BIODIVERSITY AS THE SOURCE OF BIOLOGICAL RESOURCES - A NEW LOOK AT BIODIVERSITY VALUES

The value of biodiversity is usually confused with the value of biolog ical resources, both actual and potential. A sharp distinction between biological resources and biodiversity offers a clearer insight into t he value of biodiversity itself and therefore the need to preserve it. Biodiversity can be defined abstractly as the differences among biolo gical entities. Using this definition, biodiversity can be seen more a ppropriately as: (a) a necessary precondition for the long term mainte nance of biological resources, and therefore, (b) an essential environ mental condition. Three values of biodiversity are identified and arra nged in a hierarchy: (1) the self-augmenting phenomenon of biodiversit y maintains (2) the conditions necessary for the adaptive evolution of species and higher taxa, which in turn is necessary for providing hum ans with (3) a range of biological resources in the long term. Two bro ad policy implications emerge: increments of biodiversity should not b e traded off against biological resources as if they were the same, an d the conservation of biodiversity should be a constraint on the publi c interest, not a goal in service of the public interest.