Why should we conserve Biodiversity?

There are many reasons, some obvious and others not so obvious, but then all are equally important. For the purposes of our understanding, these very reasons may be grouped into three categories: narrowly utilitarian, broadly utilitarian and ethical.

The narrowly utilitarian arguments for conserving biodiversity are obvious; humans derive countless direct economic benefits from nature say, in the form of food (cereals, pulses, fruits), firewood, fibre, construction material, industrial products (tannins, lubricants, dyes, resins, perfumes) and various products of medicinal importance. More than 25 per cent of the drugs currently sold in the market worldwide are derived from the plants and it is about 25,000 species of plants which contribute to the traditional medicines used by native people around the world. Nobody knows how many more medicinally useful plants there are in tropical rain forest waiting to be explored. With increasing resources put into ‘bioprospecting’ (exploring molecular, genetic and species-level diversity for products of economic importance), nations endowed with rich biodiversity can expect to reap enormous benefits.

The broadly utilitarian argument says that biodiversity plays a major role in many ecosystem services that nature provides. The fast-dwindling Amazon forest is estimated to produce, through photosynthesis, 20 per cent of the total oxygen in the earth’s atmosphere. Since, it is coming to us absolutely free, what if we put an economic value or tag on this service by nature?

To have a rough estimate of its value in monetary terms, we can get some idea by finding out how much our neighborhood hospital would charge us for just a single cylinder of oxygen. In the same vein, pollination (without which plants cannot give us fruits or seeds) is another service that the broadly utilitarian argumentators support in favor of the biodiversity’s value to mankind. They correctly reason: What will be the costs of accomplishing pollination without any help from the natural pollinators? There are other intangible benefits as well that we all derive from the nature. Who would deny the aesthetic pleasures of walking through thick woods, watching spring flowers in full bloom or walking up to a bulbul’s song in the morning. Can we really put a price tag on such pleasures as well? And finally,

The ethical argument for conserving biodiversity relates to what we owe to millions of plant, animal and microbe species with whom we share this planet. Philosophically or spiritually, we need to realize that every species has an intrinsic value, even if it may not be of current or any economic value to us. We have a moral duty nay, we are ethically bound to care for their well-being and pass on our biological legacy in good order to our future generations. Let’s preserve it for posterity…  

How can we conserve this Biodiversity?

When we conserve and protect the whole ecosystem, its biodiversity at all levels is protected naturally – we save the entire forest to save the tiger. This approach is called as “in situ” (on site) conservation strategy of biodiversity. However, when there are situations where an animal or plant is endangered or threatened and needs urgent measures to save it from extinction, “ex situ” (off site) conservation is the desirable approach and best strategy. Let’s have a bird’s eye view on each of these two strategies of biodiversity conservation:

In situ conservation: Faced with the conflict between development and conservation, many nations find it unrealistic and economically not feasible to conserve all their biological wealth. Invariably, the number of species waiting to be saved from extinction far exceeds the conservation resources available. On a global basis, this problem has been addressed by eminent conservationists. They identified for maximum protection certain ‘biodiversity hotspots’, a term coined by ecologist, Norman Meyer, which refer to those regions of the earth which have not only a very high levels of species richness coupled with a high degree of endemism (that is, species confined to that region and not found anywhere else), but they are also the most threatened regions insofar as biodiversity loss is concerned. Initially 25 biodiversity hotspots were identified but subsequently nine more have been added to the list, bringing the total number of biodiversity hotspots in the word to 34 today. Two hotspots – Western Ghats and Sri Lanka, Indo-Burma and Himalaya (particularly NE India) – cover our country’s exceptionally high biodiversity regions. Although, all the biodiversity hotspots throughout the world, put together cover less than 2 percent of the earth’s land area, the number of species they collectively harbour is extremely high and strict protection of these hotspots could reduce the ongoing mass extinctions by almost 30 per cent. 

In India, ecologically unique and biodiversity-rich regions are legally protected as biosphere reserve, national parks and sanctuaries. India now has 16 biosphere reserves, 90 plus national parks and 448 plus wildlife sanctuaries. India has also a history of religious and cultural traditions that emphasized protection of nature. In many cultures, tracts of forests were set aside, and all the trees and wildlife within such forest tracts were venerated and given total protection and are referred to as “sacred groves”. Such sacred groves are found in Khasi and Jaintia Hills in Meghalaya as well as in Aravalli Hills of Rajasthan, Western Ghat regions of Karnataka and Maharashtra and the Sarguja, Chanda and Bastar areas of Chhatishgarh. In Meghalaya, the sacred groves are the last refuges for a large number of rare and threatened plants.

• Ex-situ Conservation: In this approach, threatened animals and plants are taken out from their natural habitat and placed in special settings where they can be protected and given special care. Zoological parks, botanical gardens and wildlife safari parks serve this purpose. There are many animals that have become extinct in the wild but continue to be maintained in zoological parks. In recent years, ex situ conservation has advanced beyond merely keeping threatened species in enclosures. Now gametes of threatened species can be preserved in viable and fertile condition for long periods using cryopreservation techniques, eggs can be fertilized in vitro and plants can be propagated using tissue culture methods. Seeds of different genetic strains of commercially important plants can be kept for long periods in seed banks.
• The bottom line: Biodiversity knows no political boundaries and its conservation is therefore a collective responsibility of all nations. The historic Convention on Biological Diversity, (‘The Earth Summit’) held in Brazilian capital, Rio de Janeiro in 1992, called upon all nations to take appropriate measures for conservation of biodiversity and sustainable utilization of its benefits. In a follow-up, the World Summit on Sustainable Development held in 2002 in Johannesburg, South Africa, 190 countries pledged their commitment to achieve by 2010, a significant reduction in the current rate of biodiversity loss at global, regional and local levels. Let’s hope that a good sense prevails on the mankind sooner than later…