A huge number of products derived from wild species help boost all levels of our economy. In fact, many businesses and manufacturers have found that biodiversity can turn a hefty profit. Here are a few examples:

• Sales of prescription drugs that contain ingredients extracted or derived from wild plants totaled more than $15 billion in the United States in 1990.

Rosy periwinkle photo: WWF-Canon/Mauri Rautkari

• Each year, more than 350 million people visit our national parks, wildlife refuges, and other public lands managed by the United States Department of Interior. This visitation generates more than 400,000 jobs and more than $28 billion of economic activity.

• Certain types of bacteria make nitrogen available for use by crops, pastures, forests, and other vegetation. Economists estimate that the value of this activity is $33 billion annually.

• More than 40 crops produced in the United States, valued at approximately $30 billion per year, depend on insect pollination.

• Bees, butterflies, birds, bats, and other animals pollinate 75 percent of the world’s staple crops and 90 percent of all flowering plants.

• The dollar value of services provided by ecosystems throughout the world is estimated to be $33 trillion per year. (The value of all human-produced goods and services per year is about $18 trillion.)