The web of life is torn when mankind exploits natural resouces in short-sighted ways. The trade in tropical hardwoods can destroy whole forests to extract just a few commercially attractive specimens. Bad agricultural practice triggers 24 billion tones of topsoil erosion a year-losing the equivalent of 9 million tonnes of grain output. Cutting this kind of unsustainable exploitation and instituting "sustainable utilization" will help turn the environmental crisis around.