The price of animal anonymity
Study urges more attention for ‘ worthless’ creatures about to disappear from Earth
Obscure flora and fauna that few people have heard of need to be better protected if we are to prevent their extinction, a new study says.
OSLO — Obscure flora and fauna that few people have ever heard of, such as the Jamaican rock iguana, need to be much better protected if the world is to achieve a goal of preventing species dying out by 2020, a study said on Tuesday.
The report, Priceless or Worthless?, listed the 100 most threatened species and said critically endangered plants and animals such as Tarzan’s chameleon in Madagascar merited conservation since they were irreplaceable for the Earth even if they had no economic value for people.
“Over half ( of the 100 most endangered species) are receiving little or no attention,” said Prof. Jonathan Baillie, director of Conservation at the Zoological Society of London.
Few people fretted about the fate of the Singapore freshwater crab, Ethiopia’s liben lark, the Seychelles sheath- tailed bat or the Luristan newt, found only in the Zagros mountains in Iran, he warned.
And Tarzan’s chameleon, coloured bright green and yellow, was largely ignored in a shrinking patch of rainforest.
“We need a rethink” of conservation priorities, Baillie said of the 124- page report issued by the Zoological Society of London and the International Union for Conservation of Nature, which is meeting in South Korea, and groups governments, scientists and activists. Officials said the report “hopes to push the conservation of ‘ worthless’ creatures up the agenda that is set by NGOs ( non- governmental organizations) from around the globe.” Creatures such as lions or pandas get much more attention than newts, it said.
Loss of habitat, caused by a rising human population and other factors such as expanding cities, deforestation, pollution and climate change, are driving more and more species of animals and plants to extinction.
“We need a fund to prevent extinction, resourced by governments, that is in the billions, not millions,” the report said, without specifying a currency.
Measures such as an expansion of protected areas or hunting bans were needed, it said.
Baillie said people may have gone too far in judging animals and plants by the economic value of the services they provide, including food, medicine or as tourist attractions.
“We need to keep the appreciation for the wonderful diversity of life on Earth as the key message, and then other utilitarian arguments have to be additional,” he said.
The list of the 100 most endangered species included the Cayman Islands ghost orchid, the Javan rhino and the suicide palm of Madagascar, which dies exhausted after producing tiny yellow flowers on a stem up to 5 metres long.