E. O Wilson Essay

E.O. Wilson: the Value of Biodiversity and the Preservation of Species

The inspiring documentary film, E.O. Wilson—Of Ants and Men, showcases biologist Edward Osborne Wilson’s passion for preserving the biodiversity of the natural world. E.O. Wilson not only values the fascinating creatures (particularly ants) that he comes across during his research and in his daily life, but he also takes action and participates in the Gorongosa Restoration Project at Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique, Africa. The destruction of Gorongosa demonstrates the call for us—Homo sapiens—to realize how critical it is to concern ourselves with protecting the very ecosystems that have molded us into the complex species that we are; according to E.O. Wilson in the

Although Gorongosa had faced a major human conflict that came close to annihilating the entire population of large animals that inhabited it, it has been able to bounce back remarkably to what Wilson claims in the documentary as “its full glory.” He devotes his cause to biodiversity, and since the restoration project began, Wilson has discovered hundreds of new species of insects in the park. Many of us tend to focus our attention on our own species, and some might even blindly ask, “Why care about parks if people are all that really matter?” But Wilson answers this question in a way that is meaningful to us and encourages deep reflection. He emphasizes that in general, science has found only about twenty percent of the number of species estimated on earth (Wilson). Although this truth reminds us of how little we know about what is out there, what we do know is that these mysterious, unknown species are relevant because they create some kind of stability within the environments that we live in. Thus, it is dangerous to destroy any ecosystem (including parks) and interfere with the network of living things that support

Homo sapiens play a serious role in the network, and the extent to which we take responsibility for our actions have a notable impact on other species. Biodiversity is important because it plays a significant role in maintaining healthy relationships among those in an ecosystem. In fact, humans and other species have evolved into who they are today as a result of both healthy competition and cooperation with each other. Wilson claims in the documentary that we experience emotions because our mind, or our human nature, has evolved in the natural world. If we do not pay proper attention to biodiversity and ecology, and if Wilson and his colleagues had decided to leave Gorongosa to the possibility of deterioration, for example, we would be deprived of the dynamic unity that enables us to improve ourselves both in an evolutionary and a sociological perspective. Biodiversity enables resilience in an ecosystem that may otherwise collapse if certain species are removed and not replaced; it keeps balance. Conservationist and environmentalist Aldo Leopold illustrates in his essay, Land Ethic, that our web of existence is better represented as a “biotic pyramid” (251) (also known as a food chain), where every individual has a mutual dependency and influence over one