Band 7+: Some people think that a huge amount of time and money is spent on the protection of wild animals and that this money could be better spent on the human population. To what extent do you agree or disagree with this opinion?

It has been observed that a large amount of time and funding has been allocated towards wildlife protection. However, some argue that this funding could be put to better use towards helping humanity. In this essay, I will explain my thoughts as to why I partially agree that time and money could be better spent on helping humanity.

On the one hand, the protection of wild animals can maintain the delicate balance of the ecosystem. If one animal species becomes completely extinct, other species may suffer from a lack of food as these prey may be their sole food source and then consequently become extinct themselves, massively disrupting the food chain. Hence the protection of wild animals cannot be understated and requires adequate funding and time for it to continue in the long-term. This can be observed in the US, where the Conservation Reserve Program assisted in increasing the population of native bird species such as ducks, grouse and pheasants, owing to the abundant amount of money and time dedicated by the government to supporting this program.

On the other hand, there are more important sectors to allocate funding to in order to facilitate human development. While the protection of wild animals may not have a direct effect on supporting humanity, there are other facets of human society that do, such as infrastructure, healthcare and education. By devoting enough money and time to bolstering these sectors, there can be marked improvements in the quality of life for the human population. Venezuela for instance, is currently facing a financial crisis that started in 2013 which has led to the country struggling to improve the quality of life for its citizens. Thus, they have to prioritise meeting their citizens’ basic needs before devoting funding to protecting native wildlife.

In conclusion, I somewhat believe that though an investment in preserving animals may somehow maintain the balance of the ecosystem, our time and money should be more justifiably spent on important sectors of the economy to improve people’s living standards