January 2001
Biological Diversity - The Spice of Life
Wisdom Dlamini

It is often said that variety is a spice of life. No intelligent investor confines his money to one or two shares. No one can sit stably and comfortably on a chair with two legs, No one remains fully healthy on a restricted diet. These facts are obvious, but the larger analogy that a varied base is vital for human existence fails to achieve recognition. The variety of living things around us is one of the greatest wonders of life on earth. This is the reason why our ancestors were able to survive without industries, without the latest technologies, without the guns, without the bulldozers and so forth. This clearly shows that the human race has been dependent on the natural world ever since its existence on this planet.

Most of our country’s greatest wealth is contained in natural forests, plains, mountains, wetlands and marine habitats. These biological resources are the physical manifestation of the globe’s biological diversity, which simply stated is the variety and variability among living organisms and the ecological complexes in which they occur. Effective systems of management can ensure that biological resources not only survive, but in fact increase while they are being used, thus providing the foundation for sustainable development and for stable national economies. But instead of conserving the rich resources of forest, wetland, and sea, current processes of development in the country are depleting many biological resources at such a rate that they are rendered essentially non-renewable. Conservation of living natural resources - plants, animals and micro-organisms, and the non-living elements of the environment on which they depend - is crucial for sustainable development. Species and their genetic materials promise to play an expanding role in development, and a powerful economic rationale is emerging to bolster the ethical, aesthetic, and scientific cases for preserving them. The genetic variability and germ-plasm material of species make contributions to agriculture, medicine, and industry worth many billion of dollars per year. If nations can ensure the survival of species, the world can look forward to new drugs and medicines, and new raw material for industry. Equally important are the vital life processes carried out by nature, including stabilization of climate, protection of watersheds and soil, preservation of nurseries and breeding grounds, and so on. Conserving these processes cannot be divorced from conserving the individual species within natural ecosystems. Species and natural ecosystems make many important contributions to human welfare. Yet these very important resources are seldom being used in ways that will be able to meet the growing pressures of future high demands for both goods and services that depend upon these natural resources. Many ecosystems that are rich biologically and promising in material benefits are severely threatened. Vast stocks of biological diversity are in danger of disappearing just as science is learning how to exploit genetic variability through the advances of genetic engineering.

Direct values
Biological resources, therefore , are valuable. There are direct and indirect values of these resources. The direct values include the consumptive use and productive use values. The consumptive use value is the value placed on nature’s products that are consumed directly, without passing through a market. When direct consumption involves recreation, as in sport fishing and game viewing, the consumptive use value is the whole recreational experience. The productive use value, on the other hand, refers to products which are commercially harvested or used. Productive use of resources such as timber, fish, medicinal plants, honey, construction materials, mushrooms, fruits and so forth have a major impact on the national economy.

Indirect values
Indirect values, which deal primarily with the functions of ecosystems , are not normally reflected in national economic systems but they far outweigh direct values. These values tend to reflect the value of biological diversity to society at large rather than to individuals or corporate entities. Direct values often derive from indirect values, because plants and animals are supported by the services provided by their environments. Species without consumptive or productive use may play a very important role in the ecosystem, supporting species that are valued for their consumptive and productive use. For example high densities of birds in a certain area may limit the abundance of pests which would otherwise destroy crops; the birds themselves require a natural forest for nesting. The indirect values include non-consumptive use value, option value and existence value. The non-consumptive use value are those which deal with nature’s functions and services. These include photosynthetic fixation of solar energy and thereby providing the support system for other species, maintaining water cycles, regulating climate, production and protection of soil, absorption and breakdown of pollutants, recreational, easthetic, socio-cultural , scientific, educational, spiritual , and historical values of natural environments. The recreational value is very significant in tourism. People from all parts of the world want to experience a different and variety of animals and plants and therefore for the tourism sector to improve it is necessary that our biological diversity is maintained or improved.

Since the future is uncertain and extinction is forever, society should prepare for unpredictable events, both biological and socio-economic. The best preparation in the context of wild life use is to have a safety net of diversity- maintaining as many gene pools as possible especially within the species that are economically significant or are likely to be. Option value, therefore is a means of assigning a value to risk aversion and in the face of uncertainty. Many people also attach value to the existence of a species or habitat that they have no intention of ever visiting or using; they might hope that their descendants (or future generations in general) may derive some benefit from the existence of these species, or may just find satisfaction that the mountains hold water, plants and animals, the rivers hold fish and the soil supports plant growth.

As a basis for applying economic incentives and calculating marginal opportunity costs , it is necessary to estimate the economic contribution that biological resources make to the national economy. This requires:

ensuring that national accounting system makes explicit the tradeoffs and value judgements regarding impacts on biological resources that may not be measured in monetary terms.;
conducting research on methodologies for assessing the cross-sectoral impacts- positive and negative- of resource utilization;
collection of information on the physical properties of resources in specific environments and for specific uses;
developing methodologies for assigning values to non-marketed biological resources, appropriate to the needs of the country and;
estimating the economic productivity of various ecosystems with various types of inputs.
It is the government’s responsibility to consider the concept of marginal opportunity cost in development planning, as a means of assessing the true costs of allowing the depletion of biological resources to continue and seeking alternative paths toward sustainable development. The sustainable levels of biological resources, including fish, timber, wildlife, medicinal plants, and other goods and services, should be estimated and demands upon benefits planned within those limits. This should be reflected in the prices of forest products and other biological resources.

The review and formulation of all national policies which have a direct or indirect bearing upon biological resources must therefore:

estimate the relevant benefits which biological resources can produce;
treat biological resources as capital resources and invest accordingly in preventing their depletion.
ensure that the objectives of sustainable utilization are met; and
address the basic needs of the local people who depend on biological resources for their continued prosperity.
Living things do not exist independently of each other, or the non-living environment. They depend on one another n a variety of ways; think , for example , of a food chain. Together with the non-living parts of our environment (e.g. soil, water, air), living things form essential life-support systems .

The pool of life is therefore much more than the sum of its parts. Every species has the right to exist, and our role as custodians of the planet is to ensure their survival.

About 4% of the total area of Swaziland is protected and this is below the internationally recommended minimum of 10%. There is therefore a need for more protected areas.

The value of biodiversity is the value of everything there is. It would, therefore, be easy to say that the value of biological diversity is the summed value of all the GNPs of all the countries from the past the future. We know that, because our very lives and our economies have been and still are dependent on biological diversity. It is indisputable that it is not only the environmentalist, the scientist, the game ranger, or the nature reserve owner who has the responsibility of conserving biological diversity but it is every living human being.

References:
McNeely, J.A. (1988), Economics and Biological Diversity: Developing and using economic incentives to conserve biological resources. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland.

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