Biodiversity and
Conservation
3.4 Conservation of Biodiversity
ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEMS AND SOCIETIES
Conservation of Biodiversity
U.6 Alternative approaches to the development of
protected areas are species-based conservation
strategies that include
● the Convention on International Trade in
Endangered Species (CITES)
● captive breeding and reintroduction programmes
and zoos
● selection of ‘charismatic’ species to help protect
others in an area (flagship species)
● selection of keystone species to protect the
integrity of the food web.
ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEMS AND SOCIETIES
Conservation of Biodiversity
• In situ
• Conservation of species in their natural habitat
• Natural parks, natural reserves
• Ex situ
• Conserving species in isolation of their natural
habitat
• Zoos, botanical gardens
ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEMS AND SOCIETIES
Conservation of Biodiversity
CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered
Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) is an international agreement
between governments set up to protect the many species which
were becoming endangered because of international trade. Its
aim is to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild
animals and plants does not threaten their survival.
Governments sign up voluntarily and establish their own
national laws to monitor trade. Species are grouped according
to how threatened they are by international trade.
• Appendix І: species can not be traded internationally as they
are threatened by extinction.
• Appendix ІІ: species can be traded internationally but within
strict regulations.
• Appendix ІІІ: species included at the request of a country
which then needs the cooperation of other countries to help
prevent the illegal exploitation.
ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEMS AND SOCIETIES
Conservation of Biodiversity
• Conservation of International trade in endangered
species (CITES)
• Reduced trade in endangered species
• Voluntary international agreement therefore it is
inconsistent enforcement
• Species covered by CITES ae listed according to the
degree of protection they need (Appendix I, II or III)
• International trade is limited and controlled through
a licensing system
• All import export, re-export and introduction must
be authorized
ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEMS AND SOCIETIES
Conservation of Biodiversity
Captive breeding, reintroduction and zoos
While captive breeding ensures that species do not go exist we can
not keep every species in captivity. The re-introduction of captive-
bred species is also a complex process. Programs to re-introduce
populations or establish new ones are very expensive and difficult.
Criticisms of such programmes are that they waste money, are
unnecessary, poorly run or unethical. But they are often the best
chance that a species has to avoid extinction. These programmes
also create employment and promote education. Sometimes it is
impossible to reintroduce species to their native habitat because it
has been destroyed, in which case captive-breeding and zoos are
there best option. Zoos are often criticized and rightly so as
animals are kept in close confinement, in small cages or treated
with cruelty. But there are many benefits to zoos as they produce
employment, income for the research and protection of species,
and educate the public in order to promote sustainable
development and protection of biodiversity.
ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEMS AND SOCIETIES
Conservation of Biodiversity
• Captive breeding
• Ex situ strategy
• Often at zoos
• Cost-intensive so mostly for MEDCs
• It is for the business or for conservation?
• Without habitat conservation, how effective is it?
ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEMS AND SOCIETIES
Conservation of Biodiversity
botanical gardens and seed banks
• Kew Gardens (in London) is the largest botanical garden in
the world; it contains 25000 plant species (10% of the world’s
total)
• Seed banks are where seeds are stored, frozen and dry, for
many years.
• Global Seed Vault in Svalbard – secured seed bank, to act as
an insurance against loss of other seed banks. No power
needed.
ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEMS AND SOCIETIES
Conservation of Biodiversity
• Reintroduction
• Reintroduction of the Mexican Gray Wolf in Arizona.
• Successes with the California condor but generally
challenging
• Individuals become habituated to humans
• Loss of instincts for hunting/foraging
• What if habitat loss is one of the major threats?
Then what?
ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEMS AND SOCIETIES
Conservation of Biodiversity
Aesthetic versus ecological value
Aesthetically there are many areas of natural beauty which
need to protect. The environment is a source of income in the
form of ecotourism as well as the legacy that we leave future
generations. The species-based approach focuses on specific
species and not the environment as a whole.
Every species has an ecological value as it provides a service to
its environment (niche) and thus a species based approach is
very important.
Aesthetic importance of species is important to us as humans
however the ecological value of a species outweighs our
extrinsic needs for it and we need to appreciate the intrinsic
value of every species.
ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEMS AND SOCIETIES
Conservation of Biodiversity
Flagship species
Charismatic species selected to appeal to the public and
thereby help to protect other species in an area.
These species are charismatic, recognized, popular, large and
furry but may not have significant role.
They are used to ask for funds
• giant panda
• meerkats
• Gorillas
Disadvantages:
• take priority over others
• become extinct if we failed
• in conflict with indigenous people
ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEMS AND SOCIETIES
Conservation of Biodiversity
• Flagship – charismatic/famous
• Tend to be cute, cuddly, and/or iconic
• Often large mammals at or near top of trophic levels
• Useful for media and fundraising
• Do not confuse with keystone species
• Project integrity of the food web
• Fulfill essential niches
• Not necessarily top trophic levels
ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEMS AND SOCIETIES
Conservation of Biodiversity
Keystone species
Species that are vital for the continuing function of the
ecosystem. Without these species the ecosystem may
collapse. Their disappearance from ecosystem has a far
greater impact than to the system. They are not
proportional to their numbers/biomass. These species
can be difficult to identify
• sea otter eating sea urchins
• beavers engineers dams
• elephants removing trees so grasses can grow
ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEMS AND SOCIETIES
Conservation of Biodiversity
Keystone species
• Critical role in maintaining the structure of the ecosystem it
lives in.
• Disappearance of this species could cause the disappearance
of many others.
• If conservation is to be successful these species must be
identified.
• Often engineers (e.g. beavers) that create habitats or small
predators (e.g. sea otters)
that keep herbivore
numbers low enough
that producers can
survive.
ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEMS AND SOCIETIES
Conservation of Biodiversity
ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEMS AND SOCIETIES
Conservation of Biodiversity
Mixed approach
Combining both in situ (protected areas) and ex situ (zoos)
methods can be the best solution for species conservation
You should be aware of the relative strengths and weaknesses of:
• the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species
(CITES);
• captive breeding and reintroduction programmes
• zoos and aesthetic versus ecological value
State the strength/weakness by:
• Giving at least 1 specific Evidence/Example for the
strength/weakness
• Giving a brief statement why it’s a strong/weak example
• You should have a least 2 strengths and 2 weaknesses that follow
this pattern
ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEMS AND SOCIETIES
Conservation of Biodiversity
ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEMS AND SOCIETIES
Conservation of Biodiversity
U.7 Community support, adequate funding and
proper research influence the success of conservation
efforts
The community-based conservation approach involves
initiatives aimed at conserving biodiversity but also letting
local people benefit from the resources.
Some community-based conservation approaches include
signing of resource use agreements, local people given
money for infrastructural development and local people
given a percentage of revenue generated from tourism
activities in the park.
ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEMS AND SOCIETIES
Conservation of Biodiversity
• If surrounding
communities do not
perceive or receive benefits
from conservation, the
effort is doomed to fail
• Benefits include jobs,
money, health care, and
other life necessities
• Funding provides jobs Providing alternative livelihoods for
long-term continuity, communities bordering Budongo Forest
direct support to Reserve has become a major concern, as
communities, as well as pressure on the natural forest resources
monitoring, evaluation, intensifies with increasing population.
and enforcement of In turn, occurrences of illegal activities in the
agreements forest such as pit sawing and hunting also
increases, which threatens the long term
survival of forest flora and fauna, including
the iconic chimpanzees.
ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEMS AND SOCIETIES
Conservation of Biodiversity
U.8 The location of a conservation area in a country is
a significant factor in the success of the conservation
effort. Surrounding land use for the conservation
area and distance from urban centres are important
factors for consideration in conservation area design.
The granting of protected status to a species or
ecosystem is no guarantee of protection without
community support, adequate funding and proper
research.
ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEMS AND SOCIETIES
Conservation of Biodiversity
Due to pressures on habitat and decline in populations some
species have become vulnerable. The legislation provides for
the protection of certain species of wild plants, birds and
animals. The degree of protection could be partial (for example:
prohibiting trade, closed seasons) or full, in which case the
disturbance, killing or injuring of just one of the species could
constitute an offence. Their associated breeding and sheltering
places are also protected.
The list of protected species under domestic legislation is
subject to a five-yearly review whereby species can be added
to, or removed from the schedules of protected species.
ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEMS AND SOCIETIES
Conservation of Biodiversity
ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEMS AND SOCIETIES
Conservation of Biodiversity
• The proximity of humans and wildlife for Nairobi
National Park creates both problems and opportunities
for conservation efforts in Kenya
ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEMS AND SOCIETIES
Conservation of Biodiversity
A.1 Explain the criteria used to design and manage
protected areas.
Many protected areas in the past were set up on land that no
one else wanted. It may have been poor agricultural land, not
near areas of high human density, or land that was degraded in
some way. This has led to some problems in the effectiveness of
protecting biodiversity. UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere
Programme (MAB) started in 1970 which created a network of
international reserves in over 100 countries.
Island biogeography refers to the isolation of species when
they are placed in a protected area or reserves. When protected
areas are created there will be some decrease in biodiversity as
species are isolated from each other. The following criteria are
based upon the principles of island biogeography, where the
increased protection of species is the priority.
ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEMS AND SOCIETIES
Conservation of Biodiversity
Criteria that conservationists now use when planning a
protected area or national park are:
• Size: how large should it be to protect the species?
• Numbers: how many individuals of an endangered species
must be protected?
• Fragmentation: Is it better to have one larger area or many
smaller ones? A large reserve will contain sufficient numbers of
wide-ranging species, minimize edge effects and provide more
habitats for more species. But several smaller reserves that are
well placed may be able to provide more diverse habitats for
more diverse populations of rare species than a larger block.
ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEMS AND SOCIETIES
Conservation of Biodiversity
• Edge effects: how to have more interior space per edge? More
internal area away from human activities. Involves decreasing
the circumference-to-area ration. Edge effects occur at ecotones
(where two habitats meet and there is a change near the
boundary). More species exist at ecotones as species from
different habitats converge leading to increased predation and
competition. Long thin reserves have a large edge effect while
circular reserves have the least.
• Shape: What is the best shape? Often determined by physical
features (e.g. mountains)
• Proximity: How close is it to other reserves? How close is it to
humans or human activities?
ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEMS AND SOCIETIES
Conservation of Biodiversity
• Corridors: Should reserves be joined by corridors? Corridors
are strips of protected land which link reserves. These allow
individuals to move freely from reserve to reserve and
therefore increase the size of the gene pool and allow for
seasonal migration. There are disadvantages as diseases are
more easily spread and it makes hunting/poaching easier in
these corridors, which are harder to protect than reserves.
Some reserves have buffer zones, which are areas around the
core reserve which is transitional. Some farming, extraction of
natural resources, e.g. selective logging can take place here.
The core of the reserve (centre) is left undisturbed and
organisms should be safer this way.
ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEMS AND SOCIETIES
Conservation of Biodiversity
Wildlife Reserves Design
• Man and the Biosphere Program (MAB)
• Created in 1970
• World network of international reserves
• 500 reserves in over 100 countries
ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEMS AND SOCIETIES
Conservation of Biodiversity
ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEMS AND SOCIETIES
Conservation of Biodiversity
A.2 Evaluate the success of a given protected area.
A specific example of a protected area and the success it has achieved should
be studied.
Sichuan giant panda sanctuary
Location: Sichuan Province, China. About 900 000 hectares of
national reserves which are the habitat for the giant panda as
well as red panda and snow and clouded leopards. It is a World
Heritage Site.
Habitat: there are about giant 1600 pandas living there and
approximately 6000 plant species. But the pandas habitat is
shrinking as people fell the bamboo forests and degrade the
habitat.
ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEMS AND SOCIETIES
Conservation of Biodiversity
History: In the 1960s errors were made in trying to protect the
pandas and many were caged in hopes that they would breed in
captivity. Captive breeding is more successful now as pandas
are house in larger areas.
Actions taken: Human populations have now been moved out
of the reserves and laws on gun use tightened. Panda numbers
have now started to increase but are not yet out of trouble.
Educating the public has been very important and ecotourism
has assisted greatly in funding the research and protection of
the giant panda, and the reserve as a whole.
Concerns: as the giant panda has a specialized diet of almost
entirely bamboo, it means that their habitat is limited. If the
bamboo goes they will starve.
ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEMS AND SOCIETIES
Conservation of Biodiversity
A.3 Evaluate different approaches to protecting
biodiversity.
The preservation approach, which aims at setting aside National
Parks to exclude human activities except for tourism. Through
this approach, direct use of natural resources in the park for
commercial or subsistence purposes is prohibited. This type of
approach is often referred to as the “protectionism approach” or
“the fines and fences” approach. The preservation approach
aims at excluding human activities considered inimical to the
objectives of conserving biodiversity in National Parks. The
preservation approach was the most dominant approach until
the 1980s, but in some National Parks, it has now been
substituted by the second approach called the community-based
conservation approach that allows people (especially those that
neighbor National Parks) to benefit socially or economically
from parks
ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEMS AND SOCIETIES
Conservation of Biodiversity
The community-based conservation approach involves
initiatives aimed at conserving biodiversity in the park but also
letting local people benefit from the park [6]. Some of the
initiatives involved in the community-based conservation
approach include signing of resource use agreements such as in
the Rwenzori Mountains National Park which allow local
people who neighbor National Parks to have access to specific
resources from the park for subsistence use.
In other cases, local people are given money for infrastructural
development, such as in Integrated Conservation and
Development Initiative in Korup National Park in Cameroon
[8]. And in other National Parks such as Pendjari National Park
in Benin, local people are given a percentage of revenue
generated from tourism activities in the park.
ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEMS AND SOCIETIES
