Many companies see not only the threat of this, but also the opportunity. They believe that by examining and harnessing the potential in the genes, they can better cope with any future possible changes. In particular they are looking at medical and agricultural applications. The new techniques of finding and transferring desirable genes from one organism to another is called genetic engineering  (GE) or Genetic Mofification (GM)
Some people see genetic engineering posing a serious threat to the earth's biodiversity. Genetic engineering allows genes to be transferred between completely unrelated species. human genes have been moved into fish; bacterial and animal genes into plants.

Many people consider this is not the way to deal with the reduction of biodiversity, because:

• It is a "technological fix" and does not address the root causes

• Genes are stolen from the poor and unknowing

• New creations may create freaks and all sorts of unknown hazards

• Future responses will be in the hands of a few rich companies

These issues and more are recognised by the UN Biodiversity Convention. While setting out to protect the species of the world, it also sets out too protect the ownership of new discoveries of gene transfers.