The plant world has long been used by humans as a source of food, animal feed, raw materials for construction and processing. With the development of human society, the need for plant raw materials has increased. If only 20 years ago 4-5 thousand products and products were made of wood, now their number is brought to 15 thousand. It is impossible to imagine our life without paper, but only the release of one Sunday issue of the "New York Times" absorbs 77 hectares of forest. However, people do not always use wood rationally. Approximately 10% of it remains in the taiga forests not removed from the logging sites. Therefore, the forest cover of many regions (the percentage of the area covered by the forest in the country) has dropped dramatically. Suffice it to say that back in the days of Peter the Great, the forest cover in Central Russia was 38-40%, and now it is only 7-12%.
In addition to direct removal of plants for consumption for various purposes, industry and motor transport have an extremely destructive impact on the flora. Phytotoxicants (substances harmful to plants) cause forests to dry up. In Western Europe, all coniferous forests suffer from industrial emissions to some extent, and more than half of them are in the drying up phase. Tropical forests, a major supplier of oxygen to the atmosphere, are being destroyed at a tremendous rate.
Reforestation of tropical forests is a very long process, despite the favourable conditions for growth.
The construction of hydroelectric power plants and reservoirs on large rivers has caused the flooding of vast areas of vegetation. The increase in the number of livestock in mountainous areas has led to the destruction of mountain pastures and intensive soil erosion. Inefficient plowing of floodplains resulted in the siltation of many small and medium-sized rivers and, as a result, the reduction of water flow into large rivers. Large-scale drainage of wetlands in Belarus and Ukraine has led to the extinction of not only individual plant species, but also entire plant communities. In Belovezhskaya Pushcha, for example, spruce stands began to dry out. And only the cessation of drainage works near the reserve stopped this negative process.
Under direct or indirect human influence, many species became rare or endangered. At present, at least 25-30 thousand species of plants, or 8-10% of their total number, are under threat of extinction on Earth.
In the last century, about 70 species of vascular plants have disappeared from the territory of the Republic (in all, they are found in the modern flora of Belarus in 1650). Among them there are spring gorgeous, Russian grouse, etc. More than 160 species are considered to be rare and endangered - about 10% of the total species composition. According to experts' estimates, more than 500 plant species of Belarusian flora are in need of protection. In order to stop their further extinction, it is necessary to use natural resources rationally (to prevent crushing, hay-mowing and cattle grazing in prohibited places), to stop irrational drainage. Creation of reserves and wildlife sanctuaries does not contribute much to the preservation of flora composition, as extensive territories require protection. The introduction of new species, though, enriches the flora of this or that country (1500 species have been introduced in Belarus), but does not solve the problem of plant conservation. Getting into absolutely different conditions, introduced plants, as a rule, cannot form stable biocenoses and do not represent the big value. The main task in the preservation of the plant world is the restoration of lost plant communities and the rational use of available plant resources.
Human economic activity also has a negative impact on the fauna of our planet. Since time immemorial, animals have been objects of hunting and domestication. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, 94 species of birds and 63 species of mammals have died out in the last 400 years. Fauna of oceanic islands was particularly affected. For example, 60% of all fauna has disappeared from Hawaii. There is no more tarpan, tour, marsupial wolf, steller's cow, blue horse antelope and other species on the planet.
Human impact on wildlife is manifested in two ways: direct impact (catching, shooting, destruction by pesticides), change of living conditions (drainage of wetlands, deforestation, plowing of meadows). In recent years, a powerful factor affecting fauna has been the pollution of the environment, which has led to the accumulation of toxic substances in animals and their extinction. There are known cases of mass extermination of animals, birds, insects after treatment of forest plantations and agricultural lands with toxic chemicals. Such human activity endangered 94 species of mammals, 80 species of birds and 9 species of fish only in the CIS. The number of such species as bison, white-tailed eagle, ptarmigan, snake, falconry, osprey, red kite, etc. has decreased dramatically in Belarus.