Human disease is both a public health problem and an ecological problem. If a country with a relatively high biodiversity were to lose 15 percent of it, the burden of disease would be expected to increase by about 30 percent. What this means for economy because one-third of the world’s plants, mammals and birds are threatened with extinction?
Bonds, M., Dobson, A., Keenan, D. (2012). Disease Ecology, Biodiversity, and the Latitudinal Gradient in Income. PLoS Biol 10(12). Available at http://www.plosbiology.org/