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Brief note on importance of biodiversity
Note on importance of biodiversity
Brief note on importance of biodiversity
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Great Apes are at the brink of extinction due to deforestation, hunting, and bushmeat trade. Our closest cousins are now viewed as economic commodities rather than valuable agents to the environment and humanity. In order to explore this issue, there must be an examinitation of why primate populations are dwindling, if these populations can replenish themselves, and what measures the international community is taking to alleviate the problem. Bushmeat is a popular source of animal protein in West and Central Africa. With population rates on the rise, demand for bushmeat is projected to double in two decades. A study found that over 50 percent of the meat sold in markets was wild game with sales estimated at $50 million. Primate …show more content…
Biodiversity expert Robert Hepworth states, “By saving the great apes we will also be saving a whole raft of animal and plant species which exist in their remaining habitat.” The council of GRASP plans on using modern technology to track poachers and develop green tourism in protected areas. Television and print media have also taken on the story in Europe and Africa, which spawned a public desire for corrective action. Propositions for regulations on bushmeat trade have included gun control and implementing consequences for timber companies that do not meet bushmeat procedure …show more content…
Genetically, we are nearly identical. They are valuable to the environment and, as a result, to humans by maintaining forest species, which creates revenue, food, and medicine to local communities. Great Apes are not given a fair chance to sustain themselves with low reproduction rates during a rise in commercial hunting. That alone is too much without taking into consideration other forms of habitat disturbance occurring simultaneously. Campaign groups must remain persistent in their efforts to protect primates and educate not only the people intimately affected by the issue, but the global community as a whole. By placing awareness on a bigger platform, more people will become informed and want to take action to help save our great apes and, in turn, our
Freedom is important in the life of chimpanzees to sustain a sane and healthy lifestyle. Being born and raised in the wild is where chimpanzees should remain. Far away from cruel research and taunted to preform in unnatural manners. As Jane Goodall explains, “. . .there is really no justification for forcing these amazing creatures to suffer for our amusement or gain.” Once a rescued chimpanzee is returned to their natural habitat, the glow seen in their presence is unreal. Stopping the industry that uses chimpanzees as entertainment and testing is truly a dire issue and more publicity about their conditions should be broadcasted.
The second half of the 20th century has seen the continent of Africa in continuous turmoil. Civil wars, the AIDS epidemic, deforestation, and desertification are just a few of the problems facing Africa. A more recent threat to this ancient and fragile environment has emerged and is quickly gaining strength at devouring life – the bush meat trade. “Bush meat” refers to the smoked carcasses of various wild, and often endangered species that are sold illegally at rural markets of undeveloped countries and even at ethnic markets in developed nations. The meat of gorillas, chimpanzees, and elephants are considered delicacies and the demand for these endangered species is increasingly high. Countries at the center of this crisis are Botswana, Mozambique, Kenya, Zimbabwe, the Congo, Cameroon, Zambia, Malawi, and Tanzania. Bush meat plays a crucial socio-economic role to many in Africa, and as such epitomizes the need to balance protection against such factors as poverty, health, and food security. Certain key issues are necessary to understand the bush meat trade:
“Many airlines now ban shipments of African “Big Five wildlife trophies. Celebrities around the world, as well as the media, are condemning the illegal killing of animals for sport. The United Nations has also spoken out in a historic resolution on wildlife trafficking by the U.N. General Assembly that “strongly encouraged governments to commit to targeted actions to eradicate supply, transit and demand for illegal wildlife products” (Source 4). Countries, media, and celebrities are now discouraging the illegal killing of large game and urges the governments of many countries to enact laws to stop the black market distribution of these predators. It is important to prohibit illegal trophies and to enforce these laws with punishments and fines to remove species from the endangered species list and stop extinctions. Stricter laws and regulations can protect and save entire species from ceasing to exist. “Just months after the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History accepted a $20 million donation from big-game hunter Kenneth Behring, the Institution sought a FWS permit to import the trophy remains of two endangered wild sheep that Behring shot in Central Asia…After a storm of ugly publicity, the Smithsonian abandoned the permit application” (Source 1). The case of the Smithsonian Museum attempting to import two endangered sheep is just one
A social outrage has broken recently amid the scandal surrounding Cecil the Lion’s death. Cecil was illegally hunted and killed by the American dentist Walter Palmer. Since then, it has caused the world to change their minds on the effects of trophy hunting. Succeeding the death of the renowned lion, a recent poll in America displays that, on a three to one margin, the respondents said they would rather be tourists in a country that prohibits trophy hunting, instead of one that does not. The debate is rising as more hunters proudly present their ‘trophy’ on social media.
...auch, S. (2006). Industrial development on logging frontiers in the Brazilian Amazon. International Journal of Sustainable Development, 9(3), 277-296.
In “Battle for the Amazon,” Jeff Tollefson highlights the numerous regulations implemented by the Brazilian government to decrease deforestation and details the role of U.S. companies in the fight against land clearing in the Amazon basin. Tollefson states that major U.S. companies “could be held accountable for marketing illegal products” that have been extracted from deforested land (21).
The global phenomenon of bushmeat hunting, which refers to the unsustainable harvest and consumption of non-domesticated, primarily terrestrial animals, poses a significant threat to both biodiversity and human health. Although humans have hunted wildlife for thousands of years, concern regarding the long-term impacts of unsustainable hunting of vulnerable species has grown substantially in recent decades. Primate species face a pronounced impact from hunting, given that approximately 30% of primate species are currently classified as endangered or critically endangered. Exploitation by bushmeat hunting will result in the depletion, and eventual extinction, of many species of primates. The loss of these primate species will consequently significantly
Jen Viegas in the article , More Than Half of All Primates Threatened with Extinction , states that most primates like ape, monkey, tarsier, lemur and loris era threatened with extinction.Viegas supports his statement by explaining information about the threatening of these animals.He is also describing why they're threatened with extinction.First , Viegas states that 60% of primates are threatened with extinction , and 75% are declining in numbers.Then he explains that a species of monkey, called Miss Waldron’s red Colobus have already gone extinct.Viegas also states that the IUCN (The International Union for Conservation of Nature) found that human activities, for example, agriculture, wood harvesting, and livestock farming are mostly why
The only ray of hope for saving gorillas from extinction is conservation. A gradual rise in the population of mountain gorillas has taken place thanks to conservation programs. From the lowest point in 1980 when its numbers were just 254, it has now grown to 880.Similar efforts in the Campo Ma’an National Park in Cameroon and Cross River National Park of Nigeria has held some hope for the tiny population of Cross-river gorillas dwelling there. Recent surveys show that the counts for these apes have not gone below the 300 mark.But applying conservation measures to the lowland gorillas will be far more challenging given their wider habitat coverage. Efforts must be made to save the apes before it's too late.
These forests are currently being destroyed by illegal loggers, planters, and also by forest fires. Many of these fires seem to have been started by plantation owners. The act of logging is not just about taking down a few large trees. It is about stealing all of their resources. Great apes use their environment to build tools and eat.
The Amazon forest faces threats like climate change, cattle ranching and agricultural expansion, badly planned infrastructure, illegal logging, oil exploration, gold mining, overharvesting of fish or other water species, commercial fishing, biopiracy and smuggling, poaching, and lastly damming. Eighty percent of cut down forest areas in the Amazon are cattle. Runoff from pastures pollutes rivers. Fires used to control fields often spread into the remaining forest. The people that commercial fish usually lose up to sixty percent of the fish due to spoilage. 232,000 square miles of Amazon has been destroyed due to logging. In the Amazon about sixty to eighty percent of logging is done illegally. Rainforests used to cover about fourteen percent of earth surface but now it is only six percent. If we don’t stop all these threats in about forty years there won’t be any rainforests at
Of the five great apes, there is only one “lonely ape”. That ape I am speaking of is the orangutan. After discussing all five great ape species in class, orangutans were the most interesting and intriguing of the bunch, and for that I have chosen to conduct further research on them, and I will go over what I have learned about these animals, such as their environment, social structure, conservation status and efforts, past and present, population, etc. I’ll first start off with a little introduction to orangutans.
Deforestation has been a problem in Latin America since the early 1900s and the dilemma is continuing to become more severe. Deforestation does not only have consequences on the environment, but also, the indigenous people and the economy. The logging industry in Latin America is often executed by multi-national companies that are not properly regulated. The land that has been home and cultivated indigenous development for centuries is being dissipated rapidly. Due to exponentially growing global population, there is an increased demand for low priced goods-- like timber, crops, and meat. Many Latin American countries choose to get revenue for selling goods over the health of their local ecosystems. The crisis of deforestation and habitat
There is a need for future generations to understand the correlation between modern resource extraction practices and the plight of the rainforests. With this understand, hopefully the havoc large-scale resource intensification has produced across global environments can be avoided. The focus of this paper is on the issues surrounding the main economic enterprises for resource extraction in the Amazon; these being logging and timber harvesting, and gold mining. Additionally, attention needs to be paid to analyze the changes agricultural, technological and infrastructural growth has created within the Amazon basin. Each enterprise individually should be viewed to see what has contributed to the deforestation of the rainforest. Analyzing multiple
The world’s natural resources are depleting as the humans exploit and abuse these precious assets. Deforestation is occurring on a daily basis as the humans are cutting down the trees in mass quantities. The number of trees available in the world are limited and can become scarce at any point. As the population increases, the need for the wood from the trees becomes more necessary. As time passes, an abundant amount of people become more dependent on the supply of trees, especially in the Amazon Rainforest. The effect of deforestation of the species living in the area, how the population impacts the diminution of trees, and the sustainable solutions all make up the present and future of deforestation.