Wildlife conservation
Conserving the species with their habitat intact from various threats like habitat destruction, poaching, over-exploitation and climate change is called wildlife conservation. Due to abnormal growth of the human population, catastrophic level of deforestation, and overuse of other natural resources that have occurred in the current and last century to full-fill the need of mankind this scenario will get worse in near future. The Living Planet Report documents 60% Populations of mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, and amphibians have, on average, declined by 60% between 1970 and 2014, this is the most recent available data.
Importance of wildlife conservation
Each and every single species is part of a community or an ecosystem if a species gets threatened/extinct the entire community will lose its balance in some cases it ruptures the entire ecosystem.
Values of wildlife:
Aesthetic value— the enjoying of wildlife’s beauty and pleasure
Scientific value— studying and research of wildlife for their use in medicines, integrated pest management, etc…
Ecological Value— the interaction of wildlife in nature
Commercial— using wildlife to earn money
Game Value— the enjoyment value gained through hunting and fishing
Threats:
Deforestation
Forest lands are cleared for various purposes including agriculture, human settlements, construction of dams, and monoculture plantations. Increased demand in agricultural products and industrial demands leads to monoculture plantations like palm oil plantation and rubber plantation. In Malaysia, it leads to the destruction of rain forests due to that many species are threatened. some examples are orangutan, Bornean elephants, and rhino.
Fragmentation
The western ghats of Tamil Nadu are rich in biodiversity especially its homes to many endemics. Tea plantations of Anaimalais is a prime example of fragmentations of the forest it endangers animals like lion-tailed macaque this primate species is a specialist for evergreen forest types with preferential altitude and weather because of fragmentation leads to loss of continuous canopy so they need to come to the ground for reach another fragmented forest patch when they reach the ground they are vulnerable to predators and humans and they hit by the vehicles so often.
Poaching:
Poaching animals for illegal trades that occur globally is a huge problem for wildlife conservation. There are many state and international agencies that monitor and prevent illegal trade.
Pollution
A pollution is also an important form of threat to wildlife conservation by causing disturbance to smaller organisms or closed ecosystems. Insects like lower organisms got affected by air, water, and noise pollution. They are also affected by pesticides and insecticides and they transfer this carcinogenic or mortality causing substance to higher fauna and affect the food web of life. If sewage runs into the pond they change the physiochemical nature of the system it affects the plants and fishes. Plastics and other thrashes that are found in the ocean affect marine life like dolphins and turtles.
Climate change
An increase in temperature by human activities triggers the melting of ice in polar even faster. Due to this sea level rises and changes the weather pattern all over the globe due to this sudden change in weather patterns leads to habitat destruction. Meanwhile, a warming climate, fluctuating precipitation, and changing weather patterns will impact species ranges. Overall, the effects of climate change increase stress on ecosystems and species unable to cope with rapidly changing conditions will go extinct.
Temperature rise in the sea causes calcification of corals(death of corals). Coral reefs are a unique ecosystem with numerous services providing a home for at least 25% of all marine species. habitat specialist species are struggling to adapt to the changes it will lead to species extinction or moving to suitable conditions like they move towards higher altitudes where the species never been recorded.
Invasive species
Introduced species have most frequently caused species extinctions through predation/parasitism. Perhaps some of the best-documented examples have concerned the introduction of exotic predators to lakes and islands and the consequent extinction of plants and animals that had evolved no defenses against them. Thus, numbers of species of fish, many endemic, from the lakes of the East African Rift Valley may be extinct as a result of the intentional introduction of the Nile perch Lates niloticus, a voracious predator.
Islands are more vulnerable against invasive species, for example spotted deer that introduced in Andaman islands causing destruction in the forest ground covers by grazing due to absence of predator they multiplied in thousands and occupied nearly islands in the main archipelago.
Habitat conservation
Selecting a keystone species like woodpecker, elephant, and the tiger is the best way to conserve habitat. Example: Tiger. To save tigers it needs a sufficient number of prey species if a prey species number to be healthy it needs huge foraging ground and food ultimately we end up saving a habitat or ecosystem or biome.
Conserve the gene pool or make it more variation
When the gene pool is fewer variant species will be prone to disease and the possibility of extinction by epidemics is increased. So the gene pool needed more variation for adapting to the climate changes.
States policy on wildlife conservation
The state acts like the Wildlife Protection Act 1972, Forest Conservation Act 1980, the Environment Protection Act 1986, the Biological Diversity Act 2002 protects and preserves the Indian wildlife.
Key stone species initiatives:
Project elephant, project tiger, project rhino, and project gharial are some of the successful projects that use the keystone species as a target species by conserving them and conserving their habitat with all the species intact.
International agencies on wildlife conservation
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. It is involved in data gathering and analysis, research, field projects, advocacy, and education. IUCN's mission is to "influence, encourage and assist societies throughout the world to conserve nature and to ensure that any use of natural resources is equitable and ecologically sustainable".
The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance especially as Waterfowl Habitat is an international treaty for the conservation and sustainable use of wetlands. It is also known as the Convention on Wetlands.
CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, also known as the Washington Convention) is a multilateral treaty to protect endangered plants and animals.
TRAFFIC,
The Wildlife Trade Monitoring Network is the leading non-governmental organization working globally on the trade of wild animals and plants in the context of both biodiversity and sustainable development.
References:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traffic_(conservation_programme)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CITES
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramsar_Convention
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Union_for_Conservation_of_Nature
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wildlife_conservation
WWF_REPORThttps://c402277.ssl.cf1.rackcdn.com/publications/1187/files/original/LPR2018_Full_Report_Spreads.pdf.
PHOTO PLATE
Image1. coral bleaching, Image2.deforestation, Image3.Elephant trunks(poaching), Image4.Invasive species, Image5.Florida panther(poor gene pool), Image6..Agriculture, Image7.Pollution, Image8.Over fishing.
IMAGE CREDIT: GOOGLE IMAGES
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