Environmental Science: Toward a Sustainable Future Richard T' Wright

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Environmental Science Toward a Sustainable
Future Richard T. Wright
Chapter 10

• Wild Species and Biodiversity
• PPT by Clark E. Adams

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Wild Species and Biodiversity

• The value of wild species
• Saving wild species
• Biodiversity and its decline
• Protecting Biodiversity

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Appreciating the Worth of Diversity

• The worth () of plant and animal diversity in
  terms of goods and services
• Factors that contribute to a reduction in plant
  and animal diversity
• Understanding the costs of losing plant and
  animal diversity
• Programs to protect biodiversity

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Puffin Project Seabird Restoration Project of
the Audubon Society
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The Value of Wild Species

• Biological wealth
• Two kinds of value
• Sources for agriculture, forestry, aquaculture,
  and animal husbandry
• Sources for medicine
• Recreational, aesthetic, and scientific value
• Value for their own sake

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Biological Wealth 38 Trillion/Year

• Gas, climate, and water regulation
• Water supply
• Erosion control
• Soil formation
• Pollination

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Biological Wealth 38 Trillion/Year

• Biological control
• Food production
• Recreation
• Raw materials
• Nutrient cycling
• Waste treatment

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Two Kinds of Value

• Instrumental beneficial to humans
• Sources for agriculture, forestry, aquaculture,
  and animal husbandry
• Recreational, aesthetic, and scientific value
• Sources of medicine
• Intrinsic value for its own sake

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Source for Agriculture Wild or Cultivated?

• Highly adaptable to changing environments
• Have numerous traits for resistance
• Lack genetic vigor

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Source for Agriculture Wild or Cultivated?

• High degree of genetic diversity
• Represents the genetic bank
• Need highly controlled environmental conditions

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Sources for Medicine Vincristine
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Sources of Medicine Table 10-1

• Vincristine from rosy periwinkle cures leukemia.
• Capoten from the venom of the Brazilian viper
  controls high blood pressure.
• Taxol from the bark of the pacific yew used to
  treat ovarian, breast, and small-cell cancers.

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Recreational, Aesthetic, and Scientific Value

• Ecotourism largest foreign exchange-generating
  enterprise in many developing countries
• 104 billion spent on wildlife-related recreation
• 31 billion spent to observe, feed, or photograph
  wildlife

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Recreational, Aesthetic, and Scientific Value
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Value for Their Own Sake

• Spiritual giving divine recognition to selected
  species
• Religious association between wild things and a
  creator
• Cultural animal rights, American Indians

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Saving Wild Species

• Game animals in the United States
• Acts protecting endangered species

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Past Wildlife Management Problems

• Restoring the numbers of many game animals, e.g.,
  deer, elk, turkey
• Passing laws to control the collection and
  commercial exploitation of wildlife
• Poaching and overhunting

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Contemporary Wildlife Management Problems

• Road-killed animals
• Population explosion of urban wildlife
• Lack of natural predators
• Wildlife as vectors for certain diseases
• Pet predation by coyotes
• Changed societal attitudes towards animals

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Acts Protecting Endangered Species

• Lacey Act forbids interstate commerce of
  illegally killed wildlife
• Endangered Species Act (ESA) protects endangered
  and threatened species (Table 10-4)
• Total endangered U.S. species 987 (388 animals,
  599 plants)
• Threatened U.S. species 276 (129 animals, 147
  plants)

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Strengths or Weaknesses of Endangered Species Act?

• The need for official recognition
• Control over commercial exploitation of
  endangered species
• Government controls on development in critical
  habitats
• Recovery programs
• Habitat conservation plan (HCP)

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Case Histories

• Peregrine falcon
• Whooping crane
• Spotted owl
• Klamath river and coho salmon

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Biodiversity and Its Decline

• The decline in biodiversity
• Reasons for the decline
• Consequences of losing biodiversity

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The Status of U.S. Species
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Causes of Animal Extinctions
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Reasons for Biodiversity Decline

• Habitat alterations
• Conversions
• Fragmentation
• Simplification
• Human population growth
• Pollution (Fig. 10-14)

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Reasons for Biodiversity Decline

• Introduction of exotic species, e.g., brown tree
  snake in Guam
• Overuse combination of greed, ignorance, and
  desperation

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Habitat Alterations
Photo by C. E. Adams
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Human Population Growth and Species Extinctions
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Pollution Exxon Valdez Oil Spill

• March 24, 1989
• 11 million gallons of crude oil spilled into
  Prince William Sound

Oil slick
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Exotic Species Brazilian Pepper Bush
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Overuse

• Harvest of 50 million songbirds for food

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Overuse

• Trafficking in wildlife and products derived from
  wild species 10 billion/year
• 90 decline in rhinos
• 1.6 tons of tiger bones 340 tigers
• Parrot smuggling 40 of 330 species face
  extinction

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Consequences of Losing Biodiversity The Plane
Analogy

• The whole plane is an ecosystem.
• There are many different parts (species) in the
  jet plane ecosystem.
• How does removal of one or more species affect
  ecosystem structure or function?

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Protecting Biodiversity

• International developments
• Stewardship concerns

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International Steps to Protect Biodiversity

• Red List of Threatened Species
• 11,167 species of plants and animals
• Convention on trade in endangered species (CITES)
  
• Focuses on trade in wildlife and wildlife parts
• Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD)

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International Steps to Protect Biodiversity

• Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD)
• Stepping up war on invasive species
• Access to genetic resources
• Stem tide of deforestations
• Formulating a strategic plan through 2010

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International Steps to Protect Biodiversity

• Convention on biological diversity
• Focuses on conserving biological diversity
  worldwide
• Does not yet have the support of the United
  States

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Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund

• Sponsors World Bank, Conservation International,
  and the Global Environment Facility
• Fund 150 million for developing countries
• Protect biodiversity hotspots

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Biodiversity Hotspots
60 of the biodiversity is located on just 1.4
of the Earths land surface.
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Stewardship Concerns

• Managing and protecting something you DO NOT own.
  Involves
• Wisdom
• Values

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The Wisdom of Stewardship

• Reforming policies that lead to declines in
  biodiversity
• Addressing the needs of people whose livelihood
  is derived from exploiting wild species

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The Wisdom of Stewardship

• Practicing conservation at the landscape level
• Promoting more research on biodiversity

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The Values of Stewardship

• Manage or mine the resource?
• Human perceptions of their relationships to the
  natural world
• Deep ecology we are part of the Earth and not
  separate from it
• Religious faiths

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End of Chapter 10