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Economic plants have been defined by SEPASAT as those plants that
are utilised either directly or indirectly for the benefit of Man.
Indirect usage includes the needs of Man's livestock and the
maintenance of the environment; the benefits may be domestic,
commercial or aesthetic. Economic plants constitute a large and so
far uncalculated percentage of the quarter of a million higher
plants in the World today. However, it has been calculated that 10%
(25 000) of these species are now on the verge of extinction and
extinction means that a genetic resource that could be of benefit
to Man will be lost for ever. Furthermore, for every species lost
an estimated 10-30 other dependent organisms are also doomed. Fewer
than 1 per cent of the World's plants have been sufficiently well
studied for a true evaluation of the potential floral wealth
awaiting discovery, not only in the rain forests, which man is now
actively destroying at a rate of 20 ha a minute, but also in the
very much neglected dry areas of the World.
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