Ecosystems and biodiversity - AQA SynergyPositive human impacts

The increase in the human population and waste it produces, deforestation, peat bog destruction and global warming are all reducing biodiversity.

Conservation helps to stabilise or reverse the negative effects that human populations have on ecosystems. Conservation is the preservation of the natural environment, ecosystems and species.

Scientists and concerned members of the public help maintain biodiversity by:

• breeding programmes to help to preserve endangered species, such as species of rhino and the giant panda
• protection of endangered habitats and regeneration of habitats on a local, regional or national level
• replanting hedgerows and creating borders around fields of crops - 'skylark strips' - because there is higher biodiversity in them than the fields of crops they surround
• reducing deforestation - deforestation reduces the potential to store carbon and burning timber waste releases greenhouse gases
• recycling rather than dumping waste in landfill sites