Lessons from Norse Mythology: past diversity, ecology and evolution have significant roles in conservation.

Though almost all people sensitive to the environment agree on the need to conserve biodiversity -- particularly endangered species -- one finds little consensus on what species ought to be conserved, and why. Biologists claim that they have come up with objective methods of categorising species in terms of their priority for conservation. One such method is used to prepare the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List, which categorises species on basis of the basis of their extinction risk. However, this list can be criticised because it treats all species as equal, when in fact, they are not so -- for a variety of reasons. For example, some consider the coelocanth to be of great importance because it is the sole surviving representative of its group, a living fossil. Others lay much store on conserving species such as tigers because of their key role as top predators. On a different note, many biologists have recently suggested that conservation efforts should be directed towwards protecting processes, and not genes, species or ecosystems.