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Conservation of Biological Resources: Why Does It Matter?

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Biodiversity and Education for Sustainable Development

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Abstract

The world population has grown from 2500 million people in the year 1950 to more than 7300 million people in the year 2015, posing a challenge never faced before in human history. People are less aware about the limitedness of natural resources and the consequences of the present development. Increased population, associated with technological advancement undermines the sustainable development of any nation. Daily, many species are going extinct due to the continuous fragmentation/destruction of habitats, many of which have not been studied or referenced. Presently, we are living in the «Decade of Biodiversity» from the period of year 2011 to the year 2020, which was launched at the end of the year 2011 by the General Secretary of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon. This poses a great challenge and all societies and nations are saddled with the responsibility of revising their actual models of economic development and increasing their knowledge base, by planning more intelligent and integrative programmes for the conservation of our biological resources and its functions in the ecosystems and human health. This chapter aims to raise awareness on the relevance of biodiversity in people’s life. It emphasizes subjects, such as the importance of forests, the unknown biodiversity, and the extinction of species, in order to alert the general public, students, teachers, and other stakeholders to the importance of all biological resources.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Life Sciences, Centre for Functional Ecology, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal

    Paula Castro & Jorge Paiva

  2. Center for Neuroscience and Cell Biology, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal

    Anabela Marisa Azul

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  1. Paula Castro
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  2. Anabela Marisa Azul
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  3. Jorge Paiva
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Correspondence to Paula Castro .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal

    Paula Castro

  2. Universidade Aberta, Porto, Portugal

    Ulisses M. Azeiteiro

  3. Universidade Aberta, Lisboa, Portugal

    Paula Bacelar-Nicolau

  4. Metropolitan University, HAW Hamburg and Manchester, Hamburg, Germany

    Walter Leal Filho

  5. University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal

    Anabela Marisa Azul

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Castro, P., Azul, A.M., Paiva, J. (2016). Conservation of Biological Resources: Why Does It Matter?. In: Castro, P., Azeiteiro, U., Bacelar-Nicolau, P., Leal Filho, W., Azul, A. (eds) Biodiversity and Education for Sustainable Development . World Sustainability Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-32318-3_2

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