Scientists estimate that dozens of plant and animal species are going extinct every day and 7 the extinction rate is 1000 – 10000 times higher than the natural extinction rate. Principles and Practices of Sustainable Use and Sustainable Harvesting highlights the ways in which sustainable use is one of the most effective tools to protect and conserve biological resources.
The experience gained from sustainable use can be applied to all biodiversity components such as agriculture, fisheries, forestry, tourism, water management and other sectors. Therefore, utmost importance is given to sustainable use of biodiversity at ecosystem level with landscape management as it is linked to health and livelihoods of the current and future of mankind. The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) identified the need for sustainable use of biological resources as one of its three over-arching objectives and provided a definition for it. Prior to CBD, the Convention on International Trade on Endangered Species (CITES) in 1975 concentrated extensively on regulating the international trade of endangered and threatened species for protecting them from extinction.
The CITES Strategic Vision 2008- 8 2020 focuses on sustainable use of flora and fauna. The ecosystem approach is one of the significant tools and strategies for the holistic management of natural resources (land, water and bio-resources) that promotes conservation and sustainable use. With its twelve 9 principles, it focuses on adaptive management of ecosystem and its functions. It recognizes that humans, with their cultural diversity, are an essential element of ecosystems.