Protecting Wild Animals Is Protecting Ourselves

Extinction is irreversible.Once a species is gone,it’s not coming back(barring some Jurassic Park-like scientiic development).Extinction has wide-ranging ramiications for the ecosystem and biodiversity.Many species are afected by the disappearance of one.Sometimes the efects are foreseeable–most of the time they are not.Ensuring that all species have the chance to thrive free of human interference is paramount to ecological conservation,and doing so will also beneit humanity.These are the core messages of a recent interview with Zhao Shucong,director of the State Forestry Administration that leads China’s wildlife protection eforts.Excerpts from the interview are below: