Recovery from unpredictable events

Maintaining healthy ecosystems improves the chances of recovery of plant and animal populations from unpredictable natural catastrophic events such as fire, flood and cyclones and from disasters caused by humans. Inadequately conserved and isolated populations, and ecosystems which are degraded, are less likely to recover or to recover as quickly, to their former state. Populations of biota may end up with small, possibly non-viable, genetic bases, which can lead to extinctions.