Biodiversity, countries with

In contrast to some tropical countries with a rich biodiversity, Suriname has had a stable democratic government for the past several years and recently held peaceful elections for the election of a new government. 

Worldwide, the greatest unresolved water quality concerns are in countries with the fewest resources, where demand for water is growing and research and restoration funding sources are scarce. The fate of aquatic resources in the world s poorest countries should be of concern to all countries. Because the toxicity of drinking water often increases with nutrient enrichment, excess nutrients should be treated as toxic substances and banned. There is an urgent need for the universal regulation of nutrients to protect drinking water supplies and aquatic biodiversity. 

The advent of functional foods and nutraceuticals on the market has blurred the distinction between pharma and nutrition [1]. Obviously, the concept of foods promoting health is not new. In 400 b.c., Hippocrates already sentenced Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food [2], and in the countries of the far East, influenced by Chinese culture, foods such as glutinous rice, wheat, sesame, jujube, gingiber, or leek were included in Chinese medicine books for their traditional use for chronic diseases [3]. Nowadays, the development of functional foods is one of the most intensive areas of food product development worldwide, opening multiple challenges for countries with a vast biodiversity and historical use of plant extracts [4]. 

The ecosystem acidification and critical load calculation processes are only partly scientific exercises, being connected closely with economic development of all countries. So, in different projects the hazards of concern include ecosystem damage due to acidification and eutrophication processes (e.g., decreased productivity and biodiversity, soil erosion, drinking water quality, reproduction losses, etc.), firstly, in local scale and, secondly, in regional scale that may lead to transboundary pollution. For more details see Figure 2. 

Although the experts assessments vary enormously by country, the mean values show that the most important subjects with respect to the environmental impacts of organic farming are landscape, soil, ground and surface water and biodiversity. Climate as well as air and energy uses are, however, assessed to be of only minor importance. Only two experts identified animal health and welfare to be of special importance for organic farming in this context. 

Based on the rate at which novel microorganisms are being discovered, one can make an estimation of the amount of different organisms that have been identified up to now relative those that remain uncharacterized (Table 5.8). The overwhelming biochemical diversity present in nature makes that the isolation of microorganisms with novel enzymatic activities is worthwhile (reviewed in Bull, Goodfellow Howard Slater, 1992). Preferred sites to find novel enzymes include so-called mega-diversity countries such as Mexico, Colombia, Brazil or India and biodiversity hot spots like rain forest and deep seas. 

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