Why are caves worth protecting?

A cave and its content is a more or less sealed biotope, which reacts
to a variety of changes and is unable to regenerate itself. Caves contain
scientifically important information about the development of
human civilisations, the formation of the landscape and the effects
of climate-change.
Although caves appear to be hostile to life, as biotopes they contain
a myriad of minute life forms which, in some cases, have developed
totally independently of external influences.
Most caves have been created by water and serve as subterranean
drains in limestone areas. Unlike ground water in the gravel of valley
floors, water in limestone is rarely self-purifying. Material that is
washed into crevices, caves or dolines, reappears after a few hours or
days almost unchanged at the spring.
In the Jura area, and also in many alpine regions, countless communities
draw their drinking water from springs in the limestone.
Any waste-disposal into dolines, basins and shafts endangers the
quality of the spring water.
That is why we need to respect, value and protect caves in their entirety.