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Add your Voice!
With our combined voices from all over the globe we will make an impact at the 2008 IUCN World Conservation Congress. Your input will make a difference. |
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Species are the building blocks of nature. All the aspects of quality of human life that are dependent on ecosystem services – the food from the oceans, the ability of forests to absorb carbon and provide water, the importance of mangroves in limiting cyclone damage – are dependent on the species within those ecosystems. Focusing conservation only at the ecosystem level is not enough; we also have to take species-specific conservation action, based on an understanding of the species within ecosystems and the connections between them.
There are a wide variety of reasons why species conservation matters.
Each plant and animal species plays a distinct role in maintaining and shaping the ecosystem in which it lives. Interactions between species drive ecosystem processes. The extinction of seed dispersers or pollinators, for example, will result in the loss of a whole range of dependant species. Impoverished systems – those with reduced species diversity – are less stable, more prone to collapse and less resilient in the face of alien invasives and other external pressures.
Human societies are dependent on on a range of wild species for consumption, medicine and recreation. These species have an economic value independent of their role within ecosystems . In many parts of the world, the harvests of, and trade in, these species are too great to be sustainable and are leading to extinction.
Further, there is an increasing recreational use of wild species, including hunting and fishing. The economic potential of environmental recreation is substantial , and can play an important role in influencing government decisions to conserve habitats. Nature-based tourism is often based on charismatic wildlife species, some of which are in danger of extinction.
Primary examples include oceanic and fresh water fish and other marine organisms, timber from trees, grass for livestock and wild plant and animal foods. Wild plants, including those already known through traditional medicine, have yielded chemicals from which over 50% of prescription drugs are now derived. Wildlife research continues to reveal new properties of value to medicine. The use of species for decorative value not only impact on charismatic larger species such as elephant and tiger but parrots, cockatoos, many species of song bird (in Indonesia), orchids, nepenthes, many species of reptile and, of great concern in recent years, trade in pangolin as evidenced by recent seizures in Vietnam and Indonesia.
For instance, in 2006, in the US, the total economic activity surrounding environmental recreation was estimated at US$ 125 billion. Environmental recreation includes a wide range of activities, from nature walks and bird watching to fishing and hunting. In that same year, revenue from hunting licenses was about US$ 25 billion.
Many domesticated food animals and plants have close relatives in the wild. Wild genetic diversity is still essential in order to maintain resistance to pests and diseases, to enable crops to adapt to diverse and changing environments, and to improve yields. Other improvements obtained through genetic transfer from wild relatives include drought and salt tolerance, early ripening and increased nutritional value.
Many people believe that species have an intrinsic value, and that we do not have the right to destroy that which natural selection has shaped. Many faiths and cultures reinforce this belief in the intrinsic value of species.
More simply, people enjoy particular animals and plant species; they find them beautiful and interesting, and consider that they must be preserved in perpetuity for this reason even if they never directly experience them.
Changes in the status of individual species are often the most sensitive indicators of ecosystem health. Monitoring the status of species can provide advance warning of more wide-ranging problems.
Charismatic species like the giant panda, the koala, and the California condor, more easily focus attention on the natural world. Conservation programs for such species readily galvanise wide support while at the same time effecting broader habitat protection.
Once a species is extinct, it is lost forever. Unique species-specific attributes, including all those not yet discovered, will also be lost. |
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