Every plant and animals are part of the ecosystem of the particular place where its habitat is. So destroying plant or animals beyond natural causes their death, this destroys the ecosystem and creates imbalance in nature in the long run. So it is advisable to protect the endangered species because they contain a lot of benefit to the human nature. When we come forward to protect these endangered species, we actually try to restore our nature and environment for our welfare. Many people think that wildlife species in the universe are in abundance but this is not the truth, the numbers of these wildlife’s is reducing and when nothing is done about it, this species will become endangered and extinct.
Thankfully, there are personnel and organizations who are campaigning or are setting up campaigns and setting up preservation programs to save and help protect the endangered species. This really help to bring awareness and motivation to the public regarding the proper management of resources (Hartfield, P., Brown, J. G., " Fischer, R. A, 2017). So it is important to protect the endangered species to keep the world livable to the human beings too.
Importance of protecting the species
Contribution to Medicinal value
Worldwide plants are known for their medicinal value and ability to cure some disease causing organisms. Most of the medicines in hospitals are majorly retrieved from the plants. Some plants worldwide contain some chemical substances which is usually retrieved by scientist, tested and proven to have medicinal value to cure some diseases. For example, the drug digitalis, derived from purple foxglove (vonHoldt, B. M., Brzeski, K. E., Wilcove, D. S., " Rutledge, L. Y., 2017). Digitalis is used to treat congestive heart failure, fluid retention, irregular heartbeat, asthma, epilepsy, tuberculosis, headache, constipation and spam. It can also heal wounds and burns. It also prevented the death of millions of people.
This observation means that if one plant species gets extinct, the potential benefits, such as a source of medicine, will be reduced. However, many plants may be nearing extinction without our knowledge (Hostim-Silva, M., Bertoncini, Á. A., Borgonha, M., Leite, J. R., Freitas, M. O., Daros, F. A., " Koenig, C. C., 2018). These plants could contain thousands pf important compounds that can lengthen the human lifespan.
Plants are not the only species with medicinal value but also there some animals have medicinal properties. For example; scorpion, brain tumor research uses its venom; bees, honeybee’s products prevent microbes from thriving; frog, produces compounds that prevent infection; lizards, secrets a toxin that may benefit diabetes sufferers.
Ecological value
An individual plant or animal could not live by itself, just like the humans. They have to interact with the other organism as well as its environment to survive. So, you will tend to compromise the life of the other organism when you remove one animal or plant species from the ecosystem that interacts with (Cortés-Avizanda, A., Martín-López, B., Ceballos, O., " Pereira, H. M., 2018). Thus, this will break and destroy the food chain of these organisms Example of endangered species and how they link with other organism; the northern spotted owl, health indicator of the ancient forest of the pacific northwest; gray wolf controls the population of the elk; killer whale, affects the diet of bald eagles
According to the U.S Fish and Wildlife Services, one lost plant spices can lead to the loss of thirty other insects, plant and other animal species found in the higher levels of the food chain. These individual species of the plant or animal are sometimes called the keystone species. If that species is removed, the whole ecosystem will be changed drastically.
Ecosystem services
Ecosystem services include air and water purification, detoxification and decomposition of wastes, climate regulation, regeneration of soil fertility and the production and maintenance of biological diversity. These are the key ingredients of our agricultural, pharmaceutical, and industrial enterprises (Díez-del-Molino, D., Sánchez-Barreiro, F., Barnes, I., Gilbert, M. T. P., " Dalén, L, 2017). These services are very important to the human survival but the public is not aware of it and just taking it for granted, but when they tend to get depleted, that is when the human tends to be more concerned.
Agricultural value
Wild species of plants can be a source of vital genes to improve crops that are grown today. Among those genes that scientist splice from the DNAs of plant are pest or disease resistance, salt tolerance and drought resistance can help counter the effects of global climate change. While there are concerns about the products of genetic engineering such as genetically modified organisms, these products helped attain food security (McDonald, P. J., Stewart, A., " Dickman, C. R., 2018). People have had a reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable and nutritious food. For example, genetic material from a wild corn species stopped a leaf fungus that previously wiped out 15% of US corn crop. Thus, more crop production ensued.
Animals such as gecko and spiders are also important natural pest control agents. For example, gecko feed on at least five different kind of pests and spiders are known to prey on cockroaches.
Finally, many people believe that every creature or species has an intrinsic value to nature. The loss of plant and animal species has been compared to ripping pages out of books that have not yet been read. We are accustomed to a rich diversity in nature thus is very important to take care of our creatures and protect them, and still coming up with techniques that will help put them out of danger at any means necessary.
REFERENCE
Hartfield, P., Brown, J. G., " Fischer, R. A. (2017). The role of interagency cooperation in the conservation of threatened and endangered species (No. ERDC-TN-DOER-E40). ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS VICKSBURG MS VICKSBURG United States.
vonHoldt, B. M., Brzeski, K. E., Wilcove, D. S., " Rutledge, L. Y. (2017). Redefining the role of admixture and genomics in species conservation. Conservation Letters.
Hostim-Silva, M., Bertoncini, Á. A., Borgonha, M., Leite, J. R., Freitas, M. O., Daros, F. A., ... " Koenig, C. C. (2018). The Atlantic Goliath Grouper: Conservation Strategies for a Critically Endangered Species in Brazil. In Advances in Marine Vertebrate Research in Latin America (pp. 367-405). Springer, Cham.
Cortés-Avizanda, A., Martín-López, B., Ceballos, O., " Pereira, H. M. (2018). Stakeholders perceptions of the endangered Egyptian vulture: Insights for conservation. Biological Conservation, 218, 173-180.
McDonald, P. J., Stewart, A., " Dickman, C. R. (2018). Applying the niche reduction hypothesis to modelling distributions: A case study of a critically endangered rodent. Biological Conservation, 217, 207-212.
Díez-del-Molino, D., Sánchez-Barreiro, F., Barnes, I., Gilbert, M. T. P., " Dalén, L. (2017). Quantifying Temporal Genomic Erosion in Endangered Species. Trends in ecology " evolution
