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Biodiversity Conservation

Biodiversity conservation faces significant challenges due to human population growth and development, leading to declines in genetic, species, and ecosystem diversity. Major threats include habitat loss, pollution, climate change, overharvesting, and invasive species, with various laws and international treaties like CITES and the Convention on Biological Diversity aimed at protecting species and ecosystems. Conservation strategies include single-species approaches and ecosystem approaches, focusing on preserving biodiversity hotspots and entire ecosystems to maintain ecological balance.

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4 views22 pages

Biodiversity Conservation

Biodiversity conservation faces significant challenges due to human population growth and development, leading to declines in genetic, species, and ecosystem diversity. Major threats include habitat loss, pollution, climate change, overharvesting, and invasive species, with various laws and international treaties like CITES and the Convention on Biological Diversity aimed at protecting species and ecosystems. Conservation strategies include single-species approaches and ecosystem approaches, focusing on preserving biodiversity hotspots and entire ecosystems to maintain ecological balance.

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Biodiversity Conservation

“The conservation of biodiversity is a continuous challenge in a world that is


increasingly affected by human population growth and development.”

After reading this chapter you should be able to

 understand how genetic diversity, species diversity, and ecosystem


function are changing over time.

 identify the causes of declining biodiversity.

 describe the single-species approach to conserving biodiversity


including the major laws that protect species.

 explain the ecosystem approach to conserving biodiversity and how


size, shape, and connectedness affect the number of species that will be
protected.
Why to conserve biodiversity?
World is
currently
Biodiversity of the world provides a number of instrumental
experiencing
and intrinsic values to humans.
approximately
50,000 species
Instrumental Intrinsic values extinctions per
values year.

Food, medicine, and Provide no direct benefit to people but are


building materials, plants simply the belief that individuals, species, and
remove human-added CO2 ecosystems are inherently valuable in
from the atmosphere, themselves and that we have an obligation to
pollination of agricultural preserve them.
crops

We are in the
midst of a Decline in genetic diversity.
sixth The Florida panther was reduced to
mass such a small population that it suffered
extinction severe effects of inbreeding.
Cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus),

Brought to india from africa in 2020

Vulture, bird of Prey


Approximately one-third of all reptiles, fish, and invertebrates are threatened with extinction.
Similarly, one-fourth of plant species are threatened.
Declining biodiversity has many
causes
Habitat Loss

Habitat loss. Habitat loss caused by humans is


the largest threat to biodiversity.
Changing forests. Some regions of the world experienced large declines in the amount of
forested land from 1980 to 2000 while other regions have shown little change or have
seen increases in forest cover.
Changing coral reefs. The percentage of coral that remains alive in coral reefs has
declined sharply in the Caribbean since 1977.
Alien Species
When alien species spread rapidly across large areas, we
call them invasive species. And are threat to biodiversity.

Lantana camara
(a) The fast-growing
kudzu vine covering almost (c) The silver carp has been introduced
anything it come across into the Mississippi River and is quickly
heading toward an invasion of the Great
Lakes.

(b) The zebra mussel was accidentally introduced


to the Great Lakes and has covered all hard
Overharvesting

dodo (Raphus cucullatus),

became extinct in just 80 years.


overharvesting,
The passenger pigeon (Ectopistes combined with the effects of forest clearing fo
migratorius) was once one of the most agriculture,
abundant caused the passenger pigeon to decline
species of birds in North America. quickly.
The last passenger pigeon died in 1914 at the
Cincinnati
Zoo.
PLANT AND ANIMAL TRADE
 Legal and illegal trade in plants and animals represents a serious
threat to their ability to persist in nature.
 Every nation has its own legislation to control plant and animal trade

 United Nations Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild


Fauna and Flora, also known as CITES, was developed in 1973 to control the
international trade of threatened plants and animals.
 The IUCN maintains a list of threatened species known as the Red List.

 Despite such international agreements, much illegal plant and animal trade still
occurs throughout the world.

Swietenia macrophylla (Mahogani)


কেকোঁ সাপ Gekko gecko

Price around 20 crores international market


Pollution
 Threats to biodiversity come from toxic contaminants such as pesticides, heavy
metals, acids, and oil spills.
 Pollution sources that cause declines in biodiversity also include the release of
nutrients that cause algal blooms and dead zones.

In 2010, for example, an oil platform


in the Gulf of Mexico named the
Deepwater Horizon exploded,
causing a massive release of oil.
Climate Change

Climate change affect patterns of temperature and precipitation


in different regions of the world.
In some regions, a species may be able to respond to warming temperatures
and changes in precipitation by migrating to a place where the climate is well
suited to the species niche. In other cases, this is not possible.
The conservation of biodiversity often focuses on single species

There are two general approaches to conserving biodiversity:

single-species approach and the ecosystem approach.

The single-species approach to conserving biodiversity focuses our efforts on one species
at a time.
When a species declines to a status of threatened or endangered, the natural response is
to encourage a population rebound by improving the conditions in which it exists.

Conservation Legislation Endangered Species Act in 1973 in


the United States
Marine Mammal Protection
Act in 1972
The Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 India
Some species have experienced sufficient increases in numbers that they have been taken off
the endangered species list, including the bald eagle (FIGURE 13.14), the
American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis), and the eastern Pacific population of the gray
whale (Eschrichtius robustus)
CONVENTION ON BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY
In 1992, world nations came together and created the Convention on Biological Diversity,
an international treaty to help protect biodiversity.
The treaty had three objectives:
conserve biodiversity,
sustainably use biodiversity,
and equitably share the benefits that emerge from the commercial use of genetic
resources such as pharmaceutical drugs.
In 2010, the convention evaluated the current trends
They identified the following trends from 2002 to 2010:
■ On average, species at risk of extinction have moved closer to extinction.

■ One-quarter of all plant species are still threatened with extinction.

■ Natural habitats are becoming smaller and more fragmented.

■ The genetic diversity of crops and livestock is still declining.

■ There is a widespread loss of ecosystem function.

■ The causes of biodiversity loss have either stayed the same or increased in intensity.
■ The ecological footprint of humans has increased.
The conservation of biodiversity sometimes focuses on
protecting entire ecosystems
Ecosystem approach to conserving biodiversity recognizes the benefit of
preserving particular regions of the world, such as biodiversity hotspots.

Protecting entire ecosystems has been one of the major motivating factors in
setting aside national parks and marine reserves.

Figure: shows changes in the amount of


protected land worldwide since 1900.
Biosphere
Biosphere Reserves reserves are protected areas consisting of zones
that vary in the amount of permissible human
impact. These reserves protect biodiversity without
excluding all human activity.

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