Protected areas alone cannot stem biodiversity loss: study

Kollam: The continued reliance on a strategy of setting aside land and marine territories as “protected areas” is insufficient to stem global biodiversity loss, says a comprehensive study published in Marine Ecology Progress Series, a journal of the Germany-based Inter-Research Science Centre, on Thursday.

Despite an impressively rapid growth of protected land and marine areas worldwide, totalling over 1,00,000 in number and covering 17 million sq.km of land and 2 million sq.km of oceans, biodiversity is in a steep decline, it adds.

The authors of the study, Camilo Mora of the University of Hawaii and Peter F. Sale of the United Nations University's International Network on Water, Health and Environment, says that in a country like India alone, about 4 million people can get displaced if protected areas are fully enforced.

While stating that protected areas are a valuable tool in the fight to preserve biodiversity, the study suggests getting serious about addressing the growth in size of the global population and the consumption rate because protected areas alone cannot solve the biodiversity loss problems.

“Clearly, the biodiversity loss problem has been underestimated and the ability of protected areas to solve this problem overestimated,” Dr. Mora says.

Expected scenarios of human population growth and consumption levels indicate that cumulative human demands will impose an unsustainable toll on the Earth's ecological resources and services, accelerating the rate at which biodiversity is being lost. Current and future human requirements will worsen the challenge of effectively implementing protected areas, while suggesting at the same time that effective biodiversity conservation requires new approaches.

Dr. Mora says, “Biodiversity is humanity's life support system delivering everything from food to clean water and air to recreation, tourism and to novel chemicals that drive our advanced civilisation.” Yet there is an increasingly well-documented global trend in biodiversity loss triggered by a host of human activities.

Dr. Sale says, “Protected areas have helped preserve some species at local scales, but promotion of this strategy as a global solution to biodiversity loss has occurred without adequate assessment of their potential effectiveness in achieving the goal.”

They warn that long-term failure of the protected areas strategy can erode public and political support for biodiversity conservation. The study also says that continuing heavy reliance on protected areas strategy has technical and practical limitations. These include slow growth in protected area coverage, inadequate size and connectivity of protected areas, underfunding, and conflicts with human development.

Source: The Hindu, 28-07-2011

Plea to check biodiversity loss

Thiruvananthapuram: The first Indian Biodiversity Congress which concluded here on Friday urged the government for concerted action involving local communities to check biodiversity loss.

A declaration adopted by the congress called for a decade-long plan of action to address the underlying causes of biodiversity loss, reduce the pressures on biodiversity, safeguard biodiversity at all levels and enhance benefits provided by biodiversity.

The conference demanded an effective land use plan for reducing the loss of natural habitats, including forests. It said there was a need to at least halve, and where feasible, bring close to zero, the rate of loss of natural habitats; protect 17 per cent of terrestrial and inland water areas and 10 per cent of marine and coastal areas; restore at least 15 per cent of degraded areas; and make special efforts to reduce the pressure faced by coral reefs.

Biodiversity had so far served as the feedstock for sustainable food and health security and could play a similar role in the development of climate-resilient farming and livelihood systems, it said.

The IBC demanded integrating or including actions related to conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity in strategies relating to production sectors, such as agriculture, fisheries, forestry, tourism and mining.

One of the major recommendations involved dovetailing the use and conservation of biodiversity in agro-ecosystems into national development plans, including programmes aimed at poverty reduction, rural development, food security and dealing with climate change.

The declaration said though there were reports of local extinction of flora and fauna, systematic check lists were not available for planning effective management of biodiversity, especially the Rare, Endangered and Threatened (RET) species.

The IBC demanded immediate action for area specific data bases of RET species for their conservation and sustainable management.

It recommended partnerships between academic and research institutions and civil society organisations for demand-driven research on biodiversity conservation. Sufficient funds should be earmarked for grassroots-level conservation programmes involving local communities.

The IBC stressed the need for a master plan for biodiversity economics in India.

Source: The Hindu, 2-1-2011

2 fish species ‘disappear' from Pampa

KOCHI: Two endemic fish varieties - catfish and eel - are feared to have disappeared from the Pampa.

No individuals of these species have landed in the nets of fishermen for the last three years triggering suspicion of their population loss. The catfish (Nadan Mushi) and the eel (Malanjil) were once found in abundance in the river system.

The disappearance of the popular varieties was noted during an evaluation of the harvested fishery wealth of the river by the School of Industrial Fisheries of the Cochin University of Science and Technology.

The three-year assessment of fish landing at six centres was carried out as part of a project “database on fish germplasm, capture fisheries and biodiversity threats of rivers of Kerala” for the Kerala State Council for Science, Technology and Environment.

A research team led by B. Madhusoodana Kurup, Director, School of Industrial Fisheries, had M. Harikrishnan and C.R. Renjith Kumar as members.

The analysis identified the presence of 60 fin fish species and one prawn variety in the river. Of this, 26 were regularly caught by the fishermen. This also included a few species namely Vaka Varal, Kooral, Manjakoori, Aral, Muthukila, Arinjil and Paral, which had high ornamental value in overseas market.

It was estimated that 42 tonnes of fish having ornamental value was being indiscriminately caught annually from this river. They were used either as poultry feed or manure. The annual average fish landing was found to be 394 tonnes worth Rs.3.70 crore.

The fishery wealth of the river was found to be dominated by Thooli.

The other varieties that were netted include Varal, Vala, Karimeen, Vayambu and Karuva Paral. The researchers had earlier developed captive breeding techniques for the species and carried out ranching for restoring its population, the report said.

Habitat decline and degradation due to increased sedimentation in river bottom, pollution from sewage and agriculture were rampant in the river.

Illegal fishing activities using poison, electricity and some plant extracts, poor water quality and invasion of exotic and alien fish species were also posing serious threats to the fish germplasm.

The study recommended setting up of a local-level management body for the conservation and judicious utilisation of the fishery resources.

Source: The Hindu,25-10-2010