CONSERVATION can even help economic growth!

Conservation of species and preservation of biodiversity are more important than people think. I believe it's imporant to preserve ecosystems for the sheer love and respect of life's natural diversity, but it helps us too. It's a shame that our consumer driven self-absorbed world is every day closer to causing more and more mass extinction, and most people fail to even recognize the plight. So, it's promising that scientists can actually provide tangible proof that helping the environment will in turn help the economy, so i read this morning...

What do bees and forest conservation have to do with your morning cup of coffee? A lot, according to a new study by a WWF scientist, which found that pollination by wild bees resulted in greater yields and healthier coffee beans from trees planted near patches of forest. The research, released this week by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows that conserving tropical forests -- where bees nest -- may provide huge economic benefits to nearby coffee plantations and increase profits for farmers in developing countries.

"The study illustrates that there are compelling reasons for conserving native ecosystems," said Taylor Ricketts, principal author of the study and director of WWF's Conservation Science Program. It also tells us that "the goals of conservation and economic development are more aligned than we thought. Protecting natural ecosystems can benefit both biodiversity and local people."

The study, which is the first to quantify in such detail the economic value of pollination services from tropical forests, shows that 7 percent of a Costa Rican farm's annual income -- $62,000 -- comes directly from the "pollination services" of adjacent tropical forest. Coffee plants within about a half mile of tropical forest increased their yields by 20 percent and those plants visited by bees were 27 percent less likely to produce deformed beans. The research also indicates that the value of tropical forest is likely greater than other land uses for which forests are often destroyed.

Honeybees and other native species are in decline all over the world due primarily to habitat loss, and this report illustrates the economic consequences of these declines. But it also opens the door to conservation by demonstrating its potential economic benefits.

"Linking coffee production to forest conservation could provide powerful conservation incentives in some of the most important and threatened regions on Earth," said Ricketts.