Transcript Managing Biodiversity - School

Managing Biodiversity
You need to UNDERSTAND the
concept of sustainable yield
Sustainable Yield= key part of sustainable ecosystem management.
It represents the safe level of harvest that can be hunted/ caught/
utilised without harming the individual ecosystem.
How do they measure the sustainable level?
• Maximum sustainable yield- greatest harvest that can be taken
indefinitely while leaving the ecosystem intact. Harvesting wild
plants, animals or fish is part of the subsistence lifestyle of
indigenous people and is usually sustainable.
• Over harvesting or overexploitation are usually the result of
commercial rather than subsistence activity. When activities such as
shooting elephants for ivory or harvesting shellfish and logging in
natural forests- the targets and their habitats are under threat
• Optimum sustainable yield- best compromise achievable in the light
of all the economic and social considerations. This will not destroy
the aesthetic or recreational value of the ecosystem and will
therefore allow multiple use for the maximum benefit to the
community.
• In order to manage fish/ wildlife mathematical models have been
developed to estimate the CARRYING CAPACITY (CC). This is
maximum human population that can exist in equilibrium with the
available resources (food, nutrients, etc).
• The major problem is that the CC varies seasonally and over time
can be reduced by Climate Change
Intense competition for food
Carrying capacity
Population begins to be
threatened by over harvesting
MSY in practice
No cover against
predators
Mortality
high,
population
reproducti
on low
Population declines for natural reasons,
more rapidly if over harvesting occurs
Maximum sustained yield
halfway between 0 and the CC
OSY lower than MSY, so ecosystem still
has high aesthetic value
Carefully controlled harvesting
allows population growth
Sustainable Yields in the Southern
Ocean
• Managed since 1961 since the Antarctic treaty came
into force
• Whaling is banned
• No culling of fur or elephant seals
• Limits placed on krill taking
• Protection of penguins and other Antarctic sea birds,
as they being in food web have an impact on sea
stocks
• Environmental protection in place- no military action
or waste dumping, so air pollution kept to minimum
• Few visitors, mainly scientists and some seasonal
tourists, but little noise pollution
Sustainable use of the Savanna
• CAMPFIRE- developed in the Zimbabwean Savanna in
late 1980s
• Local people have responsibility for area
• Communities always to receive direct benefits from
resource exploitation- including wildlife
• Scheme in collapse since political instability in the
country
• Also some disagreed with the scheme because it
included allowing certain numbers of elephants being
killed
Task
• Using the info from this PowerPoint and
the work you did on the 3 contrasting
areas and how far they have been
protected over the summer (Udzungwa
mountains, Soufriere and the Masai
Mara
• How do you think an ecosystem should
be managed? Why?
The key players in management?
Brainstorm ALL the players you think are involved
Transnational and
private enterprise
Indigenous people
Scientists
and
researchers
Local and
regional
governments
Players in
ecosystem
management
International
organisations
Artists and poets
NGOs
stakeholders
Special interest
groups
National
governments
Local
farmers
Individuals
Global Players
• There are 150 wildlife treaties in place
• Such things require a number of nations to sign before becoming
law
• Most involve funding conservation work, designating protected
areas, or regulating endangered species
• The 5 most important treaties in place today are
• RAMSAR Convention- wetland conservation signed 1971- adopted
by 147 countries
• World Heritage Convention- to designate and protect
outstanding cultural and natural sites- signed 1972, by over 180
countries
• The Convention on International trade in Endangered Speciessigned in 1973, adopted by 166 countries
• The convention on the conservation of Migratory Species of
Wild Animals was signed in 1979 and by 2005 adopted by 90
countries to prevent shooting of birds in passage
• The UN Convention on the Law of the sea- ratified by 148
countries
Other global players
•
•
•
•
•
•
Transnational cooperation's are involved, have say in which goods/
services are mostly exploited- increasingly they are moving to greener
strategies for long term benefit and to improve public image
They also drive innovation and technology, sometimes for the common
good, but sometimes to the detriment of the ecosystem involved
Other international institutions which are involved- UN agencies,
World Bank, World Trade Organisation and the International Tropical
Timber Organisation
Non government Organisations- such as Greenpeace and WWF provide
vital biodiversity conservation
WWF works in over 100 countries- it’s mission is to stop the
degradation of the planets natural environment and build an
environment where people live in harmony with nature
Others are smaller such as FAN (A small NGO working in Eastern
Bolivia to conserve biodiversity by using natural resources in a
sustainable way) and Yadfon.
National Players
• Government- regulate and facilitate
• Regulation- establish and enforce laws to conserve
genetic biodiversity, protect various areas and
species and regulate damaging activities such as using
polluting agro chemicals or releasing invasive species
• They also manage natural resources providing clean
air water or open space
• They fund preservation conservation and
development, often through taxes and subsidies
• Positive incentives to conserve are increasingly used,
e.g. paying farmers to be stewards of the landscape
and to farm in environmentally friendly ways
Local players
• Indigenous people are often dependant on
biodiversity for basic survival
• For many local biodiversity has spiritual significance
• Locals have good knowledge of local plants and their
uses, e.g. traditional medicine
• Local fishers/ farmers can conflict with
conservationists because they live a subsistence
lifestyle relying on the ecosystem for survival
• Ecosystem management issues are increasingly in
previously remote areas like the Amazon and
Antarctica- as more people visit pressures arise
• Some individuals can join together to form special
interest groups- they can degrade delicate areas
• Conflict can arise from scientists hunting for new
drugs, species with indigenous people who just want
to continue their existence
Individual players
• Most diverse group of all
• All having individual morals, beliefs and needs on each
ecosystem
• In OECD countries ethical consumerism is increasing
people buying dolphin friendly tuna.
Strategies and policies
Scientific
Reserve
Community
wildlife
management
Wildlife
Reserves
and parks
Economic
development
integrated
into
conservation
Extractive
reserves
Tolerant
forest
management
Exploitation
with token
protection
How best to protect?
•
•
•
•
•
Total protection?
Biosphere reserves
Leave to exploit
Conserve certain areas
In the 60s total protection was favoured, in 80s local
voices were heard and biosphere reserves were
created leaving some land to locals and fencing off
the rest.
What problems with this approach?
• In more recent times economic and social aspects of
biodiversity more taken into account- ie ecotourism
Conservation priorities?
• Some want to target HOTSPOTS as they are areas of
maximum diversity and are under greatest threat
• WWF favours a broader approach in which
representative areas of land and sea known as ecoregions are targeted to save a max of variety of
habitats and species
• Some say focus should be a poorer regions of world as
costs are lower.
• Some question focus of conservation on high interest
animals like Pandas and tigers
Restoring degraded areas
• The ultimate conservation challenge
• i.e. Recreating wetlands
• Or linking fragmented reserve areas to make larger
reserves easier to manage and more biodiverse
• These schemes rely on how degraded land is the more
degraded and polluted the harder it is
• An example of this is the Great Fens recreation
project in East Anglia, UK.
Conservation
• Other approaches to conservation, ex situ conservation, e.g.
captive breeding of endangered animals in zoos.
• Zoos also contain biodiversity banks such as seed banks for
plants
• Several species have been saved in this way such as Scimitar
horned Oryx, bred at Marwell Zoo and re released into Arabia
• Giant pandas are also being bred in captivity to increase
numbers
• Some people do not like zoos feeling sorry for captive animals,
but they play a vital role in education of people and allowing
people to see animals they otherwise may not see
Task
1) Produce short fact files on each of the
varying management strategies
a) Buffer zones
b) Biosphere reserves
c) Global agreements like CITES
d) Gene banks
e) Restoration
f) Captive breeding
2) Assess the relative advantages and
disadvantages of each method of
management