#7 Biodiversity and Ending Poverty?

Why Should You Care About Wildlife? How can it Help End Poverty?

In the article that I found, it talks about how Biodiversity and Wildlife help to keep the economy going and keep us away from poverty. Animal, plant and marine biodiversity keeps ecosystems functional which in turn allows us to survive, get enough food to eat and make a living.Biodiversity is critical to ending poverty because many people depend on nature itself for their livelihood. Because many animals are becoming extinct, it has become increasingly hard for people to survive because they lack food which helps them to eat and make a living. It is also critical to the poor because 75% of the poor live in rural areas and are dependent on nature to live. The World Bank has invested has over $1 billion invested in protecting wildlife and provides the means to protect wildlife to many areas of the world via financial support. Investments in biodiversity can create jobs and raise incomes. The Bank’s US$ 5.5 million investment in South Africa’s Greater Addo Elephant National Park created 614 jobs for people living in the surrounding areas.When we protect animals and plants, we are also protecting  the ecosystems that underlie our economies and well-being. I think that it is wonderful that simply protecting the environment (which we should be doing anyway) we can help in potentially decreasing the poverty rate around the world. Simple things that we do in our daily life can not only help other people who may be in poverty, but can also help to reduce the poverty rate. Hopefully by enforcing Biodiversity we can start helping to end poverty around the world.