Sunita Vakil pleads for protection of environment to ensure continuation of human existence on Earth. The very existence of man depends on preservation of “variety of life on earth.”
Since biodiversity is inexticably linked with our lives, its preservation and protection is essential for our very survival.
What Mahatma Gandhi has said “Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need but not every man’s greed”, is relevent even today. Indeed, biosphere is an intricate tapestry of interwoven life forms. But we are rapidly interfering and altering the balance of ecosystems and misunderstanding the importance of biodiversity. It has long been feared that human greed is responsible for destroying the environment that has fostered the diversity of life forms for more than a billion years. Individual species and ecosystems have evolved over millions of years into complex interdependence. Therefore, we need to preserve biodiversity in forests and coastal ecosystems in our own neighbourhood in order to maintain our life support systems. But it is disturbing that we as humans have been responsible for the extinction of natural fauna and flora. Be it global warming, deforestation, soil erosion or any other threat to nature, human greed is always the contributing factor. Almost all cultures in some form or other stress upon the interdependence and interrelation of varied forms of life and the need to maintain it. Yet, power, greed and politics have effected the precarious balance. Our rulers, politicians, planners, industrialists and businessmen continue to destroy or exploit our natural environs in the name of development.
In the complexity of emerging scene of global warming and changes taking place on the climate front, it is prudent to emphasise the need to conserve biodiversity at all levels for the well being of the ecosystem and the world as a whole. Every living creature, no matter how small, has its own utility and purpose of existence. Ecosystem stability is therefore a compelling reason to vigorously pursue measures to counter the erosion of species. And so while we dominate this planet, the “World Environment Day”, which falls on June 5 is the day to ask ourselves what we can do to safeguard our environment from further degradation and avert future disasters. That generic erosion continues globally is a stark fact staring us in the face. More than 12% of birds, 21% of mammals, 30% of amphibians, 27% of coral reefs and 35% of conifers and cycads face extinction. Infact, according to the world conservation union, over 47,677 species may soon disappear. Given this, a convention on biological diversity (CDB) was adopted at the 1992 UN conference on environment and development in Rio de janerio whose goals are conservation, sustainable use and equitable sharing. As of December 2009, 192 countries and the European commission were signatories to it. To generate awareness about our sadly depleted resources and badly mutilated environment, May 22 is observed as the International day for biological diversity. The UN has designated 2010 the international year of biodiversity. Leaders from 170 countries will gather at a UN biodiversity summit to be held in Nagoya in Japan in October 2010 to review the progress made in biodiversity conservation targets and adopt a road map to reverse the trend of biodiversity loss.
Biodiversity simply means “the variety of life on Earth”. The convention of biological diversity defines biodiversity as “the variablity among living organisms from all sources including, inter alia, terrestrial, marine and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are a part. This includes diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems”. Biological diversity is of fundamental importance to the proper functioning of all natural and man made ecosystems and by that logic to human society. Living organisms play a key role in the cycles of major elements and water in the environment and the diversities is of vital importance as these cycles require numerous interacting species. From the human perspective, from common drugs to possible cures for cancers and other life threatening diseases, most of our medicines come from plants. Biodiversity also holds the key to progress in agriculture, forestry and other fields. So, the costs associated with our deteriorating or vanishing ecosystems will be vey high. Yet, the pressures to destroy habitats for commercial exploitation or for alternative uses such as road building are making conservation a struggle.
Estimates of the number of species currently living on Earth ranges widely, but most estimates fall between 5 million and 30 million species. Roughly 1.75 million species have been finally described and given official names. Many new species of animals and plants are still being discovered. In Papua Guinia, 44 new species of animals were recently discovered in the forests. Brazil is estimated to have around 55,000 species of flora, amounting to some 22% of the world’s total and India has about 46,000 plant species and 81,000 animal species, representing 7% of the world’s flora and 6.5% of it’s fauna. Western Ghats and North East are some of the areas where the richness of biodiversity has been well preserved. These are the hot spots of the world’s list of biodiversity. There are also 89 National Parks and 504 wildlife sanctuaries in India, including the Chilika lake. But then, given the culture of consumption is so central to most societies today, this diversity is being eroded on a large scale. So is the case with many other biodiverse regions such as Indonesia, parts of Africa and some tropical regions. A report from the World Commission of Forests and Sustainable Development suggests that the forests of the world have been exploited to the point of crisis and major changes are needed to avert the devastation.
No doubt extiction is a fact of life and species have been evolving and dying out ever since the origin of life. However, species are now becoming extinct at an alarming rate. Over the last century, a great deal of damage has been done to the biodiversity existing on Earth. Today, one fifth of all plant species face extinction in the next 20 years. In losing species we lose the productivity and stability of entire ecosystem. The Millenium Ecosystem Assessment report released in 2005 noted that there has been an unprecedented and irreversible loss in the diversity of life on Earth, with some 10-30% of the mammal, bird, amphibian species currently threatened with extinction due to the long feared human activity. Another report from the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) confirm the concerns from the previous year estimating that vertebrate species populations have declined by about one third in the 33 years from 1970-2003. A research article in the journal “science”, has warned that commercial fish and sea food species may all crash by 2048. A study published in “Nature”, notes that 90% of all large fishes have disappeared from the world’s oceans in the past half century due to industrial fishing. The loss of predatory fishes is slated to cause serious imbalances in the marine ecology. In the past century, commercial whaling mainly for food as well as research purposes has led to their declining numbers. The demand for shark fin soup in China and Taiwan has decimated shark population. Also amphibian species are declining at an alarming rate, the golden toad of Costa Rica being the first casualty. One type of ecosystem that perhaps is the most neglected despite being the richest in biodiversity is the coral reef. It is feared that very soon many reefs could die off. At the current rate of loss, it is feared that oceans may never recover. Large scale habitat and biodiversity losses mean that species with greater economic importance may become extinct before they are discovered. The vast, untapped resource of medicines and useful chemicals contained in wild species may be lost forever, Many marine species also have chemicals in their bodies which could be a potential source of new economically important medicines. The only conclusion that can be drawn is that losing even one species upsets the balance of nature which has a profound effect on all life forms. Naturally, we are also at a risk.
Clearly at a loss to counter the erosion of species, it is inevitable that biodiversity will suffer further major losses. What many countries fail to realise is that they are ever eager to take more than what the environment has to offer, often at enormous costs to society and environment. Often it is man’s own offending hand that has contributed to deterioration of ecosystems to an unsustainable level. In Bangladesh and India for example, logging of trees and forests have made the floods during monsoons very deadly. Similarly, clearing of forests has led to avalanches and mudslides in many regions of the world with devastating effects on human life and property. As mentioned by the center for Science and Environment, climate change and environment degradation may make weather systems all the more severe, as seen in Orissa in India. Deforestation also results in changes in the amount and distribution of rainfall. Rising sea levels having the potential to drown major cities, extreme weather conditions resulting in drought, flooding, hurricanes and changes in the distribution of disease-bearing organisms, all translate directly into economic effects on human population.
Due to the ever increasing populations and demands on natural resources, humans have damaged the environment in numerous ways. But, as a dominant species on this planet, man alone has the power to make changes and face the challenges ahead. For, we have no right to enjoy its resources if we do not feel morally bound to conserve and sustain the ecological balance of our environment. Though things may look dire there are solutions. It is not too late yet It may be a tough challenge, but we have to bear in mind that ecological value of our natural environment far outweighs its economical value.