Download Conservation of Biodiversity and Wildlife

Conservation of
Biodiversity and Wildlife
“Every time we lose a species we
break a life chain which has
evolved over 3.5 billion years.”
- Jeffrey McNeely
Biological Diversity
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TEXT BOOK
It refers to the totality and variety of life on
earth .
 It includes :
Genetic diversity with species.
Variety among species.
The range of ecosystems within which life exists
and interacts.
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 Biodiversity is the variation of life forms within a
given ecosystem, biome, or for the entire Earth.
 Biodiversity is often used as a measure of the health
of biological systems.
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TOTAL BIODIVERSITY
• PLANTS
- 287,655
• FUNGI
- 74,000 – 120,000
• LICHEN
- 10,000
• BIRDS
- 10,243
• MAMMALS
- 5,416
• ANIMALS
- 1,250,000
• FISHES
- 29,300
• REPTILES
- 8,240
• AMPHIBIANS
- 5,743
2004 approx. statistics
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Species Distribution
• The density of species is very high in the Southern
Hemisphere.
• 70% of the world’s species is found in just 12
countries
• They are – Australia, Brazil, China, Columbia,
Costa Rica, Ecuador, India, Indonesia, Madagascar,
Mexico, Peru and Congo.
• The Hindu-Kush-Himalayas have at least
25,000plant species that is 10% of the world’s flora.
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WHAT IS FLORA AND FAUNA ?
• FLORA
- The plants of a particular area
• FAUNA
- All the animals living in an area
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WHAT IS WILDLIFE ?
• TEXT BOOK
 Wildlife is not only forests it is everywhere.
 It includes all non-domesticated flora and fauna
native to an area.
 The flora and fauna are mutually dependent on
each other.
 Wildlife is seen as a part of the biodiversity of
plants and animals, and micro-organisms.
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 Wildlife includes all non-domesticated plants,
animals, and other organisms.
 It can be found in all ecosystems, Deserts, rain
forests, plains, and other areas, all have distinct
forms of wildlife.
 It also refers to animals that are untouched by
human factors, most scientists agree that wildlife
around the world is impacted by human activities.
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HOW ARE THE FLORA AND
FAUNA DEPENDENT ON EACH
OTHER ?
• The flora and fauna of an area are mutually
dependent and have to be considered together.
• The animals need plants for food and shelter.
• In turn, animals and birds provide their waste as
manure for the plants.
• They propagate the seeds of plants.
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LOSS OF WORLD’S
BIODIVERSITY
• The world is losing its biodiversity at an alarming
rate.
• The current loss of biodiversity is faster than ever
before in human history and there is no sign of this
process slowing down.
• Many animal and plant populations have declined
in numbers and geographical spread.
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• There is a rate of disappearance of species called the
background rate of extinction.
• Now, human activities have increased the extinction
rate by 100-1000 times compared to the
background rate.
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WHY DO WE LOSS BIODIVERSITY ?
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Population explosion
Deforestation
Poaching
Genetic Pollution
Destruction of habitat
Hybridization
Climate Change
Clearing of land for agriculture
Bio Piracy
Unsustainable use of natural resources
Mass Hunting
Plain Cruelty
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THREATS TO WILDLIFE
• Habitat Fragmentation and loss
• Conflict over Habitat management
• Human disturbance of Wildlife
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HABITAT FRAGMENTATION AND
DESTRUCTION OF GREAT APE IN
CENTRAL AFRICA.
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CLASSIFICATION OF
THREATHENED SPECIES
• Critically Endangered
- The species is facing an extremely high risk of
extinction in the wild in the immediate future.
They are about to be wiped out of existence.
• Endangered
- The species is not critically endangered but is
facing a risk of extinction in the wild in the
coming future.
• Vulnerable
- The species is not in the first two categories but is
facing high risk of extinction in the wild in the
medium-term future.
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THREATHENED SPECIES IN INDIA
• Critically Endangered
 Jenkin's Shrew
 Malabar Large-spotted Civet
 Namdapha Flying Squirrel
 Pygmy Hog
 Salim Ali's Fruit Bat
 Sumatran Rhinoceros
 Wroughton's Free-tailed Bat
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FRUIT BAT
Namdapha
Flying Squirrel
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• Endangered
 Asiatic Lion
 Asiatic Black Bear
 Desert Cat
 Great Indian Rhinoceros
 Nilgiri Leaf Monkey
 Indian Elephant or Asian Elephant
 Chiru (Tibetan Antelope)
 Ganges River Dolphin
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• Endangered
 Indus River Dolphin
 Nicobar Shrew
 Nilgiri Tahr
 Particolored Flying Squirrel
 Red Panda
 Snow Leopard
 Tiger Wild
 Water Buffalo
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NILGIRI GREEN
LEAF MONKEY
ASIATIC LION
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• Vulnerable
 Asiatic Wild Dog
 Brown Bear
 Dugong
 GreyIndian Wolf
 Himalayan Musk Deer
 Asiatic Black Bear
 Asiatic Wild Ass
 Barasingha
 Blackbuck
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• Vulnerable
 Four-horned Antelope
 Himalayan Tahr
 Nicobar Flying Fox
 Royal Bengal Tiger
 Sloth Bear
 Takin
 Wild Goat
 Wild Yak
 Lesser Panda
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BARAHSINGHA
ROYAL BENGAL
TIGER
SLOTH BEAR
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HUNTING
• TEXT BOOK
 Hunting is a deliberate killing of wild animals for
pleasure and should be banned.
 It should be allowed when there is a valid reason
such as an animal posing grave danger to people or
other animals in that area.
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 Hunting is the practice of pursuing living animals
(usually wildlife) for food, recreation, or trade.
 The species which are hunted are referred to as game
and are usually large or small mammals or
migratory or non-migratory game birds.
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POACHING
• TEXT BOOK
 Poaching is illegal hunting.
 It is primarily done to make money.
 Due to poaching many species have become
threatened and has led to heavy loss of biodiversity
around the world.
 Poaching generally happens when a animal may be
protected or may be in a protected area.
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 Poaching is the illegal hunting, fishing, or eating
of wild plants or animals contrary to local and
international conservation and wildlife
management laws.
 Violations of hunting laws and regulations are
normally punishable by law and, collectively, such
violations are known as poaching.
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CRUELTY TOWARDS ANIMALS
• Harsh hunting that causes pain and suffering :
Whales are hunted with harpoons, clubbing Seals to
death, catching Wild animals with steel jaw traps.
• Transportation: long travel over seas and land in
packed containers and trucks is stressful for the
animals.
• Keeping in confined spaces: animals in zoos do
not have enough space to roam about as they have
in the wild.
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• Experimentation: students and scientists perform
experiments and test medicines on animals which
is very painful and stressful.
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BIOPIRACY
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Bio piracy is the exploitation of indigenous
knowledge without proper compensation.
It leads to the loss of biodiversity.
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 Bio piracy is a negative term for the appropriation
of legal rights over indigenous knowledge particularly indigenous biomedical knowledge without compensation to the indigenous groups who
originally developed such knowledge.
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WHEN CAN ONE SAY THAT IT IS
A CASE OF BIO PIRACY ?
• Traditional communities all over the world posses
extensive knowledge of local plant species and their
medicinal value.
• A pharmaceutical company may collect such
knowledge about a plant and make a patented drug
out of it.
• If the company sells the drug without making any
payment to the community that shared its
knowledge, then it would be made a case of
BIOPIRACY.
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TYPES OF CONSERVATION OF
BIODIVERSITY
• In-Situ (on-site) conservation tries to protect species
where they are living, i.e. in their natural habitat.
• Ex-Situ (off-site) conservation attempts to preserve
and protect the species in a place away from their
natural habitat.
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IN-SITU Conservation
• It identifies and protects natural areas that have
high biodiversity.
• It includes the establishment of
 Natural parks – in these parks, dwellings and
private ownership of land are not permitted.
Traditional activities like grazing and fuel wood
collection are a also prohibited.
 Sanctuaries – in sanctuaries only some specific
high class activities, which do not harm the
biodiversity, are permitted.
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 Natural Reserves – these are larger areas in which
the wild flora and fauna are protected. However,
people are allowed to lie in the same area and are
also allowed to carry on their traditional practices
and activities.
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THE OBJECTIVE BEHIND IT ?
• The main objective behind In-Situ
Conservation is to preserve large areas
undeveloped land so that ecosystems and
biodiversity can continue to flourish and
evolve.
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NATIONAL PARKS (INDIA)
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Kaziranga National Park, Assam
Manas Wildlife Sanctuary, Assam
Keoladeo Ghana National Park, Rajasthan
Sunderban National Park, West Bengal
Nanda Devi National Park, Uttaranchal
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BIOSPHERE
RESERVES(INDIA)
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Nilgiri, Western Ghats
Kerala and Karnataka
Nanda Devi, Uttaranchal
Manas , Assam
Sunderbans, West Bengal
Gulf of Mannar, Tamil Nadu
Similipal, Orissa
Dehang Debang, Arunachal Pradesh
Pachmarhi, Madhya Pradesh
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EX-SITU Conservation
• It is impossible to preserve all biodiversity by
the In-Situ Conservation.
• Given the population and other pressures, we
cannot set aside the required huge land area.
• So, where the population of a species has
dwindled to extremely low levels, Ex-Situ
Conservation is the way.
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• In this type of conservation we conserve
biodiversity in an artificial setting.
• This includes the storage of seeds in banks,
breeding of captive animal species in zoos,
and setting up botanical gardens,
aquariums and research institutes.
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HOW DO ZOOS HELP IN
CONSERVING WILDLIFE ?
• Along with many other animals, zoo also
preserves a few who are critically endangered
species.
• If an animal breeds in captivity, the zoo
may ultimately reintroduce the species into
protected reserves.
• The public tends to support the savings of
large or popular species like the tiger, elephant
and panda.
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• There is not much interest in protecting
smaller or less attractive species, even if they
are known to be very important for the
ecosystem.
• But the people who understand there
importance, provide good financial aid to the
zoos.
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CAPTIVE BREEDING OF
THREATEND SPECIES
• Captive breeding is the reproduction of
threatened animals in captivity.
• Captive breeding could prevent the species
from going extinct.
• Individuals are bred in zoos or special
centres.
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ENDANGERED SPECIES OF
IGUANAS (Lizard) IN CAPTIVE
BREEDING
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WHAT DOES THIS METHOD OF
CAPTIVE BREEDING INCLUDE ?
• The individuals of a species in a breeding
programme serves as a genetic reservoir for the
species.
• When the population stabilizes and the threat to
the species is reduced, the captive breeding
program releases the individuals into the habitat
of the species.
• This method has been successfully used in the
case of many threatened species.
• The most famous is the captive breeding of
giant pandas in china.
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CONVENTION ON BIOLOGICAL
DIVERSITY
• The convention on biological diversity (CBD) was
approved in 1992 at the Earth Summit in Rio de
Janeiro and came into force in 1993. About 190
countries including India are parties to the
Convention.
• The convention has 3 main goals: Convention on biodiversity,
 Sustainable use of the components of the biodiversity
 Sharing the benefits arising from the commercial
and other utilization of genetic resources in a fair
and equitable way.
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INDIAN LAWS FOR THE
PROTECTION OF BIODIVERSITY
AND WILDLIFE
• Biodiversity Act Of 2002
• Wildlife protection Act Of 1972 And Prevention Of
Poaching
• PETA(People for the Ethical Treatment Of Animals)
• People For Animals
• Beauty Without Cruelty
• SPCA(Society For The Prevention Of Cruelty To
Animals)
• Blue Cross Of India
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SAVING THE ENDANGERED
AFRICAN ELEPHANT
• In 1989, the African elephant was declared as
an endangered species. The elephants were
decreasing primarily due to the ivory trade.
• By 2000, however the elephant population had
recovered in Namibia, Botswana and
Zimbabwe.
• This is one of the success stories of CITES, the
convention on international trade in
endangered animal and Plant species.
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CONSERVATION OF
BIODIVERSITY BY BHUTAN
• With its thick forest cover and immense biodiversity
, the small Himalayan country of Bhutan is called
the ‘oxygen tank’ of the world.
• Out of an area of 40,000 sq km, 72 % is under forest
cover. Thus, this ecosystem supports 7000 species of
plants, 165 of mammals, and 700 species of birds.
• So, the Bhutanese Government has taken very
positive steps to conserve its rich biodiversity.
• Currently, 35% of Bhutan is protected. The
government, is determined to maintain a forest cover
of at least 60%.
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SAVING SNAKES AND
CROCODILES
• Romulus Whitaker, who came to India when he was 7
learnt the art of snake-catching from the Irulas of
Tamil Nadu and Crocodile catching from the natives
of Papua New Guinea.
• In 1972, Whitaker and some of his friends set up the
Madras Snake Park. Most of the keepers in the park
are Irula tribals. The park has many species of
snakes, crocodiles and turtles.
• Many endangered snake species have been breed in
captivity in the snake park. The offspring have been
either released in to the wild or made available to zoos.
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• The park gets hundreds of visitors and it tries to
remove wrong ideas people have about snakes.
• Whitaker had also set up a Crocodile Bank, which
breeds crocodiles in captivity and releases them into
the wild.
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