STF1053 BIODIVERSITY

LU8
HOW CAN BIODIVERSITY BE SUSTAINED?
PART I

Maintaining Biodiversity
CONVENTION
History

commitment by nations of the world

Articles

in the convention - useful framework for maintenance

into the future.

Maintenance
prevent

touches on many of human activities

individual species from becoming extinct or provision

of nature reserve and other protected areas for conservation.

CONVENTION OF BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY

What is it all about ?
CONVENTION OF BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY
CONVENTION comprises 42 articles
ARTICLE 6
General measures for conservation and sustainable use each contracting party shall in
accordance with its particular condition s and capabilities .
a.Develop national strategies, plan and programmes for the conservation and sustainable
use of biological diversity or adapt existing strategies plan or programmes.
b. Integrate appropriate conservation and sustainable use for biological diversity into
relevant sectorial or cross-sectorial plans programmes and policies.

In-situ conservation
ARTICLE 8
Each contacting party shall as far as possible
a)

Established a system of protected areas or

areas where special
measures need to be taken to conserve biological diversity

b)

Develop, guidelines for selection, established and management of

protected areas where special measures needed to conserve
biological diversity.

c)

Manage biological resources important for conservation

d)

Promote the protection of ecosystems, natural habitats and

maintenance of viable populations of species in natural surrounding

In-situ conservation (cont.)

e)

Promote environmentally sound and sustainable development

in areas adjacent to protected areas

f)

Rehabilitate and restore degraded ecosystems and promote the

recovery of threatened species through management strategies.

g)

Established or maintain to regulate manage or control the risks

associated with the use and release of living modified organism
from biotechnology

adverse environmental impacts

affect conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity
taking into account the risks of human health

In-situ conservation (cont.)

h) Prevent introduction , control or eradicate alien

species which threaten ecosystems, habitats or

species.

prevention of invasion is much less costly than control once

established.
effective quarantine measures are vital.
eradication of established introductions is sometimes possible
particular from island or small areas.

In-situ conservation (cont.)

Provide conditions needed for compatibility between

present use and the conservation of Biological diversity

and sustainable use
Subject to national legislation, respect, preserve and

maintain knowledge, innovations and practices of

indigenous and local communities relevant for the
conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity.
Encourages equitable sharing of benefits arising from

utilization of such knowledge, innovations and practices

In-situ conservation (cont.)

Develop or maintain necessary legislation /regulatory provisions

for protection of threatened species populations

Cooperate in providing financial and other support for in-situ

conservation particularly in developing countries.

Poorer countries need financial support.
Damage to ecosystem direct impact to the poor-suffer polluted

environment, loss of productive lands, collapse of fisheries, loss

of traditional sources of food, fodder, fuel and fiber when forest
are cut down.

Existing protected areas

Protected area systems required as a central plan of

national strategy for conserving biodiversity.

Existing protected areas = 20,000 in world wide
recognized by IUCN
Estimated 13.2 million km2;
Marine covers 1.3 million km2

Ex-situ Conservation
ARTICLE 9
Each contracting party shall as far as possible :
Adopt

measures for the purpose for ex-situ conservation of

components of biological diversity, preferably in the country of origin

Establish and maintain facilities for ex-situ conservation and research

on flora fauna and micro-organism, preferably in the country of origin

of genetic resources
Adopt measures for the recovery and rehabilitation of threatened

species and for their reintroduction in the natural habitats under

appropriate conditions

Ex-situ Conservation (cont.)

Regulate and manage collection of biological resources from

natural habitats for ex-situ conservation purposes as not to

threatened ecosystems and in-situ population of species
Cooperate in providing financial and other support for ex-

situ conservation in developing countries

Ex-situ conservation measures may include seeds bank,

sperm and ova bank, culture collections (plant tissues),

artificial propagation of plants and captive breeding of
animals.

Ex-situ Conservation (cont.)

The costs and benefits of ex-situ conservation have been

much debated.. This particularly true with regard to large

mammals
Key issues short term and long term viability of both wild

and captive populations

* Ex-situ conservation plays a secondary role to insitu conservation.

Sustainable use biological resources

Sustainable use of biological resources is one of the objectives of
the convention
ARTICLES 10 : embodies for this to be achieve
Each contracting party shall as far as possible and as appropriate :
a. Integrate consideration of conservation and sustainable use of
biological resources into national decision making
b.

Adopt measures relating tot the use of biological resources to

avoid or miminsed adverse impacts on biological diversity

Sustainable use biological resources (cont.)

c)

Protect and encourage customary use of biological resources

in accordance with traditional cultural practices that are
compatible with conservation or sustainable
use
requirement

d)

Support local populations to develop and implement

remedial action in degraded areas where biological diversity
has been reduced

e)

Encourage cooperation between its governmental

authorities and its private sector in developing methods for
sustainable uses of biological resources.

Sustainable use biological resources (cont.)

To live sustainably human population must be able to use the

biological resources sustainably within the biosphere's regenerative

capacity-drawing natural capital without depleting the capital
stock.
Example of present unstable use of particularly high economic

value mahoganies , horn from rhinoceros ivory from elephants,

whaling - focuses on short term economic gain rather than long
term sustainability.
Sustainable use requires the support of local people and protection

and encouragement of customary use in one way to achieve this.

INCENTIVE MEASURES
Biodiversity loss is driven by majority economic forces
Each contracting party shall as far as possible and as

appropriate :

Adopt economically and socially sound measures that act as incentives for
conservation and sustainable use of components of biological diversity

Obligation to adopt measures that encourages conservation and sustainable

use.

Interaction between society and the environment are complex, - requires

careful analysis to determine full consequences of particular actions.

INCENTIVE MEASURES (cont.)

A casual framework for examining these interactions

adopted by European Environment agency is DPSIR

which provides a useful basis for working through
such complexities

RESPONSES TO CONVENTION
Convention have produced biodiversity strategies and action

plans.
Implementing the changes requires to conserve biodiversity

effectively and to exploit it in a sustainable fashion is

difficult.
The way forward employed by other treaties and

agreement is to establish and agree targets for each party to

achieve in fulfillment of the convention, and protocols for
reporting progress so that this can be vigorously assessed.

SUMMARY
Convention on biological diversity is one of the main goal

attempts to set agenda for maintaining biodiversity and

provides a useful framework.
Main objectives conservation of biological diversity, the

sustainable use of its components and the fair ad equitability

sharing of the benefits arising from utilization of genetic
resources
Conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity will not

emerge fortuitously in each nation, but will require the

establishment of explicit mechanism

SUMMARY (cont.)
Information need to cross check whether the

strategies, programmes and plans are appropriate

Conservation need network protected areas for in-

situ protection and also ex-situ conservation

measures
Sustainable use will only be attained by its

integration into national planning, to minimize the

adverse impacts of use on biodiversity

References
Gaston, K.J. & Spicer, J.I. 2004. Biodiversity an

Introduction. Second edition. Blackwell Publishing,

UK. QH 541.15 B56 G256 2004.
Melchias, G. 2001.

Biodiversity and conservation.

Science Publishers, Inc. UK. QH 541.15 B56 M518

STF1053 BIODIVERSITY
LU8
HOW CAN BIODIVERSITY BE SUSTAINED?
PART II

CONSERVATION OF BIODIVERSITY

PRESERVATION

Protection of biodiversity
from any kind of human
activity
Nostalgia
Human benefits value
of human society
Needs

CONSERVATION
Protection of biodiversity for sustainable utilization

CONSERVATION (cont.)
Philosophy of managing the environment in such as way that it does not

despoil, exhaust or extinguish it or the resources and values it contains

Emphasis on management should be redirected towards the overall

conservation of world biodiversity and ecosystems rather than to single

target species.
The ecosystem functions in dynamic equilibrium that not only serve as

life-support systems for the Earth but also critical to the continuing
survival of human kind

Conservation applies the principles and results of diverse disciplines

such Ecology, Biogeography, Population Genetics, Economics, Sociology,

Anthropology, Geology, Philosophy and many others

CONSERVATION (cont.)
Therefore becomes a synthetic field to develop

scientific principles and then apply them to

developing technologies for the maintenance of
biological diversity

CURRENT PRACTICE IN CONSERVATION

Conservation of biodiversity can be attempted at 3

levels : Genes, Species and Ecosystems

Maintenance

of ecosystem diversity implies

conservation of species which constitute that
ecosystem, although it is feasible to conserve a
species independent of the ecosystem of which it is
a normal component.

Maintenance of genetic diversity within a species

implies maintenance of that species

CURRENT PRACTICE IN CONSERVATION

(cont.)
Conservation of species diversity will take care to

some extent of both ecosystem maintenance and

genetic maintenance

Loss of species diversity is more obvious and

quantifiable than genetic or ecosystem diversity

loss

Conservation based on species maintenance is

called Species based approaches

Conservation of Genetic Diversity

What is genetic diversity?
Genetic diversity is the combination of different

genes found within a population of a single species,

and the pattern of variation found within different
populations of the same species

Why genetic diversity matter?

From a biological viewpoint, genetic diversity is needed to

ensure present-day and future adaptability of the species as

well as their continued evolution
Genetic diversity is key to the long term survival of a

species
Species must have available a pool of genetic diversity if

they are to survive environmental pressures exceeding the

limits of developmental plasticity

Why genetic diversity matter? (cont.)

If a population has low level of genetic diversity (genetically

homogenous), when a virulent form of disease arises, all

individuals may be susceptible and die

But

as a result of natural genetic diversity within

population, they may be some individuals that are resistant
and are able to survive and thus perpetuate the species

From a human and development perspective, genetic

diversity is a vital to maintain and potential for genetic

improvement to meet changing end use requirements and
dynamically evolving environmental conditions

Why genetic diversity matter? (cont.)

All genetic conservation strategies and actions should be

compatible with three conservation goals and on three

time-scales of concern

Maintenance of viable population in the short term in order

to avoid extinction SHORT TERM FITNESS

Maintenance of the ability of the population to continue to

undergo adaptive changes ADAPTATION

Maintenance of the ability of the population for continuing

speciation SPECIATION

Why genetic diversity matter? (cont.)

Population seems to be the most reasonable level at which genetic

conservation can be attempted. The reasons are as follows:

The population and not species is the ecologically and evolutionarily significant (i.e
functional) units (ESU)

Genetic changes take place in the population over generations

Local adaptive changes likewise occur in the population

Geographically and genetically isolated populations offer greatest potential for

speciation

Conservation at species level will overlook the dynamics and attributes of

individual populations within it as well as their ecological functions

Conservation at a level of below populations, say at the allelic level, is impractical

Why genetic diversity matter? (cont.)

How many individuals in a population are needed for

conservation of genetic diversity?

50/500 Rule A genetically effectively population size (Ne) of at least

50 individuals is necessary for conservation of genetic diversity in the
short term and to avoid inbreeding depression.

A Ne of 500 is needed to avoid serious genetic drift in long term

Genetic conservation has its own limitations:

Very young science or still in the developmental

stage

Many genetic techniques useful in assessing

genetic diversity are not cheap are not easily
learned, can be misused and misapplied

Conservation of Species Diversity

One of the main players in conservation conceptually, biologically and

legally is the SPECIES

Many powerful legislations on conservation at the world and national

levels are focused on species

CITES, Endangered Species Act of USA (ESA)

Loss of species diversity is also very obvious and more easily detectable

and quantifiable than either loss of genetic or habitat diversity

Even conservation approaches based on habitat or ecosystems depend

on an intimate understanding of the biology of their constituent species

Conservation of Species Diversity (cont.)

Management of conservation based on knowledge of species-

area relationships, life-history requirements of the species

and minimum of individuals

Threatened species and those of actual or potential resource

value or keystone, dominant and crucial species required for

well being of an ecosystem are selected on a priority basis for
conservation such as threatened species or exhibiting rarity

Species selected for conservation should be broadly assessed

for a range of factors leading to rarity such as ENDEMIC

TAXA

Cladistic Prioritisation
Method designed to assess, and to some extent

quantify, the distinctiveness

considered for conservation

between

taxa

Based

on phylogenetic relationship between

species, expressed as divergence since their most
recent common ancestor

Any character ranging from morphological to

molecular

Second category of species for conservation

Directly harvested plants such as forest trees, medicinal

taxa, spices, ornamentals, food and forages

Plants which are a source of propagating materials for

planting elsewhere

Plants that are sources of genetic variation useful for

breeding and improvement programmes

Third category

Indicator species Particularly sensitive to pollutants, human

interferences, ecological instability and other disturbances

Umbrella species Usually required larger space and that provide

protection for other species within the ecosystems with scarce
resources. Absence in smaller areas with residual vegetation

Keystone species Important to maintain the ecological integrity

of the community and are essential to survival of other species

Charismatic species Significant for social, cultural or

anthropomorphic standpoints and usually attractive

Recreational species Popular for collection, growing or

observation

Used in-situ and ex-situ methods

Major advantage of the species-based approach is

that it allows resource allocation to the most urgent

cases to species which are in danger of
immediate extinction on the basis of priority
analysis

Disadvantages:
Only

an extremely small proportion of the

worlds species can be adequately surveyed to set
priorities for conservation
Priorities are based on individual prejudices