Define the terms (i) Bioprospecting (ii) | Class 12 Biology Chapter Biodiversity and Conservation, Biodiversity and Conservation NCERT Solutions

(i) Bioprospecting: Bioprospecting refers to the systematic and organized way of exploration of natural resources for various useful products that are introduced from bioresources (natural renewable resources) like plants, microorganisms, animals, etc., which can further be used commercially so that we can get overall benefits for the agricultural (for the energy carriers), aquaculture, bioremediation (it describes the use of microbes which cleaned up the contaminants from the environment), cosmetics or pharmaceutical industries etc.

(ii) Endemism or endemic species: Endemism represents those species which are native (originated there) to a particular geographic area or continent and do not found anywhere else. For example: Koala bear, the Red Kangaroo etc.