Conservationeffortsshouldfocusonsavingspecificecosystems

A species has never had a singlecleardefinitioninitshistoryofexistence,andmanyarguethatformost purposes it doesnt need to be much like a planet. A paleontologist might find it more useful to classify species by morphology, while a biologist would more likely use the definition of species that calledfortheoffspringoftwoorganismstobegeneticallyviable. What does this mean for conservation efforts? For one, there is the question of where to donate resources to for example the North Atlantic and North Pacific right whales are a case in point. For many yearstheywerethoughttobethesamespecies,theNorthRightWhaleuntilitwasfoundthatthey were actually genetically distinct while the North Atlantic North whale wasthemoreendangeredofthe two and conservation efforts are currently being directed towards the conservation of this particular species. The issue of which of the whales to protect did not seem worrisome until it was found in fact that they were different speciesinthattheyweregeneticallydistinctandthelossofthewhalepopulation wouldmeanalossofgeneticdiversity.(Angliss,2005) This in itself wasworrisomebecauseoftheattitudeadoptedtowardstheperceivedpossibleextinctions. Both whales occupied different habitats, and the fact that this was so even though there was no guarantee that the right whales would inhabit the same habitat seems to indicate a lack of interest in preservationoflifeingeneral. Conservation is a very emotive issue, and when most people think of species conservation it is the conservation of single species withrespecttoitsraritythechancesightingofabirdoncethoughttobe extinct is at once exciting news. Yet what does it mean to conserve a species what benefit do we

1|Page

derive from it? Extinctions are fairly commoninthehistoryoflife,anditwasonlywhenentireclassesof organisms died out that there have been any large scale changes in the direction evolution took. As human beings, the direction evolution will take millions of yearsfromnowonlyseemstoworryuswhen itpertainstoourownspeciesHomosapiens. Why should conservation efforts beundertakeninthefirstplace?Iamoftheopinionthatalargepartof why theyareundertakenisan underlyingsenseofmoralimperativeasoneofthesuperiorspeciesitis the right thing to do. Another is that we somehow help change thefateoftheplanet.Whilethefirst concern is one that is probably addressed more effectively by philosophers, the second is more easily countered. Mankind as we know it has inhabited the earth for a fraction of the time life started, and asmentioned earlier extinctions have been part and parcel of history. Pollution, poaching habitat destruction, deforestation and trawling will definitely destroy biodiversity. But life has survived multiple extinctions and its probably only life as we know it that would change. Life as a process would still exist. It is in fact ourselves (as a species) that we should worry about the most while environmental degradation will affect other species as well, I think it is safe to say that is it only us that are worried about the survival of our species as a whole. In question is not just our biological survival, but thesurvivalofour habits as well. Having said that, I think it wouldbeprudentto furtherconservationeffortsthatalsohelp ensure the preservation of our own species, and ecosystem protection offers benefits beyond biodiversitypreservation. Given this background, I would like to elaborate my stand on ecosystem preservation being ofgreater

2|Page

importancethanindividualspeciespreservation. There are a number of reasons why some species are rarer than others, and this includes natural selection as well as artificial selection, poaching and other human interactions. Some species have evolved over time to occupy certain niches and may automatically go extinct if efforts are not made to conserve the habitat which they live in. On theotherhand,ifthespeciesitselfgoesextinct, anothermay soon fill the niche that it once occupied. It should be understood at this point that the ecosystemisnot independent of species and vice versa and the aim of ecosystem preservation itself is to provide maximumbenefittobiodiversity. Some may argue that ecosystems orhabitats arenotconcretetargetsforbiodiversityconservation,but neitherarespecies.Yetwhateverconceptofthe ecosystemweuse,thereseemstobeagreementonthe fact that it houses a diverse range of flora and fauna any and all efforts to conserve it will also lend itself to the conservation of the housed biodiversity (Burns, 1992). Justas anillustrationofthediversity that an ecosystem can house some of the species that the a Gambianshrimpingtrawlercaughtduringa random sampling of one of its trawls were the following long neck croaker, law croaker, Cassava croaker, Bobo croaker, rubberlip grunt, Sompat grunt, white grouper, dusky grouper, giant African threadfin, Lesser African threadfin, cuttlefish, rough head sea catfish, smooth mouth sea catfish, barracuda, African sickle fish, sole fish, snails and of course shrimp. Thats a total of 18 distinctly different species of sea creatures. It is clear from this that in the same location thattheshrimpingboats operated were neglected, either through pollution, overfishing or outright habitat destruction by destructive fishing practices such as bottom trawling atleast 18 species would be affected.

3|Page

(http://snipurl.com/br31s,FAO,1997). Even the US Fish and Wildlife Services (USFWS) which traditionally believes in species oriented conservation methods adopted Habitat Conservation Plans (Clark, 1999). This approach is not a new phenomenon and the importance of this approach was recognised even earlier in thecentury.Serventy in his 1940 paper makes anobservationthatwhilethebirdpopulationwasntmuchaffectedbyhunting, the reliefprojectsduringthegreatdepressionthatclearedthescrubandgroundfloraeffectivelyreduced thelocalsongsparrowpopulationto64%ofitsoriginalstrength.(Serventy,1940) Certain habitats not only houserichbiodiversity,theyalsoserveusinmoredirectways.Rainforestscan potentially house precious compounds that may be useful fortreatmentofdiseases,andtreesingeneral act as CO2 sinks. In addition, marine plankton fix CO2 as well, while estimatesvaryastohowmuch there is agreement that it is significant. Pollution and any other damage to theirhabitatsmaychangethe amount or rate at which CO2isfixed.Althoughthankfullyforus,theyarespreadfarapartenough forit to be hard to change this. The December 26, 2004 tsunami was a display of the importance of ecosystem preservation. The coastal areas where mangroves existed experienced far less severe than those where mangroves were largely replaced by other structures a claim supported by both anecdotal evidence and studies involving the same (F. DahdouhGuebas, et al. 2005). This in addition tothevariousspeciesthemangrovesmayhavehoused. I think Bowen summarises the essence of the whole conservation debate very effectively. The aim of conservation is not preservation ofobjectsgenes,species,orecosystems,buttheprocessoflifeitself. We have barely scratched the surface of earths biodiversity we have identifiedaboutamillionanda

4|Page

half species of creatures while ecologist Michael Rosenzweig puts the actual total numberofspeciesat anywhere between 2 and 100 million with no indication of how many maybeendangeredatatime(R. Michael, 2003). This begs the question of whichofthesespeciestopreserve.Clearlywe havemuchto learn. For all these reasons, and then some I believe that an ecosystem based approach is the best approachtoconservation.

Man is inclined to exaggerate his deliberate influence uponnatureand toleave the far more considerable indirect effects to obscurity EdwardMaxNicholson (ornithologist,andafounderoftheWorldWildlifeFund)

5|Page

References:
1. Angliss, R. P, R. B. Outlaw 2005. North Pacific Right Whale Alaska Marine Mammal Stock

Assessments,NOAATMAFSC,168 2. Burns, T. P. 1992. Ecosystem: a powerful concept and paradigm for ecology. Bull. of Ecol. Soc.ofAmer.73:3943. 3. B. W. Bowen, 1999. Preserving genes, species, or ecosystems? Healing the fractured foundationsofconservationpolicy.MolecularEcology,8:S5S10. 4. The C3 cycle http://www.botany.hawaii.edu/faculty/webb/BOT311/BOT31100/PSyn/PsynDark1.htm / http://snipurl.com/br6t2 5. F. DahdouhGuebas, et al. 2005. How effective were mangroves as a defence against the recenttsunami?CurrentBiology,Volume15,Issue12,PagesR443R447 6. Jamie Rappaport Clark. 1999. The Ecosystem Approach from a Practical Point of View. ConservationBiology,Volume13,Pages679681 7. Jennings, S.2005.Indicatorstosupportanecosystemapproachtofisheries.FishandFisheries, Volume6,Number3,pp.212232 8. Michael Rosenzweig 2003. Just How Many Species Are There. Society For Conservation Biology 9. A Study Of The Options For Utilization Of Bycatch And Discards From Marine Capture Fisheries Discards and bycatch in Shrimp trawl fisheries. 1997. FAO Fisheries Circular No. 928 FIIU/C928 http://www.fao.org/docrep/w6602e/w6602E09.htm#T30 / http://snipurl.com/br31s 10. Serventy1940.ReflectionsonBirdPreservationtheNeglectofHabitatPreservation.The Emu,Vol.XL,Pages153158(www.publish.csiro.au/nid/96.htm)

6|Page