Keeping Options Alive: The Scientific Basis for Conserving by Walter V. Reid

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By Walter V. Reid

Booklet via Reid, Walter V., Miller, Kenton R.

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Crops were domesticated in warm temperate and subtropical zones and in tropical mountainous regions. Wheat and barley were first grown in the steppes and woodlands of south western Asia (Hawkes 1983), and the origin of maize has been traced to the seasonally dry central highlands of Mexico (Wilkes 1979). The highlands of Peru contributed the tomato and potato, though the tomato was probably first cultivated in Mexico (Hawkes 1983, Wilkes 1979). Most important food crops appear to have originated where seasons are pronounced, so it makes sense to look there—and not in rain forests—for promising new crops.

New medicinal compounds are often derived from species that have been used as folk remedies for centuries. In one study of 119 plantderived drugs used in Western medicine, some 77 percent were found to have been used in folkloric medicine by indigenous cultures (Farnsworth 1988), and one of the most promising new anti-malarial drugs—qinghaosu—is the active ingredient of a Chinese herbal medicine used for centuries to treat malaria and rediscovered only in 1971 (Wyler 1983). Of course, some of the most threatening modern diseases, including AIDS and some types of cancer, have historically had little impact on traditional societies; in such cases, traditional medicinal species may have no more than other species to offer.

Currently, though island species remain highly endangered, 66 percent of endangered and vulnerable terrestrial vertebrates are continental. ) In addition, habitat loss has become the main threat to species survival. Historically, species introductions and over-exploitation were equally important influences. ) The Geography of Extinction Species in some habitats and biomes are more threatened with extinction than species in others are. " Most extinctions in the coming decades will occur on islands and in closed tropical forests.

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