Geography · Ch 20 — Biodiversity and Conservation
Conservation of Biodiversity
Conservation of Biodiversity
The map is a world map, drawn in a simplified political style, with roughly fifteen named regions marked by arrows and labels. Each arrow points to a specific area on the map, and the label names the hotspot. The regions are spread across the tropics and subtropics, with a heavy concentration in the Americas, Africa, and South and Southeast Asia.
In the Americas, the map marks the Central American Highland/Lowland Forests, Western Ecuador and Colombian Choco, the Tropical Andes, and the Atlantic Forest (Brazil). In Africa, it shows the Upper Guinean Forests of West Africa, the Eastern Arc Mountains (Tanzania), and Eastern Madagascar. In South Asia, the labels point to the Western Ghats (India), Sinharaja Forest (Sri Lanka), and the Eastern Himalaya. Further east, the map marks Indonesia, Peninsular Malaysia, the Philippines, Northern Borneo, and Queensland in Australia, along with Melanesia (New Caledonia) in the Pacific. …
Why conservation matters
Biodiversity is not a luxury — it is the foundation of human existence. Every form of life is so tightly interlinked that a disturbance in one species creates an imbalance in others. When plant and animal species become endangered, the environment itself degrades, and that degradation can ultimately threaten our own survival. The Red Panda, shown in the textbook, is one such endangered species whose loss would ripple far beyond its own kind.
The world conservation strategy
The global community has responded through the world conservation strategy, which lays down concrete steps for biodiversity conservation:
- Endangered species must be preserved through deliberate effort.
- Preventing extinction requires proper planning and management — it does not happen by accident.
- Varieties of food crops, forage plants, timber trees, livestock, animals, and their wild relatives should all be preserved.
- Each country should identify the habitats of wild relatives of domesticated species and ensure their protection.
- Habitats where species feed, breed, rest, and nurse their young must be safeguarded and protected.
- International trade in wild plants and animals should be regulated.
India's legal response
To protect, preserve, and propagate the variety of species within natural boundaries, the Government of India passed the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972. Under this Act, national parks and sanctuaries were established, and biosphere reserves were declared. The details of these biosphere reserves are covered in the companion book India: Physical Environment.
Mega diversity centres
Some countries lie in the tropical region and therefore possess a large share of the world's species diversity. These are called mega diversity centres. There are twelve such countries: Mexico, Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil, Democratic Republic of Congo, Madagascar, China, India, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Australia.
Biodiversity hotspots
To concentrate limited resources on the most vulnerable areas, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) has identified certain regions as biodiversity hotspots. These hotspots are defined according to their vegetation, because plants determine the primary productivity of an ecosystem.
Most — though not all — hotspots rely on species-rich ecosystems for food, firewood, cropland, and income from timber. Consider Madagascar: about 85 per cent of its plants and animals are found nowhere else in the world. Hotspots in wealthy countries face different pressures. The islands of Hawaii, for instance, have many unique plants and animals that are threatened by introduced species and land development.
The textbook also mentions Humboldtia decurrens Bedd, a highly rare endemic tree of the Southern Western Ghats in India, as an example of a species confined to a hotspot.
The way forward: people and sustainability …
Biodiversity is important for human existence. All forms of life are so closely interlinked that disturbance in one gives rise to imbalance in the others. If species of plants and animals become endangered, they cause degradation in the environment, which may threaten human being's own existence.
There is an urgent need to educate people to adopt environment-friendly practices and reorient their activities in such a way that our development is harmonious with other life forms and is sustainable. There is an increasing consciousness of the fact that such conservation with sustainable use is possible only with the involvement and cooperation of local communities and individuals. For this, the development of institutional structures at local levels is necessary. The critical problem is not merely the conservation of species nor the habitat but the continuation of process of conservation.
The Government of India along with 155 other nations have signed the Convention of Biodiversity at the Earth Summit held at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in June 1992. The world conservation strategy has suggested the following steps for biodiversity conservation: (i) Efforts should be made to preserve the species that are endangered. (ii) Prevention of extinction requires proper planning and management. (iii) Varieties of food crops, forage plants, timber trees, livestock, animals and their wild relatives should be preserved; (iv) Each country should identify habitats of wild relatives and ensure their protection. (v) Habitats where species feed, breed, rest and nurse their young should be safeguarded and protected. (vi) International trade in wild plants and animals be regulated.
To protect, preserve and propagate the variety of species within natural boundaries, the Government of India passed the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972, under which national parks and sanctuaries were established and biosphere reserves declared. Details of these biosphere reserves are given in the book India: Physical Environment (NCERT, 2006). …