Environmental Studies

Module 4. Biodiversity and its conservation

Lesson 16
CONSERVATION OF BIODIVERSITY

16.1 Conservation of Biodiversity

Conservation is defined as ‘the management of human use of the biosphere so that it may yield the greatest sustainable benefit to present generation while maintaining its potential to meet the needs and aspirations of future generations’. Conservation of our natural resources has the following three specific objectives:

1. To maintain essential ecological processes and life-supporting systems;
2. To preserve the diversity of species or the range of genetic material found in the organisms on the planet; and
3. To ensure sustainable utilization of species and ecosystems which support millions of rural communities as well as the major industries all over the world?

The wildlife conservation efforts are mostly centred on protecting plant and animal life in protected habitats, such as – botanical gardens, zoos, sanctuaries, national parks, biosphere reserves, etc. The two basic approaches to the wildlife conservation in protected habitats are:

16.1.1 In-situ conservation

In-situ or on-situ conservation means conservation of species in its natural ecosystem or even in man-made ecosystems (i.e. artificial ecosystems). This type of conservation applies only to wild fauna and flora, and not to the domesticated animals and plants because conservation is possible by protection of population in nature. In-situ conservation is a comprehensive system of “protected area”, which involves setting aside large portions of earth’s surface for wildlife with emphasis either to save the entire area or an endangered species. According to World Conservation Union, ‘protected area’ is defined as -” an area of land and/ or sea specially dedicated to the protection and maintenance of biological diversity and of natural and associated cultural resources and managed through legal or other effective means”. There are different categories of protected areas which are managed with different objective. These include – national parks, sanctuaries, biosphere reserves, etc.

The advantages of In-situ conservation are:

• In-situ conservation is the best strategy for the long term protection of biodiversity.
• Large pockets/ areas of protected zones are essential for not only conserving vast number of species of living organisms but also provide opportunities to evolve. Otherwise, man-made habitats (e.g. zoo, aquarium, etc.) may end-up with static gene-pool.
• Further in-situ conservation are always preferred because, in most cases, it is cheaper to protect populations in their natural habitat than to reintroduce captive-bred ones.

Some of the limitations or factors that reduce the laudable advantages of in-situ conservation to some extent are:

• Many protected habitats are not large enough, not maintained properly, and are not properly protected from environmental pollution; and
• Many protected habitats are used for logging, tourism or other profitable activities; thus, diluting the objective of conservation biodiversity.

16.1.2 Ex-situ conservation

Ex-situ conservation means conservation of species (sample of genetic diversity), particularly of endangered species, away from their natural habitat under human supervision. Though in-situ conservation is the best strategy for the long-term protection of biodiversity; however, for many rare species or species having small remaining population, it is not a viable option in the light of increasing human disturbances. Further, species may decline and go extinct in the wild due to genetic drift and inbreeding, environmental and demographic variation, deteriorating habitat quality, competition from exotic species, disease or over-exploitation. Under such circumstances, the only possible way a species can be prevented from going extinct is to maintain individuals in artificial conditions under human care. This strategy of conservation of biodiversity is termed as ‘ex-situ or off-site preservation’. In ex-situ conservation, the endangered species of animals are collected and bred under controlled conditions in zoos, game farms, aquaria, etc., while plant species are maintained in botanical gardens, arboreta and seed banks.

The advantages of ex-situ conservation are:

• The organism is assured of food, shelter and security, and hence can have longer life-span and breeding activity. Thus, increasing the possibility of having more number of off springs.
• Under human care and secure conditions, the chances of survival increase.
• Ex-situ conservation also provides the possibility of using genetic techniques to improve the concerned species.
• Captive breeding can provide animals for possible reintroduction to the wild at a later stage or for supplementing current populations with new stock.
• However, there are certain limitations and disadvantages of ex-situ conservation:
• Ex-situ conservation can be adopted only for a few selected species because of limitations of space, finances and facilities in the institutions that undertake captive breeding. This limitation, however, can be solved to a certain extent by having more mini zoos and deer parks which can act as a sink for the surplus, hybrid, aged and infirm animals while the larger zoos can focus on serious captive breeding of endangered species.
• Ex-situ conservation, under a set of favourable environmental conditions, deprives the organism the opportunity to adopt to the ever changing natural environment. As a result, new life-forms cannot evolve and the gene-pool gets stagnant.

16.3 National Parks and Sanctuaries

A National Park (Table 16.2) is an area dedicated to conserve the scenery (or environment) and natural objects and the wildlife therein. In national parks, all private rights are non-existent and all forestry operations and other usages such as grazing of domestic animals are prohibited. However, the general public may enter it for the purpose of observation and study.

A national park is a relatively large area

1. where one or several ecosystems are not maternally altered by human exploitation and occupation, where plant and animal species, geomorphological sites and habitats are of special scientific, educative and recreative interest or which contain a natural landscape of great beauty and
2. where the highest competent authority of the country has taken steps to prevent or eliminate as soon as possible exploitation or occupation in the whole area and to enforce effectively the respect of ecological, geomorphological or aesthetic features which have led to its establishment and
3. where visitors are allowed to enter, under special conditions, for inspirational, cultural and recreative purposes.

A Wildlife Sanctuary, similar to national park, is dedicated to protect the wildlife, but it considers the conservations of species only and also the boundary of it is not limited by a state legislation. Further, in the sanctuary, killing hunting or capturing of any species of birds and mammals’ is prohibited except by or under the control of highest authority in the department responsible for management of that sanctuary. Private ownership may be allowed to continue in a sanctuary, and forestry and other usages permitted to the extent that they do not adversely affect wildlife.

Table 16.1 A comparison of national parks, wildlife sanctuaries and biosphere reserves

Table 16.2 Important national park/ wildlife sanctuary in India

16.3 Biosphere Reserves

Biosphere reserves (Table 16.3) have been described as undisturbed natural areas for scientific study as well as areas in which conditions of disturbance are under control. They have been set aside for ecological research and habitant preservation. These are used as the means to protect ecosystems, whether natural or modified by human activity, in order to preserve ecological ‘evidence’ for the purpose of scientific research.

Table 16.3 Biosphere reserves in India