I personally believe it's worth conserving for its own sake, but from a purely human-centric standpoint, natural ecosystems do a lot of things, even now, that are completely necessary for human survival. Stuff like cleaning our air and cycling our water. Some of these things could by done by humans, but most would be more expensive and less efficient. For example, in Niger, they cut down most of their forests for wood cooking fires, and now they suffer terrible droughts because trees bring rain. In many areas of the country, they can't grow food without irrigation that most families can't provide, often they can't even replant the trees, so they don't have fires to cook food if they did have it. The Sahara Desert is reclaiming the countryside, and Niger is, thanks to a combination of deforestation and the collapse of its main industry, the poorest country in the world.
What does this have to do with wildlife? We still have a very poor understanding of how adding and removing species affects ecosystems. For a less life-threatening example, take Yellowstone. In the mid-90's, when wolves were introduced, the youngest Aspen tree in the park was 50 years old. The elk population had swelled and was eating all the young trees, trampling and denuding streambanks and generally wrecking ecological havoc. Ten+ years after wolves were brought back, the elk population has been halved back to more normal levels and the park is seeing its first new aspen trees in decades. Willows and cottonwoods along streams are also returning, providing habitat for many aquatic creatures whose populations had been declining fast, including trout and other fish people like to eat.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/200鈥?/a>
Complex ecosystems are healthy ecosystems and healthy ecosystems keep not only wildlife but also humanity alive.Why should we conserve wildlife?
so we don't die. the human race depends on all the natural cycles of the earth to survive. if we don't eat those animals specifically, they are still an integral part of the chain of food and plant life. The more of those things we kill off, the closer we are to death. If we keep going on our steady path, the world will be dead. Nuclear war, oil spills, Marine Biologists say the ocean is going downhill fast. IT's getting more acidic. It won't completely die, but it will be black and slimey, and we'll see less big fish, and more jellyfish.
From a purely practical point of view: we should conserve them because everything is interlinked. Many animals provide important services to us, or support those who do.
because the food chain is important to your survival
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