Maintaining biodiversity, monitoring conservation and ecotourism

Overview

The benefits of high biodiversity to people and why it makes an ecosystem stable, why international conservation agreements are hard to reach, why conservation schemes must be monitored and why that is difficult, what ecotourism is, and how it can both conserve and damage a habitat.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   Give two benefits to people of maintaining high biodiversity.

   Model answer

   A wide range of species provides food, medicines and materials, and stable ecosystems continue to supply clean water, pollination and fertile soil.

2. 2

   Explain why high biodiversity makes an ecosystem more stable.

   Model answer

   Many species carry out similar roles, so if one declines others can replace it and the ecosystem continues to function.

3. 3

   Why is it difficult to reach international agreements on conservation?

   Model answer

   Countries have different priorities and levels of wealth, and a government may be unwilling to limit farming, logging or industry that its economy depends on.

4. 4

   Why is monitoring essential once a conservation scheme has begun?

   Model answer

   Without repeated surveys there is no evidence of whether the population is recovering, so the scheme cannot be judged or improved.

5. 5

   Give two reasons why monitoring a conservation scheme is hard to do well.

   Model answer

   Surveys of large or remote areas are expensive and need trained staff, and populations must be counted over many years before a trend is clear.

6. 6

   What is ecotourism?

   Model answer

   Tourism that lets visitors see wildlife in its natural habitat while limiting damage to that habitat and returning money to local people.

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