3 Biodiversity and Environmental Conservation-II

Dr Sunil Mittal and Dr Hardeep Kaur

epgp books

 

1. Introduction

2. Keystone Species

3. IUCN Categories of Threatened Species

4. Red Book Data: List of Threatened Flora and Fauna in India

5. Endangered and Endemic Species of India

6. Man and Wildlife Conflicts

7. Strategies for Conservation of Biodiversity

a) Conservation Prioritization

b) Biotechnological Approaches for Biodiversity Conservation

c) Biodiversity Conservation Policies and Programmes: National and International

d) Habitat Conservation Plan

e)  Convention on Biodiversity

 

1. Introduction

Biodiversity and Environmental conservation are inter allied subjects and can be treated as synonyms as the conservation of biodiversity will eventually have a positive effect on environmental conservation. Biodiversity defines the variation at the genetic, species and ecosystem level. The distribution of biodiversity is not even and is concentrated at the tropical forest and hotspots. The nature has created a balance between the biodiversity and the ecosystem that includes all form of life from aerial to land dwellers and marine life forms. This chapter is dedicated to discuss the environmental conservation aspect of biodiversity in brief and all these are discussed in detail in different modules of this paper.

 

2.   Keystone Species

Zoologist Robert T. Paine, coined the term “keystone species”. A keystone species is an organism that defines an entire ecosystem and its absence can cause an ecosystem to change or cease to exist. They have low functional redundancy, which means if a species disappear then no other species could replace them thus leaving a void in the ecological niche. Hence the ecosystem would exert a radical change and allow new invasive species to populate the habitat. Any living organism can be a keystone species and need neither enormous in size nor abundant. Nevertheless, practically most of the examples for this type have enormous influence on the food web and varies from habitat to habitat.

The expulsion of a keystone species from an ecosystem triggers a set of negative changes. One such example is the overpopulation of one species, which leads to disappearance of other species. A well-documented case of such a chain of events was the elimination of wolves from the Yellowstone National Park at the beginning of the last century. The negative effect on the national park’s biodiversity was so profound that authorities have taken steps to introduce this keystone predator back.

 

3. IUCN Categories of Threatened Species

The IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria is intentionally made as a straightforward system for classification of species who are at high risk of global extinction. The mainstream focus is to provide a direct and unbiased framework where species are broadly classified based on their extinction risk. Even though the red data gives the list of species who are at high risk they still are not the only party to provide priorities for conservational measures.

Critically Endangered (Cr)

A taxon is considered Critically Endangered when the species is facing extreme danger of becoming extinct in the wild

Endangered (En)

A taxon is considered as endangered when the species is facing a very high risk of extinction in the wild.

Vulnerable (Vu)

A taxon is said to be Vulnerable if it is facing a high risk of extinction in the wild in the near future.

4.    Red Book Data: List of Threatened Flora and Fauna in India

  • Sumatran Rhinoceros (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis)
  • Hangul deer (Cervus canadensis hangul)
  • Himalayan Brown or red Bear (Ursus arctos isabellinus)
  • Pygmy Hog (porcula salvania)
  • Andaman White-toothed Shrew (Crocidura andamanensis) Kondana Soft-furred Rat (Millardia kondana)
  • Elvira Rat or Large Rock Rat (Cremnomys Elvir).
  • Namdapha Flying Squirrel (Biswamoyopterus biswasi) Malabar large-spotted civet(Viverra civettina )
  • Red panda (Ailurus fulgens)
  • Asiatic wild dog (Cuon alpines).
  • Wild ass (Equus hemionus)
  • Brow-antlered deer(Rucervus eldii)
  • Golden Langur(Trachypithecus geei)
  • White-bellied Musk Deer(Moschus leucogaster) Hispid hare/ Assam rabbit (Caprolagus hispidus) Indian hog deer (Axis porcinus)
  • Lion tailed macaque (Macaca Silenus)
  • Tibetan antelope Pantholops hodgsonii) Nilgiri langur ( Trachypithecus johnii) Nilgiri tahr (Nilgiritragus hylocrius)
  • Ganges river dolphin (Platanista gangetica)
  • Milkwort (Polygala irregularis)
  • Bird’s foot (Lotus corniculatus)
  • Assam catkin yew (Amentotaxus assamica)
  • Moa, skeleton, fork fern, and whisk fern (Psilotum nudum) Umbrella tree, kudai vel (Tamil) (Acacia planifrons)
  • Indian mallow, thuthi (Tamil) and athibalaa (Sanskrit) (Abutilon indicum)
  • Ebony tree (Diospyros celibica)
  • Malabar lily (Chlorophytum malabaricum) Spider wort (Belosynapsis vivipara)
  • Malayuram, Malavuram (Pterospermum reticulatum)
  • Jeemikanda (Gujarat) (Ceropegia odorata)
  • Musli ( Chlorophytum tuberosum)

 

5.  Endangered and Endemic Species of India

Any organism whether it is a plant, animal or an microorganism who is in prompt danger of undergoing biological extinction is called as an endangered species or threatened species. In India, it is estimated that around 450 plant species, 100 mammals and 150 birds are endangered. India’s biodiversity is threatened primarily due to:

  • Habitat destruction
  • Degradation
  • Over exploitation of resources

The RED-data book contains a list of endangered species of plants and animals that might become extinct in the near future if not protected. Some of the endangered and endemic species found in India are:

Fish

  • Knife tooth sawfish (Anoxypristis cuspidata)
  • Asian arowana (Scleropages formosus)
  • Red line torpedo barb (Sahyadria denisonii)
  • Golden Mahaseer (Tor putitora)

Birds

  • Steppe Eagle (Aquila nipalensis) Great Knot (Calidris tenuirostris)
  • Masked Finfoot (Heliopais personatus)
  • Greater Adjutant (Leptoptilos dubius)
  • White-bellied Blue Robin (Myiomela albiventris)
  • Nilgiri Blue Robin (Myiomela major)
  • White-headed Duck (Oxyura leucocephala) Green Peafowl (Pavo muticus)
  • Narcondam hornbill (Rhyticero)
  • Spotted Greenshank (Tringa guttifer)
  • Banasura Laughingthrush (Trochalopteron jerdoni)

 

Reptiles

  • Perrotet’s Vine Snake (Ahaetulla perroteti)
  • Three-striped Roofed Turtle (Batagur dhongoka) Green Turtle (Chelonia mydas)
  • Indian Narrow-headed Softshell Turtle (Chitra indica)
  • Goan Day Gecko (Cnemaspis goaensis)
  • Wyanad Day Gecko (Cnemaspis wynadensis)
  • Keeled Box Turtle (Cuora mouhotii)
  • Boulenger’s Dasia (Dasia subcaerulea)
  • Poona Skink (Eurylepis poonaensis) Inger’s Mabuya (Eutropis clivicola)
  • Yellow-headed Tortoise (Indotestudo elongata) Asian forest tortoise (Manouria emys)
  • Indian Kangaroo Lizard (Otocryptis beddomii)
  • Assam Roofed Turtle (Pangshura sylhetensis)
  • Asian Giant Softshell Turtle (Pelochelys cantorii)
  • Travancore Hills Thorntail Snake (Platyplectrurus madurensis) Travancore Earth Snake (Rhinophis travancoricus)
  • Cochin Forest Cane Turtle (Vijayachelys silvatica)

Mammals

  • Red panda (Ailurus fulgens)
  • Sei whale (Balaenoptera borealis)
  • Blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus)
  • Fin whale (Balaenoptera physalus) Banteng (Bos javanicus)
  • Wild water buffalo (Bubalus arnee)
  • Hispid hare (Caprolagus hispidus) Dhole (Cuon alpinus)
  • Indian elephant (Elephas maximus indicus)
  • Woolly flying squirrel (Eupetaurus cinereus)
  • Kolar leaf-nosed bat (Hipposideros hypophyllus)
  • Lion-tailed macaque (Macaca silenus)
  • White-bellied musk deer (Moschus leucogaster)
  • Servant mouse (Mus famulus)
  • Mandelli’s mouse-eared bat (Myotis sicarius)
  • Nilgiri tahr (Nilgiritragus hylocrius) Asiatic lion (Panthera leo persica) Bengal tiger (Panthera tigris tigris)
  • Ganges river dolphin (Platanista gangetica gangetica)
  • Gee’s golden langur (Trachypithecus geei) Nicobar treeshrew (Tupaia nicobarica)

6. Man and Wildlife Conflicts

Human–wildlife conflict is defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) as “any interaction between humans and wildlife that results in negative impacts on human social, economic or cultural life, on the conservation of wildlife populations, or on the environment

The ever- growing human population, deforestation, loss of habitat and decline in prey species, injured or old animal are one of the few reasons for this arise in India. Uncontrollable encroachment into wildlife zone thus stopping the movement of wildlife is a reason behind this problem. Every year countless number of humans and animals die due to this very reason. A few cases of this conflict are:

  • Leopard attack
  • Tiger attack
  • Elephant attack
  • Bear attack

 

These attacks lead to animal deaths, loss of crops, loss of human life, livestock depredation and injury to wildlife, destruction of geographic land and reduction in wildlife population. This conflict can be reduced by taking measures like electric fencing agricultural land, not stepping beyond the buffer zone, and use planning and livestock protection, community-based natural resource management (CBNRM), ecotourism, growing crops which are disliked by the wildlife among etc.

A classic example is seen where red pepper is grown along with other crops which keeps elephants at bay due to the fact that elephants don’t like and avoid crops containing capsaicin.

 

7.  Strategies for Conservation of Biodiversity

  •  Maintain flawless (viable) landscapes – the aim of this strategy is to provide protection along with priority actions such as repair historic impacts or removal of threats and improve the ecological integrity by maintaining long-term viability of the more intact (core) landscapes of the region.
  • Reverse declines – here the strategy involves in bringing back the lost ecological sites so as to reinstate critical ecological processes by improving the habitat of shrubby systems and open woodland and eventually help in bringing back declining species
  • Recover threatened species and ecological communities –the aim of this strategy is to fortify the perseverance of species that are on the verge of extinction in the wild thus indirectly protecting ecosystems from failing. The work here is done not at a community level but is based on individual species as each has their own unique requirements for survival. The actions are based on implementing measures for increasing their distribution and abundance while trying to put a stop to their decline.
  •  Control emerging threats –the aim is to educate people of the threats that are knocking at the door before the final extinction happens. Some of the threats are climate change and the introduction of invasive species.
  • The submissive adaptation to improve the elasticity of natural systems and allowing them to adapt to change can be done by various activities such as by maintaining functional areas and ensuring that there are representatives for the environments and that the associated processes for removing and minimizing existing stressors are done. Active adaptation can be done by influencing ecological processes to moderately direct the nature of adaptation by activities like restoring habitats and system dynamics. Identifying and protecting climate refugees and managing/restoring connectivity by increasing the matrix permeability and functional connectivity. Transformation can be done to fundamentally alter ecological processes in an aim to prevent irreversible changes from happening. The relevant activities would include keystone structuring of revised systems (eco-engineering and transformation) and species translocations or ex situ conservation (genetic preservation).

 

a). Conservation Prioritization

Spatial conservation prioritization is about identifying priority areas for biodiversity, as well as the allocation and scheduling of alternative conservation actions to inform decision-making. In other words, spatial conservation prioritization tries to answer the question of where, when, and how we act to efficiently meet conservation goals. Efficiency is an important concept, as possible conservation actions are always limited by available resources. Spatial conservation prioritization can be informative for many different types of conservation action, such as selecting locations most suitable for extending protected area network, targeting restoration and management, or designing broad scale green infrastructure.

 

The term “quantitative” refers to prioritization based on quantitative and spatially explicit data that describes the extent and occurrence of biodiversity features (e.g. species and habitats) and other relevant information (e.g. costs and threats). A prioritization algorithm then does the actual prioritization by ordering the planning units used according to some explicit formulation and the results are usually presented in the form of maps that describe the spatial distribution of priorities over the area of interest. Tools aimed at quantitative spatial conservation prioritization have multiple distinct advantages over non-quantitative approaches. They are able to account for the occurrence of biodiversity over potentially very broad geographical areas. For example, when working with species on local level, it is important to account for the occurrence of that species elsewhere. When designing new protected areas, it is similarly important to know what is already protected. Ecological connectivity is yet another factor that is not easy to account for in conventional planning. Expert-based and quantitative approaches are not, however, mutually exclusive. Expert input is always needed to make use of quantitative spatial conservation planning tools.

b). Biotechnological Approaches for Biodiversity Conservation

Though it is generally believed that biotechnology has adverse effects on biodiversity, but in fact biotechnology offers new means of improving biodiversity. Seed banks are the most efficient and effective method of ex-situ conservation for the majority of endangered species. In seed banks, genetic fingerprints are used to establish the origin of a seed or the relatedness of one plant variety to another.

Tissue culture techniques are of great interest for the collection, multiplication and storage of plant germplasm (Bunn et al., 2007). Such techniques allow propagating plant material with high multiplication rates in an aseptic environment. Micro-propagation refers to in vitro mass production of whole plant from any plant part or cell. Through micro-propagation, elite clonal material can be very rapidly multiplied. DNA barcoding is a technique in which species identification is performed by using DNA sequences from a small fragment of the genome, with the aim of contributing to a wide range of ecological and conservation studies in which traditional taxonomic identification is not practical.

Invitro Production of Embryos

Invitro embryo production is another way in biodiversity conservation. Methods used in the production of embryos in vitro include splitting and cloning of embryos, marker-assisted selection, sexing of embryos and transfer of new genes into an embryo. Embryo Culture and Transfer technique is used to introduce fertilized embryos into surrogate mothers. Sometimes closely related species can be used to produce the offspring of an endangered species.

Production of transgenic crops and animals is another application of biotechnology in biodiversity conservation. Transgenic crops are more likely to increase agricultural biodiversity and help maintain native biodiversity rather than to endanger it. Such crops may prove to be very useful to the farmers and can be of commercial value. However, the practical benefits and risks of the crops need to be assayed in the field and their products scrutinized. In case of animals, several lines of transgenic farm animals have been produced, but none have been commercialized. Some lines are made for the pharmaceutical industry to produce drugs in their milk. Others may show improved resistances towards certain infections. Biotechnological methods have many advantages to conventional captive breeding procedures. Since the animals need not to be moved around, less stress is experienced and the problem of space for keeping the animals is also solved since samples can be taken in the wild. Storage of genetic resources will help to preserve biodiversity and counter the effect of genetic drift on small populations. Even if an animal dies, its genes will still be available for future breeding work.

c). Biodiversity Conservation Policies and Programmes: National and International

The IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature),helps governments at national level by preparing national biodiversity policies, whereas it provides advice to environmental conventions such as the Convention on Biological Diversity, CITES and the Framework Convention on Climate Change in an international level. It also councils the UNESCO on natural world heritage.

There is a formally accredited permanent observer mission to the United Nations in New York. It’s been stated in their website that they are the only international observer organization in the UN General Assembly with proficiency regarding issues concerning the environment, specifically biodiversity, nature conservation and sustainable natural resource use.

It has solemn relations with the Council of Europe, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Maritime Organization (IMO), the Organization of American States (OAS), the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

d). Habitat Conservation Plan

Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) is a permit included in the application for an Incidental Take Permit that is issued under the United States Endangered Species Act (ESA) to exclusive establishments that undertake projects that could lead to an outcome of annihilation of an endangered or threatened species. It is a planning document that ensures that the anticipated take of a listed species will be minimized or mitigated by conserving the habitat upon which the species depend, thereby contributing to the recovery of the species as a whole. The environmental community and landowners take different stands on HCPs.

Following are the strengths:

  • Flexible to accommodate a wide range of projects that vary greatly in size and scope.
  • Forces consideration of species by all parties.
  • Reduced uncertainty for landowners.

The weaknesses are:

  • Inflexible with regards to changing knowledge relating to species and habitat.
  • The “No Surprises Policy” has been highly controversial with critics arguing that it burdens the agencies, rather than landowners, with additional financial and mitigation responsibilities if unforeseen circumstances arise.
  • HCPs are viewed as having weak and insufficient monitoring plans. Additionally, the parties responsible for monitoring HCPs are not regulated in a systematic manner due to private funding.
  • Criticism over scientific standards and limited credible scientific data.

 

Agencies have interpreted the role of HCPs under section 10(a) of the ESA as a means to contribute to survival of species but not as a recovery tool. The Habitat Conservation Planning Handbook is inconsistent with this stand and states that “…contribution to recovery is often an integral product of an HCP…” and in general, conservation plans that are not consistent with recovery plan objectives should be discourage

e) Convention on Biodiversity

  • The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) is an international agreement adopted at the
  • Earth Summit, in Rio de Janeiro, in 1992. It has three main objectives:
  • to conserve biological diversity
  • to use its components in a sustainable way
  • to share fairly and equitably the benefits arising from the use of genetic resources.

The CBD was negotiated under the guidance of the United Nations and was signed by more than 150 government leaders at the Rio Earth Summit (whose official denomination is the ‘United Nations Conference on Environment and Development‘). The Convention is now one of the most widely ratified international treaties on environmental issues, with 194-member countries. Unlike other international agreements that set compulsory targets and obligations,the CBD takes a flexible approach to implement rules and regulations. It identifies general goals and policies, and countries are free to determine how they want to implement them.

One of the CBD’s greatest achievements so far has been to generate an enormous amount of interest in biodiversity which is a critically important environment and developmental issue, both in developed and developing countries

Conclusion

Biodiversity and Environmental conservation are interrelated and dependent on each other. Both of them need to be carried side by side to create a natural balance. The extent of human interference in natural systems has created disturbance in the distribution of biodiversity on the planet. This has also led to the extinction of many species and enlisted many in endangered and vulnerable category. Although authorities at national and international level are taking up programs to reduce the conflict, still a lot needs to be done to maintain the equilibrium between man and nature.

 

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