Conservation, ecological justice and harm to nature - Environmental Harm: An Eco-justice Perspective - page 81

Five million barrels of oil flowed into the Gulf before the well was
finally permanently sealed on 19 September (UNEP, 2011).
The world's oceans, and the creatures within them, are under serious
threat from a variety of negative forces and influences.
Plants and forests
Any particular ecosystem is made up of both abiotic components
(air, water, soils, atoms and molecules) and biotic components (plants,
animals, bacteria and fungi). Changes to an ecosystem through human
intervention occur through manipulation, contamination or destruction
of these components (for example, through mining or land clearance
or use of pesticides). It is not only human intervention that can lead
to change (for example, the spread of invasive species can transform
local ecologies). It was recently reported that 'over 22 per cent of the
world's plants are at risk of extinction, in large part due to loss of habitats
through conversion of natural areas for agricultural use, including food
and biofuel production' (UNEP, 2011: 12).
The loss of biodiversity - in all three of its main components, namely,
genes, species and ecosystems - continues at a rapid pace today and
the five principal pressures directly driving biodiversity loss (habitat
change, overexploitation, pollution, invasive alien species and climate
change) are either constant or increasing in intensity (SCBD, 2010).
Biodiversity is generally defined as the variety of all species on earth.
It refers to the different plants, animals and micro-organisms, and their
genes, that together make up life on the planet. It also includes the
terrestrial (land), marine (ocean) and freshwater (inland water systems)
ecosystems of which they are a part.
Many different forces and factors are involved in potential biodiversity
loss in relation to plants. For example, unregulated and inappropriate
bioprospecting (the worldwide search for plants with special properties,
such as for medicinal use) can be considered a form of over-exploitation
which has the potential to degrade ecosystems and increase biodiversity
loss, as well as having an impact on the rights of the communities and
states from which the resources are taken (see, for example, Mgbeoji,
2006). Probably the greatest threats to biodiversity are those associated
with contemporary agricultural methods and climate change.
It has been estimated that 75 per cent of crop diversity has been
lost over the past century (French, 2000: 61). In other words, there
is a tendency toward monoculture, since uniformity means ease of
cultivation and harvest, and higher yield, which translates into higher
profit. This simplification of production generates paradoxical harm