EVS PROJECT ON BIO DIVERSITY LOSS

 

 

EVS PROJECT ON BIO DIVERSITY LOSS

INTRODUCTION:

Biodiversity loss includes the worldwide extinction of different species, as well as the local reduction or loss of species in a certain habitat, resulting in a loss of biological diversity. The latter phenomenon can be temporary or permanent, depending on whether the environmental degradation that leads to the loss is reversible through ecological restoration/ecological resilience or effectively permanent (e.g. through land loss). The current global extinction (frequently called the sixth mass extinction or Anthropocene extinction), has resulted in a biodiversity crisis being driven by human activities which push beyond the planetary boundaries and so far has proven irreversible.

Even though permanent global species loss is a more dramatic and tragic phenomenon than regional changes in species composition, even minor changes from a healthy stable state can have dramatic influence on the food web and the food chain insofar as reductions in only one species can adversely affect the entire chain (extinction), leading to an overall reduction in biodiversity, possible alternative stable states of an ecosystem notwithstanding. Ecological effects of biodiversity are usually counteracted by its loss. Reduced biodiversity in particular leads to reduced ecosystem services and eventually poses an immediate danger for food security, but also can have more lasting public health consequences for humans International environmental organizations have been campaigning to prevent biodiversity loss for decades, public health officials have integrated it into the One Health approach to public health practice, and increasingly preservation of biodiversity is part of international policy. For example, the UN Convention on Biological Diversity is focused on preventing biodiversity loss and proactive conservation of wild areas.

 

IMPORTANCE:

Biodiversity is linked to cleaner water

Healthy soil is diverse

Biodiversity is vital for healthy plants and animals

Biodiversity means better food security

Biodiversity protects medicinal plants

Less biodiversity means more zoonotic disease

Biodiversity has economic benefits

Biodiversity creates jobs

Biodiversity and extinction are linked

Biodiversity loss can have significant direct human health impacts if ecosystem services are no longer adequate to meet social needs. Indirectly, changes in ecosystem services affect livelihoods, income, local migration and, on occasion, may even cause or exacerbate political conflict additionally, biological diversity of microorganisms, flora and fauna provides extensive benefits for biological, health, and pharmacological sciences. Significant medical and pharmacological discoveries are made through greater understanding of the earth's biodiversity.

Loss in biodiversity may limit discovery of potential treatments for many diseases and health problems. Biodiversity plays a crucial role in human nutrition through its influence on world food production, as it ensures the sustainable productivity of soils and provides the genetic resources for all crops, livestock, and marine species harvested for food. Access to a sufficiency of a nutritious variety of food is a fundamental determinant of health.

 

OBJECTIVE:

1) Conservation of biological diversity leads to conservation of essential ecological diversity to preserve the continuity of food chains.

2) The genetic diversity of plants and animals is preserved.

3) It ensures the sustainable utilization of life support systems on earth.

4) It provides a vast knowledge of potential use to the scientific community.

5) A reservoir of wild animals and plants is preserved, thus enabling them to be introduced, if need be, in the surrounding areas.

6) Biological diversity provides immediate benefits to the society such as recreation and tourism.

7) Biodiversity conservation serves as an insurance policy for the future.

8) It develop national strategies for the conservation and sustainable use of biological resources; establish protected areas, restore degraded ecosystems, control alien species, and establish ex-situ conservation facilities; and sustainable use of biodiversity.

 

METHODOLOGY:

Threats to biodiversity and health.

There is growing concern about the health consequences of biodiversity loss. Biodiversity changes affect ecosystem functioning and significant disruptions of ecosystems can result in life sustaining ecosystem goods and services. Biodiversity loss also means that we are losing, before discovery, many of nature's chemicals and genes, of the kind that have already provided humankind with enormous health benefits.

Nutritional impact of biodiversity.

Biodiversity plays a crucial role in human nutrition through its influence on world food production, as it ensures the sustainable productivity of soils and provides the genetic resources for all crops, livestock, and marine species harvested for food. Access to a sufficiency of a nutritious variety of food is a fundamental determinant of health.

 

Nutrition and biodiversity are linked at many levels: the ecosystem, with food production as an ecosystem service; the species in the ecosystem and the genetic diversity within species. Nutritional composition between foods and among varieties/cultivars/breeds of the same food can differ dramatically, affecting micronutrient availability in the diet. Healthy local diets, with adequate average levels of nutrients intake, necessitates maintenance of high biodiversity levels. 

 

The functions of ecosystems and altering native biodiversity. Such disturbances reduce the abundance of some organisms, cause population growth in others, modify the interactions among organisms, and alter the interactions between organisms and their physical and chemical environments. Patterns of infectious diseases are sensitive to these disturbances. Major processes affecting infectious disease reservoirs and transmission include, deforestation; land-use change; water management e.g. through dam construction, irrigation, uncontrolled urbanization or urban sprawl; resistance to pesticide chemicals used to control certain disease vectors; climate variability and change; migration and international travel and trade; and the accidental or intentional human introduction of pathogens.

 

Climate change, biodiversity and health

Biodiversity provides numerous ecosystem services that are crucial to human well-being at present and in the future.

Climate is an integral part of ecosystem functioning and human health is impacted directly and indirectly by results of climatic conditions upon terrestrial and marine ecosystems.

Marine biodiversity is affected by ocean acidification related to levels of carbon in the atmosphere. Terrestrial biodiversity is influenced by climate variability, such as extreme weather events (i.e. drought, flooding) that directly influence ecosystem health and the productivity and availability of ecosystem goods and services for human use. Longer term changes in climate affect the viability and health of ecosystems, influencing shifts in the distribution of plants, pathogens, animals, and even human settlements.

OBSERVATION:

The biodiversity losses from disturbances caused by humans tend to be more severe and longer-lasting. Humans (Homo sapiens), their crops, and their food animals take up an increasing share of Earth's land area. Half of the world's habitable land (some 51 million square km [19.7 million square miles]) has been converted to agriculture, and some 77 percent of agricultural land (some 40 million square km [15.4 million square miles]) is used for grazing by cattle, sheep, goats, and other livestock. This massive conversion of forests, wetlands, grasslands, and other terrestrial ecosystems has produced a 60 percent decline (on average) in the number of vertebrates worldwide since 1970, with the greatest losses in vertebrate populations occurring in freshwater habitats (83 percent) and in South and Central America (89 percent). Between 1970 and 2014 the human population grew from about 3.7 billion to 7.3 billion people. By 2018 the biomass of humans and their livestock (0.16 gig ton) greatly outweighed the biomass of wild mammals (0.007 gig ton) and wild birds (0.002 gig ton). Researchers estimate that the current rate of species loss varies between 100 and 10,000 times the background extinction rate (which is roughly one to five species per year when the entire fossil record is considered). In addition, a 2019 report by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services noted that up to one million plant and animal species are facing extinction due to human activities.

 

ANALYSIS: 

According to the Living Planet Index (LPI) 2020, decline was captured for the 68% of the monitored population (i.e. 20,811 populations of 4,392 species) for the period of 1970-2016.

The LPI "is a measure of the state of the world's biological diversity based on population trends of vertebrate species from terrestrial, freshwater and marine habitats adopted by the Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD) to track the progress" Only one-third of the overall decline (32%) relates to the period since 2000 where the most decline was for the freshwater species (44%) followed by terrestrial species populations (39%) and marine species (8%) (WWF, 2020) (Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, 2020). However, it is important to keep it in mind that most species are understudied and not discovered yet which also leave room for the larger extinction statistics beyond the existing calculations.

CONCLUSION:

In practice, decisions about natural resources are seldom made due to a single factor, but are based on the cumulative weight of many different considerations.

 The value of wildlife to human subsistence, its economic worth and the ecosystem benefits it provides are all important. Additional critical factors may also be far less tangible, such as the link between a particular species and a faith group, or the emotions it creates in some people. Recognizing the value of wildlife is a vital step in building the motivation needed for effective management and conservation.

 Protected areas can never protect all wildlife, and, in some situations, well- managed lands can be more effective vehicles for wildlife conservation than badly managed or under-resourced protected areas. Forestry managers have a critical role to play by

 

 1) Ensuring that forest management is compatible with the survival of native wildlife;

 

 2) Protecting unmanaged edges and patches within the forest estate;

 

 3) Protecting watercourses;

 

 4) Controlling poaching and the bush meat trade;

 

 5) Halting incursions by invasive species

 

One thing is clear: biodiversity loss cannot be halted if we fail to stabilize the climate, and if we are to stabilize the climate as well as to move into the era of low-carbon living, we must protect the biosphere - the very life-support system of our planet.