Objectives :Reduce demand for biological resources

5. 
   Reduce resource consumption through recycling and conservation:
   

Recycling and conservation can directly reduce demand for biological resources and can reduce incentives for destroying natural ecosystems. Conservation and recycling of industrial products can help save biodiversity, too. Some of the most effective recycling programs involve glass, steel, and aluminum-all far more expensive to produce from raw than from recycled materials. Increased recycling of such energy-intensive products reduces the need for mining the raw material and at least as important as the demand for the energy used in processing. One key step governments can take toward greater resource conservation and recycling is to remove subsidies for production based on virgin materials.

6. 
   Audit the consumption of biological resources to raise awareness of the balance between local consumption and production:
   

One of the most troubling aspects of the increasingly interconnected global economy has been the loss of immediacy in the relationship between humanity and the environment. For example, in much of the world, a local community loses its access to wood for construction or fuel if a forest is over-exploited. But where levels of income and infrastructure allow, wood is imported once the local forest is depleted-so consumers see a price increase but no break in supply.

Governments or non-governmental organizations should take steps to restore the connection between the consumer and the environment by auditing demand for and consumption of key biological resources and by sharing this information with teachers and the communications media. A complete resource audit would indicate current consumption, the amount produced locally, and the location and intensity of the remainder of the production needed to meet local demand.