The case for nature conservation
TIME is running out for two thirds of our primates, among which the smallest – Madame Berthe’s mouse lemur, to the largest – silver backed gorilla, are threatened by extinction in the next 25 to 50 years, so a recent paper published in the ‘Science Advances’ journal claims.
The risk of these species dying out arises from the pressures of man’s activities in forest removal, developing agriculture, and the construction of roads and dams.
Professor Anna Nekaris of Oxford Brookes University has stated, “The impending extinction of our closest relatives should not be taken lightly. Primates are vital parts of the ecosystem.” Conservation is the buzzword. This word refers to the wise use of our natural resources for the benefit of mankind, for wild animals and plants create an important natural resource.
Conservationists rightly argue that instead of overfishing, to the point of extinction, wild whales, sharks, tuna, groupers and herring, the catches of these species should be reduced by mandatory control. Only the ‘interest’ should be taken, with the ‘capital’ left intact.
Conservation is an active and not a passive process. For instance, putting a fence around a nature reserve and expecting the vegetation and animals within to remain the same forever is a false premise. Such a reserve needs a management plan, to be reviewed annually to allow public access in order to promote it, to occasionally fire areas and fell some trees under licence, or even cull some of the animal species to reduce overpopulation in a restricted area.
By developing research centres in the reserve, notice will be taken of those species of plant and animal life likely to die out, so that their numbers can be maintained by making dedicated habitats, pollinating plants, or rearing the plant or animal in captivity before eventual release back into the wild. Thus, the destruction of nature is prevented from taking its own course. Protection of species and ‘wildscapes’
Five years before Alfred Russel Wallace’s famous book ‘The Malay Archipelago’ was first published, an American diplomat and linguist, George Perkins Marsh, in 1864, published ‘Man and Nature’. His ideas formed the basis of conservation ethics to be revealed to the world much later. The United States took the lead in establishing Yellowstone National Park in 1872. Remember that in Victorian times, few people had spare money to purchase books and it took the United Kingdom until 1952 to establish its first national park, in The Peak District of Derbyshire.
The arguments for the preservation and conservation of natural and anthropogenic ecosystems are manifold but can be split into 10 divisions, as follows: 1. Moral or ethical Wild species have a right to co-exist with us on our/their planet but have no power over their own survival.
We, as humans and the dominant organisms on planet Earth, are morally responsible for the survival of the species under our care. 2. Aesthetic Wild plants and animals look attractive, and observing them gives us great pleasure.
In any society, however primitive or sophisticated, they are the basis of much of our culture, our literature, art and music.
They provide intellectual inspiration and are well worth preserving if only because of our emotional response to them. 3. Psychological In a fast changing world of ever-increasing, intensively cultivated agriculture and evermore industrialised and urbanised countries, our sanity is maintained by the presence of green spaces where we can relax in peaceful and secluded environments. These places add to our wellbeing.
A need for such environments was rampant in Victorian industrial cities and so urban parks became a landscape feature, but it was in the mid20th century that the citizens of Sheffield, Manchester, and Birmingham demanded the right to have free access to beautiful landscapes.
This is how the Peak District National Park was established, lying almost equidistant from these cities.
All people, of all nationalities, may visit British National Parks free of charge, unlike other world national parks where a distinction in entrance charges is made between nationals and foreigners.
Free entry even exists to any visitor to the nature reserves in Singapore.
Growing pot plants in our homes and cultivating our gardens is seen as an expression of our psychological need to feel closer to nature in urban societies. 4. Outdoor laboratories Ecological investigation needs areas of semi-nature ecosystems to be set aside for further research into the ways in which plants and animals provide value to mankind.
It is through such investigations that biological control agents have been produced to eradicate pests from agricultural crops.
It is through such research that the effects of humans on wildscapes can be predicted with greater accuracy. 5. Pollution monitors The reactions of wild species of animals and plants to environmental stresses can provide us with an early warning of pollutants which could have lethal effects on us.
The decline in the peregrine falcons alerted us to the toxicity of DDT. Lethal toxic gases are more easily recognised by animals, which react in much the same way as canaries reacted to lethal gases when taken deep underground by early coal miners. 6. Environmental stability It is rightly argued that the more diverse an ecosystem is, the more checks and balances there are to maintain stability.
Environments which have been greatly simplified by man may become inherently unstable.
Through over-cultivation, the Dust Bowl scenario of the United States in the 1930s occurred, much as overgrazing by goats and sheep, plus prolonged periods of drought, consequently leading to a decline in soil organic matter, has led to the spread of the Sahara Desert into what is known as the Sahel countries of Africa. 7. Productive species Many wild organisms are particularly efficient energy convertors of and producers of food sources.
We need to preserve them and their ecosystems should we need them as a future food supply.
Currently we gain about 85 per cent of our food from only 20 species of plants. If only we understood the nutritional properties of other species, we could benefit.
The establishment of Marine Reserves around our coastlines will conserve and control fish catches, as fish stocks in the sea provide most of the world with its only source of protein. 8. Plants which hold useful compounds
To date, only 5,000 out 250,000 species have been screened to determine their intrinsic compounds useful to man, providing such medicines and hormones such as digitoxin, morphine, oestrogen, progesterone and cortisone.
Should individual plant species become extinct, we may well lose their beneficial properties for us. 9. Genetic conservation With the extinction of any species of plant or animal, its genes, which could be unique, may be lost forever, and thus cannot be used for future genetic engineering of better, more productive plants or animals.
Fortunately seed banks now exist worldwide. 10. Economic There are proven financial reasons for conserving wildlife in wildscapes all over the globe, for frankly many of these places are economically depressed regions.
With the advent of wellmanaged and controlled tourism, local cultures become invigorated and their incomes become transformed overnight through native craft sales, lodges and longhouse stays and trips into the wild as well as providing as providing work as local rangers.
This is well-demonstrated in parts of Sabah and Sarawak with night and day safaris by boat or truck and diving centres on remote islands. In Kenya over one third of its foreign exchange currency comes from such tourist activities. For these reasons alone, the argument for conservation carries much weight in politics.
If living in urban centres in Sarawak and Sabah, do try regularly to step outside of the cityscape to the numerous national parks and marine parks or nature reserves near you. Most are but a relatively short distance from your home and provide a good day out for your family and friends. Whilst visiting these areas, do bear in mind the reasons for conservation and appreciate the wisdom and foresight of your state’s government in conserving and protecting the wildlife, land and seascapes of such environments for your enjoyment, even on the rainiest of days.
In all countries in the world I have ever visited, I have always ensured a trip to a national or marine park and frequently return to see the plants and wildlife I missed on previous occasions.