Biodiversity and Endangered Species
Biodiversity means the variety of living organisms on this earth, the interaction between them, and how they interact with the ecosystems in which they live. Biodiversity has been likened to a web that connects each form of life in an interdependent and interconnected system. All life, including humans, depend on the functioning of healthy ecosystems to supply us with energy, nutrients, water and food. During the last few centuries, growth in the human population and intensification of our use of resources has greatly increased the rate of habitat destruction and species extinction. Today, the extinction rate is at least 1,000 times higher than it was when humans first entered the scene about two million years ago. In terms of biodiversity, extinction is more than the loss of individual species; it is the degradation of the ecosystems that support all life on the planet.

The goal of EDC’s biodiversity and endangered species program is to preserve high habitat value and contiguous open space areas for wildlife and to protect imperiled species. The objectives of this program are to: prevent loss of existing habitat; prevent extinction of endangered, threatened and rare species; identify and protect key contiguous habitats and ecosystems; and to preserve and promote biodiversity.