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The International Day for Biological Diversity: Biodiversity and Agriculture

May 22nd 2008

image: Asian buffalo ploughing paddy field

The International Day for Biological Diversity (IBD) is an opportunity to increase understanding and awareness of biodiversity issues around the world. This year, the IBD is focusing on Biodiversity and Agriculture and seeks to highlight the importance of sustainable agriculture, not only to preserve biodiversity, but also to ensure that we will be able to feed the world and maintain agricultural livelihoods for many years to come.

Agriculture is a vital part of every person's life, providing us not only with the food we eat, but also our cotton clothes, leather shoes, fuelwood, and numerous other important raw materials, as well as being a source of income for many.

Biodiversity is the basis of all agriculture, providing the origin of all crops and domesticated livestock and the essential ecosystem services needed for their production. Here we look at just a few of the many species that have played an important role in agriculture.

While the imposing wild yak is found only in remote regions of the Himalayas, the domestic yak is now found throughout the high plateaus and mountains of Central Asia. Its strength and stamina is used to carry heavy loads, its shaggy hair provides wool, and it is utilized for both its milk and meat.

We have a lot to thank the red junglefowl for, as this vibrantly coloured bird is the ancestor of domestic chickens. Its tropical habitat of Southern and Southeast Asia is a far cry from the barnyard existence we associate chickens with in England.

The ancestor of the domestic donkey, the African wild ass, does not have the fortune of being as common as its widespread descendent. With only a few hundred individuals remaining in scattered populations across northern Africa, the African wild ass is now considered to be Critically Endangered.

The domestic Asian buffalo is widespread and thriving throughout Asia, where it is valued as a working animal and for dairy products. Even its dung is used as a valuable commodity, being used as a fertilizer and as a fuel when dried. Sadly, in the wild, the Asian buffalo faces the real possibility of extinction. Hunting, habitat loss and degradation, and hybridization with the domestic buffalo all threaten the existence of this impressive bovid.

image: Honey bee asleep during cold weather

The domestic honey bee plays an incredibly important part in agriculture as it performs the vital task of pollinating our crop species. Not only that, this social insect also provides us with the tasty, naturally sweet product, honey.

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