4. Economically important species
The objective of conservation is to protect ALL species, but some species have more obvious economic potential than others e.g. wild relatives of crops or domestic animals, species harvested from the wild for food, drugs or other products, fodder plants for domestic animals, species which pollinate crop plants or which control populations of pest species, species which improve the soil, animals useful in medical research or species tolerant of extreme conditions. N. I. VAVILOV, a Russian plant geneticist identified major centres of diversity of wild crop genetic resources. Such VAVILOV CENTRES contain a wide range of plant varieties related to modern crop species and are probably the place where crop species first evolved, e.g. the highlands of Ethiopia, where wheat first evolved. Such areas should receive the highest priority for conservation.