. |
| B. |
| C. |
| D. |
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