Biodiversity refers to the variability among living organisms from all sources, including terrestrial, marine and other aquatic ecosystems, and the ecological complexes of which they are part. This includes diversity within species (genetic diversity), between species and of ecosystems. (GEO3, Pg 120)
While the idea of conserving the environment has steadily gained political acceptance over the past few decades, people still misunderstand and ignore the goods and services that nature, biodiversity and ecosystems provide to us.
For example, 16,119 species of animals and plants are threatened with extinction and many ecosystems – wetlands, forests – are being degraded and destroyed, while we know that natural ecosystems provide humans with a large range of highly valuable services. (IUCN)
Reduce biodiversity will lead to loss of livelihoods and unfavorable socioeconomic impacts. (Coates et. Al. 2003). In the management of biodiversity, the level of awareness and understanding of the public, the leadership of both public and private agencies, a balance between the use of modern technologies and local indigenous knowledge, the country’s level of economic development, national policies and institutional structures and international commitments are important considerations.
Dear Participants, what are your opinion about this management of biodiversity??
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
7 comments:
In response to Mr. Maung, Akompab wishes to share the following points
Biodiversity loss is increasing at an unprecedented rate, threatening the very basis of sustainable development .Many species of plants and animals are disappearing before they are even discovered or described. As the former Norwegian prime minister Gro Harlem Brundland once said “the library of life is burning and we do not know the titles of the book” (IUCN, 2004)
Mr. Maung, if you look at the species conservation list you will realise that more than 12,200 species of plants and animals are included in the IUCN Red List of Threatened species, which is the most authoritative inventory of global status of biodiversity.This number is considered as a tip of the ice berg as only a fraction of all known species have been assessed (GEF, 2004). But these species are predisposed to numerous threats.
The main threats are habitat loss, and invasive species, but climate change is emerging as an equally pervasive threat (UNEP, 2000, Alonso et al, 2001). Following the present rate of threats, by 2050 up to one third of species may be on the road to extinction unless effective and sustained conservation action is undertaken.
Biodiversity loss can be stopped if we mobilize the collective commitment and energy of conservationists around the world (Denecke 2001). The species survival commission (SSC) is set to take on an even greater role in helping to hault the extinction crises.
However, there is a growing awareness of the critical role biodiversity plays in overall sustainable development and the fact that it is important to human well being, livelihood and cultural life. In 2002, the 188 countries that are parties to the convention of biodiversity established the goal “to achieve by 2010 a significant reduction of the current rate of biodiversity loss at the global regional, and national levels as a contribution to poverty reduction and to the benefit of all life on earth, but there are many constraints in meeting this goal (IUCN, 2004).
One of such constraints is funding particularly small scale support for specific on- ground initiatives (WCS, 2004). The benefits of a small scale funds targeted to the right groups have been widely recognized as a good investment producing good results. In many parts of the world, small amounts of money can have a significant and immediate impact in achieving a sound management of biodiversity.
Therefore no matter where we look and no matter where we chose to develop natural resources, there are numerous life forms that must be considered. They all play a role in maintaining the environments where we live and in creating many of the resources that we depend on.
In responce to Muang Muang's Article Bhogendra would like to add :
"Biodiversity refers to the uncounted variety of living things on the planet. These living organisms, interacting among themselves and with the non-living
environment, comprise the ecosystems of the world. They supply food, medicines, timber and fuel, and play a fundamental role in providing breathable air, conserving soils and stabilizing climates"(www.unep.org).
The importance of biodiversity to human society is hard to calculate and make everyone understand it . It is the integral part of the environment and conservation of environment is for mankind and their ecological components.Poor people, especially those living in areas of low agricultural productivity, depend especially heavily on the genetic diversity of the environment. The effective use of biodiversity at all levels - genes, species and ecosystems - is therefore a precondition for sustainable development.
However, human activities over the past around the world are causing
progressive loss of biodiversity at a rate far higher than the natural background rate of extinction (http://www.unep.org/Themes/Biodiversity/).
And this loss leads to destruction of our environment and we are facing environmental impacts as flood, drought, rise on sea level,depletion of polar habitat and many more.
Addressing today's environmental challenges is largely beyond the capacity of individual country (www.unep.org). And its true that environmental conservation has steadily gained political acceptance over the past few decade and many regional and global treaties and initiatives are underway to biodiversity conservation.
An estimated 40 per cent of the global economy is based on biological products and processes (www.unep.org).Reduction on these products certainly lead to loss of livelihoods and thus unfavorable socioeconomic impacts occur as well as the sustainability of these goods and services is threatned. It is the present scenario that managing biodiversity in a sustainable way, needs the rising level of awareness and understanding of the public, the leadership of both public and private agencies be trapped to
conservation, a balance between the use of modern technologies and local indigenous knowledge be maintained. Not only the one country’s level of economic development, national policies and institutional structures and
commitments are important considerations but also the regional and international understanding (global thinking) and partnership is vital for all living being to live in harmony with nature.Conserving(managing wisely)nature is to conserve oneself.
Response to Mr. Maung
Biodiversity is the variety of all life forms on Earth, including plants, animals and microorganisms. It includes the genes of all species, the communities they form and ecosystems of which they are a part. Biodiversity can be considered on three different levels: genetic, species and ecosystem diversity. Protecting and conserving biodiversity in native bush land and other habitat areas can have the following benefits:
• Erosion control
• Water table management
• Stock shade and shelter
• Nutrient cycling
• Microclimate control
• Riparian vegetation/water quality management
• Alternative enterprises
• Landscape amenity
• Drought proofing
We all benefit from the conservation of biodiversity and the products and services it provides and we hope will continue to provide for future generations. It is also a major challenge due to population growth, settlement patterns and our consumption of resources, which are all exerting major stresses on our natural environments. Damage to the environment and biodiversity loss is difficult to reverse. By understanding the things that threaten biodiversity we can work to protect, conserve and minimize further loss of our natural resources. These threats come from a broad range of human activities and are not just limited to one particular sector of the community.
However on farming lands activities such as clearing, inappropriate grazing, inappropriate water extraction, pests, weeds, pollution, contamination, soil loss and salinity all contribute to the threats to biodiversity. Biodiversity conservation requires the adoption of management practices, which sustain the diversity of natural ecosystems. There is also need to have an awareness of how modified and artificial systems integrated in agricultural production can contribute to biodiversity. The property planning and management objectives need to include biodiversity conservation as part of achieving productive and sustainable farming systems. Some of the basic things that can be done to conserve biodiversity on farms include:
1. Retain and protect by fencing all natural vegetation, whether areas of remains, native grassland or isolated enclosure trees.
2. Protect all watercourses and wetlands.
3. Leave adequate ground waste - logs, branches, rocks and leaf litter for shelter and food for plants and animals, if it is safe to do so.
4. Control exotic or native pests with ecological sensitivity.
5. Control wild plants with ecological sensitivity.
6. Revegetate strategically using local native species to restore and rehabilitate areas.
7. Control soil erosion and maintain soil health and
8. Manage fire for both protections of built assets, as well as considering the protection of biodiversity from inappropriate fire regimes. Biodiversity is linked to achieving ecological sustainability and is a pillar of sustainable land management.
Ma There are environmental, economic, social and cultural benefits of biodiversity. We are all dependent for our sustenance, health, wellbeing and enjoyment of life on fundamental biological systems and processes. The enormous diversity of life in itself is of critical value, giving greater flexibility to ecosystems and organisms. One of the greatest benefits of biodiversity is the critical role that biodiversity plays in delivering ecosystem services which contribute to healthy agricultural systems - to sustainable clean and green production. Plants, animals and microorganisms all contribute to maintaining healthy functioning ecosystems. Some of these ecosystem services include:
• Protection of water resources to ensure water quality.
• Soils formation, structure and fertility as well as protection of soils.
• Nutrient storage and cycling.
• Pollution breakdown and absorption.
• Ecosystem relationships eg the relationship of pollinating insects like wasps and bees with plants.
• Recovery from severe environmental events, for example drought, flood, fire.
There are recreational and educational benefits in biological conservation as well as the economic benefits of eco-tourism. For broad acre landholders the artistic value and landscape amenity of the natural plant saved on their properties has been shown to be important. A Victorian study exploring the core values of broad acre landholders showed that landholder’s top four values were:
• Wellbeing (being healthy and satisfaction with lifestyle)
• Future environmental stability (having a sustainable farm and a sustainable landscape and enjoying the landscape)
• Relationships (having close relationships with family and friends and providing for your children)
• Economic wealth (having a profitable business, generating new markets and managing debt).
Response to Mr. Maung
Concern about the loss of biodiversity is based on several ways of looking at the value of a species. Functioning ecosystems and their component organisms provide many valuable services. Miller (2004) says that species provide food (90% of today’s food crop were domesticated from wild tropical plants), fuel, medicine, ecological services, such as photosynthesis, nutrients recycling, purification of air and water. However, those services are often overlooked because they are not easily measured in economic terms.
Kurpis(1997-2002) presents that the primary causes of species endangerment are habitat loss (converting ecosystem to agriculture and grazing), overexploitation (harvesting species at unsustainable levels), introduction of invasive species (disrupting ecosystems and competing on native organisms), and persecution of pest species. So, efforts to prevent further extinctions need to focus on reducing the impact of these human activities.
Enger and Smith (2007) suggest that protecting biodiversity involves two kinds of activities: legal protections by national laws and international agreements, and management of the use of species and ecosystems at sustainable levels. These management activities include the establishment of regulations for hunting, fishing, and other uses.
One positive indicator of global biodiversity efforts is that most countries (168 of 191) of the world have ratified the Convention on Biological Diversity, agreeing to develop national strategies for the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity, and to integrate, as far as possible, the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity into relevant plans, programs and policies. (http://www.cbd.int/convention/parties/list.shtml).
Nowadays, many species are going to be rare or extinct because of their ecological characteristics, and mostly as a result of human activities. Along the evolution story, human being has been gradually increasing their interference to nature though their activities such as agriculture, deforestation, industry, etc. According to IUCN (2003), in the last 500 years, human activity has forced 844 species to extinction. The following are major causes that bring about biodiversity loss:
Firstly, with the rapid increase of the world’s population and trade demand, human is intensively interfering in the environment though activities such as conversion of wild land to agricultural and urban uses, deforestation, over exploitation, draining and filling of wetlands and building dam effect directly or indirectly on a loss of habitant. For instance, the extinction of pigeon passenger was caused by deforestation activities that destroyed nesting sites of this species (Molles 2002, pp231). When habitat loses, predators are lost first, then herbivores and finally producers as a result of the broken interactions between predator and prey in the food webs. And the loss of a key species can promote the subsequent loss of its predators, parasites or mutualisms (Pascual, et al. 2006). Consequently, biodiversity loss is not only occurs in species level but also occurs in community level or even impacts on the whole system.
Secondly, air, water, soil resource are seriously polluted caused by domestic and industrial activities. Many species, especially birds, fishes, are becoming rare and extinct because of the rapid environmental degradation. Moreover, global warming highly impacts on whole ecosystem. Many species including plants, animal is going on the brink of extinction. Thirdly, invasions of alien species pose a threat significant threat to global biodiversity. They can occur at all trophic levels because they have abilities to displace native species. Furthermore, they can change the native ecosystem. Thereby, native species are become rare or extinct by the negative affects from alien species. For instance, the invasion of kuzu tree in the US; cane toad in Australia, mimosa tree, etc.
To conserve biodiversity, international environmental protection regulation and education should be addressed and applied globally. Biodiversity conservation projects as well as long term strategies should be ratified and promoted by governments and environmental organizations separately.
Responding to Mr. Maung, ecosystem biodiversity refers to the complex dynamic of plant, animal and macro-organism communities, and non-living environment, interact as a function unit (IUCN 2007). On the other hand, human use species product and ecosystem services. The structure and the function of ecosystem are changed by human. Moreover, because of human activities: deforestation, forest conversion and forest degradation, these impact biodiversity and so many species become rare. Exploitation including hunting, fisheries and expanding trade is the direct use of species; therefore, the numbers of species run down such as poaching of rhinos for their horns (Jeffries 2005). As well, the hunters reduced the tiger’s range from nearly half of the largest continent on earth to a series of tiny fragmented population (Molles 2002).
Therefore, the biodiversity management should take place in the national level and promote the sustainable use and consumption: the unsustainable consumption of biological resources that impacts on biodiversity should be reduced. Furthermore, the rate of loss and degradation of natural habitats should be decreased as well as maintain the indigenous knowledge innovation and practices (IUCN 2005).
In response to Mom, Biodiversity, encompassing genetic diversity, species, populations, communities and ecosystems, and landscapes and regions, provides countless benefits to humans at all these scales. Some of these benefits include: Economic benefits, both direct and Indirect, Ecological and aesthetic benefits, Scientific and ethical knowledge; Insurance against the future.
These benefits come in the form of goods that can be directly valued and cost . Biodiversity also provides critical indirect benefits to humans that are difficult to quantify. These benefits encompass ecosystem services, such as air and water purification, climate regulation, and the generation of moisture and oxygen. A group of ecologists who recently attempted to quantify the price of replacing these ecosystem services calculated that they would cost over $3 trillion. That's greater than the entire global GNP! In other words, the world cannot afford to replace these services. Natural communities maintain proper gaseous concentrations in the atmosphere and prevent rapid climate changes. Drastic changes in the Earth's atmosphere can have catastrophic effects. Such changes are believed to have led to the disappearance of dinosaurs from Earth 65 million years ago. Much less drastic changes resulted in several global ice ages, the last of which ended 10 thousand years ago. Vegetation helps recycle moisture into the atmosphere. A single corn plant (1 lb dry weight) can transfer 60 gallons of water from soil to atmosphere in a few months. A single rainforest tree, in its 100 year lifespan can transfer approximately 2.5 million gallons from soil to air. Their role in the hydrologic cycle is crucial.
A multiplicity of organisms is required to create soils and maintain fertility through complex cycles and interactions. Plant roots break up rock to create soil particles; small animals like earthworms, mites, insects and millipedes help give soil its texture and fertility and are crucial to its aeration. Natural ecosystems also help absorb the wastes and render them nontoxic. Wetlands are large filters which purify freshwater and remove heavy metals and other contaminants from it. Rivers act to flush away and break down the sewage and effluents that put into them, which again depends on the organisms that decompose and transform wastes in water. Soil organisms can slowly decompose food items, paper products and other wastes produced by human activities. (Erlich and Erlich, 1992) . Natural and wild landscapes are aesthetically pleasing and provide opportunities to get away from human-dominated landscapes. They also provide opportunities for recreational activities such as hiking, canoeing, bird watching and nature photography.(Erlich and Erlich, 1992)
This argument is criticized for two reasons: first, aesthetic value is not necessarily equated to biodiversity; some of the most aesthetically pleasing landscapes are poor in diversity of habitats and species (e.g. mountains) while some unspectacular landscapes are incredibly rich in biodiversity (e.g. swamps and wetlands). Second, this aesthetic argument is relevant only to a minority of wealthy citizens in developed countries and holds little relevance to the majority of the world's population(Takacs, 1996)While there are hundreds of examples of known economic and aesthetic benefits of biodiversity, biologists and other scientists frequently outline that more is unknown than known. Important ecosystem services and uses for plants and animals are still unknown and await discovery. Yet these cannot be discovered, and benefit humankind, if they disappear before discovery. The threat to biodiversity can be compared to book burning (the obliteration of former and future knowledge).
Many of our valuable goods, from spices (cinnamon, pepper) to critical medications (aspirin, tamoxifen, quinine, and digitalis) have been discovered "accidentally" because plants or animals produced chemicals for defense or attraction. We would not have otherwise considered the organisms from which these chemicals originated as valuable and worthy of conservation. At least we should try to understand and contribute to reverse this enormous loss of biodiversity to achieve sustainable future.
Post a Comment