Feature Article
Facing Extinction: 9 Steps to Save Biodiversity
By Joe Roman, Paul R. Ehrlich, Robert M. Pringle, and John C. Avise
Red-eyed tree frog. Jan Pietruszka/Sebastian Duda
In Brief In 2008, the Royal Society for Human history has followed a pattern—which began in Africa but is now the Protection of Birds in the UK global in scope—of exploiting nature and depleting resources. As we have announced a final call to find the slender-billed curlew, a one-time expanded our influence over the world, we have also extinguished species resident of Europe, the Middle East, and populations at an alarming rate. Despite attempts to reduce biodiversity and North Africa, last seen in 1999. loss, the trend is likely to continue: nearly 20% of all humans—more than Meanwhile, scientists in Australia a billion—now live within biodiversity hotspots, and their growth rate is pronounced the white lemuroid faster than the population at large. This article presents nine steps to reduce possum extinct; a native of mountain biodiversity loss, with a goal of categorizing human-caused extinctions as forests in Queensland, the possum wrongs, such as the slave trade and child labor, that are unacceptable to was the first mammalian extinction society. These steps include developing a system of parks that highlight blamed exclusively on global warming. the planet’s biological legacy, much as historical landmarks celebrate Two critically endangered frog human history. Legal prohibitions that are fairly and capably enforced species were declared extinct, despite will also be essential in protecting rare and declining species. Biodiversity their protection by a Costa Rican endowments—from national governments, nongovernmental organizations, national park. More than 140 species and private enterprises—can help support parks and native species in of mammals, 24 birds, 6 reptiles, and 5 amphibians deteriorated in perpetuity. Like a good sports team, conservationists need to defend extant conservation status, moving from lower wilderness areas, but they also need to play offense by restoring ecosystems, to higher risk categories of concern reclaiming keystone and umbrella species, and making human landscapes on the IUCN Red List of Threatened more hospitable to biodiversity. In the long run, the most effective forms of Species, the global authority on the conservation will be those that engage local stakeholders; the cultivation conservation status of the world’s of sustainable ecosystems and their services must be promoted along with animals and plants.1 Only 37 mammals conservation of endangered species and populations. The emerging field of improved during this period, along ecological economics can unite these goals by revealing the connections with two birds and one amphibian. between human well-being and conservation. Unfortunately, the year 2008 was not exceptional in these respects.
50 | Solutions | January-February 2010 | www.thesolutionsjournal.org The biodiversity crisis is by now as we lose our natural capital--the long lags in the evolution of new well known as it is tragic. The species ecological goods and services that organisms following major extinction extinction rate is of great concern. At enrich and sustain our lives. That events, largely because diversity least 76 mammal species are known deforestation and overgrazing can begets diversity. Extinction chips to have gone extinct since 1500, with lead to erosion and desertification away at the genetic and ecological several others on the verge.2 The baiji, is as obvious as the Sahel, but other engines of speciation. With fewer a freshwater dolphin of the Yangtze, connections—such as the rise of genetic lineages, there is a reduction will almost certainly join the list soon. malaria and hemorrhagic fevers in in the raw material of evolution: The Scimitar-horned oryx and Pere disturbed lands—are becoming more variation in DNA. A reduction in David’s deer now probably exist only apparent as our ecological footprints ecosystems and unique niches in captivity. Marine mammals are in and understanding of diseases expand. means fewer opportunities for new severe danger, especially in northern There is a growing recognition organisms to evolve. The drop in oceans. Things are even worse for the number of species, genera, and other, less celebrated, taxa. More than families on the planet is likely to 70% of North America’s freshwater Key Concepts be a long-lasting legacy of human mussel species are on the edge of activities. We will be poorer without a 3 extinction. Since the Polynesians first ∑ Extinction is likely to be one of our rich store of biodiversity—in spirit, in arrived on Hawaii 1,600 years ago, longest-lasting legacies. health, and even in our pocketbooks. more than 70% of the islands’ native Here are nine tactics that could help birds have disappeared.4 Since 1850, ∑ To address this crisis, we will need moderate human-caused extinctions. the extinction rate for the world’s landscape-level management of wil- Most of these suggestions have been derness and human-impacted areas, birds has been about 100 times higher community involvement, legislation, made before, repeatedly, but they than the background rate in the fossil economic incentives, bioliteracy, warrant our continued and ever- record. More than 10% of all bird unified conservation science, and at- more-urgent attention. tention to the prime drivers of extinc- species remain threatened. Seabirds tion: growth of the human population have been in special jeopardy—rats and its aggregate consumption. Landscape took out many island colonies, and 1. Biodiversity Parks about 130 of the 450 remaining species ∑ The new field of ecological eco- Many countries have national parks are threatened with extinction— nomics, which synthesizes human that feature special landscapes and activities and natural processes, can but forest birds aren’t faring much quantify the costs and benefits of geological formations: the volcanic better. If deforestation continues at biodiversity protection. caldera of Yellowstone, the Grand the present pace, so many birds may Canyon, Mount Kilimanjaro. In disappear that their extinction rate ∑ We need a social transformation, addition to these traditional and will increase by more than an order of through education and ecological essential parks, there is a need to literacy, to make human-caused 5 magnitude by the end of the century. extinction a thing of the past, like the protect a carefully designed network The problem is much bigger slave trade, apartheid, and the Iron of reserves on each continent than species loss. The diversity of life Curtain. and in every ocean. This global spans many levels, from strands of series, or archipelago, of biological DNA within an individual to entire refuges—biodiversity parks—will ecosystems comprising billions of that our natural heritage is at risk, preserve key features of the Earth’s organisms and thousands of species. irreplaceable, and central to our well- biological legacy inherited from the Extinction occurs adaptation by being. evolutionary past into the future. adaptation, population by population, There are potential remedies Such parks, in effect, would celebrate habitat by habitat. The disappearance for these problems, but they will and honor the evolutionary heritage of a population is often a prelude take effort and determination. The reflected in biological diversity, to species extinction,6 but species financial crisis made front-page just as traditional national parks can lose their ecological relevance news every day in early 2009. The and monuments preserve special long before they go extinct, as their global extinction crisis barely was geological features or honor important numbers dwindle and they no longer mentioned. Yet economic recessions historical events in human affairs. remain key players in the system. are a blip in history, whereas the Rather than merely constructing Many extant species are now absent effects of runaway extinction museums that memorialize biocide, from more than half of their historic will linger for millions of years. biodiversity parks would offer explicit ranges. As organisms disappear, Paleontologists have identified protection for endangered species and
www.thesolutionsjournal.org | January-February 2010 | Solutions | 51 evolutionarily distinctive ecosystems. natural services such as recreational back its original terrain.10 Restoration The task is not as insurmountable opportunities and water purification.9 relying on successional recovery is not as it might appear. By preserving always so predictable, however. The and endowing just 25 biodiversity 2. Ecologically Reclaimed and reintroduction of fire to sand barren hotspots (less than two percent of Restored Habitats prairies that had been overgrown with the earth’s land area) we could help Humans need to play conservation willow was not enough to restore protect 44% of vascular plant species offense as well as defense. Beyond the prairie. The woody vegetation and 35% of all species of mammals, the immediate concern with the loss was resistant to the fire regime.11 For birds, reptiles and amphibians for $500 of a particular population, species, that reason, restoration ecologists are million a year7—less than 0.1% of the or ecosystem, a focus on long-term often needed to ensure the recovery of funds allocated to the United States’ recovery and biological revival is degraded lands.12 Thousands of species Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) also essential. Scientific research have been eradicated or imperiled by to bail out incompetent financial can inform the restoration of local the construction of ill-conceived dams institutions. throughout the world. It is too late for One difficulty with many current the many freshwater mussels and fish park systems is that reserves often that have gone extinct, but for others tend to be on residual lands that the damage still can be reversed. The are not very valuable for resource removal of the Edwards Dam from extraction or human subsistence. A the Kennebec River in Maine restored study of new reserves in Australia large numbers of eels, sturgeon, and showed that they were typically striped bass to upstream habitats, gazetted on steep and infertile where they had been absent for more public lands, areas least in need of than 150 years. The U.S. Fish and protection.8 Without proper planning, Wildlife Service funds competitive ad hoc reserves can be ineffective, grants for private stewardship of lands, often occupying less productive with an emphasis on endangered land, making the goal of protecting species habitat. Dozens of federal biodiversity more expensive and grants support restoration projects less likely to succeed. Well-placed such as prairie streams for the Topeka networks of sanctuaries, designed shiner in Iowa, aquatic systems for with an awareness of ongoing climate Arctic grayling in Montana, grasslands disruption and the unique biotic facets for a threatened milk-vetch and other of the sites, can help shepherd many plant species in Oregon, and habitat species through the extinction crisis. for sage grouse in Colorado.13 In discussing parks, we often The reintroduction of individual think of landscapes, but the species can play an important role in biodiversity crisis affects aquatic rewilding parks and their surrounding systems as well. Protection of the ecosystems. Large animals are oceans requires safeguards against especially prone to extinction, yet they overfishing and networks of marine Young fir tree. Matt Niebuhr are often key to ecological dynamics. reserves that include rich nearshore The return of a megafaunal species habitats (such as coral reefs and habitats and help renaturalize entire to its historic range can yield many upwellings) as well as deep-sea ecosystems by uniting scattered benefits: undo a population extinction, vents and abyssal plains. As on land, fragments. make habitats more interesting these protected areas should range In Costa Rica, scientists, and exciting for locals and visitors, from strict nature reserves where businesspeople, politicians, and the and restore ecological interactions fishing and extraction are forbidden local community helped regenerate (often with positive system-wide to seascapes that are managed for 700 square kilometers of a tropical consequences). There have been their cultural and ecological value. forest system—an area assaulted by several successful examples of Areas that are open to exploitation ranching, hunting, logging, and fires repatriation, though far from enough. should be managed sustainably to for almost 400 years. They purchased Bald eagles now nest in every state in meet the long-term resource needs of large tracts of land, stopped the the continental U.S., and populations local communities, while providing farming and fires, and let nature take have increased by more than an
52 | Solutions | January-February 2010 | www.thesolutionsjournal.org Sandhill cranes. Jill Fromer order of magnitude since their lows co-evolved with mastodons.16 There modest temporal scale of a few years. in the 1960s. Przewalski’s wild horse is no scientific or ethical consensus To ameliorate the extinction crisis, has been reclassified from Extinct in about the wisdom of such expensive though, science must move beyond the Wild to Critically Endangered, and transformative action. Yet the such focused analyses—important with more than 300 free-ranging possibility that genetic engineers and fascinating as they are—and individuals now roaming Mongolia. might one day be able to bring extinct attempt to draw broader connections After several decades of absence from megafauna such woolly mammoths to between species conservation and the park, gray wolves released by the life from frozen ancient DNA17 should ecosystem roles in sustaining human Yellowstone Wolf Recovery Team prompt us to consider whether, if such communities and well-being. in 1995 produced some surprising efforts are successful, mammoths How can we promote awareness changes: survivorship of pronghorn are something worth restoring to of the many values of nature? In urban fawns increased fourfold, as coyote landscapes that have not seen them in areas, mounting evidence links the densities declined where wolves 11,000 years. health of city dwellers to biodiversity were present;14 streamside vegetation and green spaces.18,19 In rural areas, the returned as elk browsing declined; Community old idea that conservation displaces and tourists flocked to the region, 3. The Fabric of Local people, putting fences between spawning a new type of ecotourism— Communities nature and people, seems increasingly wolf watching—now a $35 million a As scholars, biologists mostly observe. outmoded. Businesses have thrived year industry.15 They build models, experiment, and— in the American West, even as Some have argued that one way on good days—make new empirical environmental protections have to restore ecological interactions or conceptual connections: the effects increased. that were lost with the extinction of of pesticides on egg development, Where local populations the Pleistocene megafauna would the role of disease in amphibian increase around protected areas, a be to introduce analogs, or modern declines, or the effects of biodiversity key challenge will be to mitigate the counterparts, from elsewhere. For on ecosystem function. Such studies inevitable impacts by weaving the example, bringing Asian elephants take place on the modest spatial scale protected areas into the fabric of local to North America might provide of a Petri dish, a common garden, or communities, thereby promoting seed dispersers for certain plants that perhaps a local landscape, and at the traditions of stewardship. In Peru,
www.thesolutionsjournal.org | January-February 2010 | Solutions | 53 villagers are literally weaving palm the economic impact of wildlife suggest that interest in nature tourism branches from Amazonian trees into recreation. Each year, 34 million may be flagging in many developed baskets for sale in overseas markets. hunters and fishers spend about $77 countries.23 Nature education and The goal is to make conservation billion in the U.S. There are even bioliteracy may be one cure for this productive, bettering the lives of local more dedicated wildlife watchers. decline. weavers while shifting communities In 2006, 71 million Americans spent away from large-scale consumption. $46 billion dollars observing and 4. Diversity in Human The establishment of biological photographing wildlife. That is Landscapes reserves can be tied to training for more than was spent on watching Pick a square kilometer of land at local and professional park staff, professional football; indeed, it is more random and the odds are high that taxonomists, research assistants, and than was spent on all spectator sports, people live or work on it and that they tourist guides. Computers and on amusement parks, casinos, bowling have quick access to many others via the job training can help transform alleys, and ski slopes combined. road or stream. Chances are also good conserved wildlands into on-site This passion for wildlife produced that at nightfall you will see artificial graduate schools.20 The Guanacaste more than a million jobs and about light emanating from that patch of Conservation Area in Costa Rica trains and employs local taxonomists and ecologists. Five full-time biologists are composing an on-line Yellow Pages for each of the 6,000 to 7,000 plant species in the park, including taxonomy, natural history, and where to find the plant. Likewise, establishing scholarships for students from local communities to work toward college degrees would pay long-term educational dividends. Even basic contributions such as Internet access and local-language publications of park reports and wildlife guides can be tremendously valuable in developing countries. Ecotourism has helped promote conservation efforts in many countries. Gorilla watching has become one of Rwanda’s biggest economic engines, with tourists Clinton Cunha shelling out $1,000 to spend an hour with the rare and habituated apes. $18 billion dollars in tax revenues. land. Less than a fifth of the world’s Diving and other environmentally In Florida, the city of Homosassa land surface has escaped the direct friendly tourist activities in the gets almost all of its tourist revenue touch of Homo sapiens.24 Humanity Caribbean island of Bonaire provide from people in search of manatees. now utilizes almost half of everything about 40% of the island’s GDP. In And the figures for birdwatchers that grows on the planet, consuming recognition of the importance of clear alone are staggering: among the more than 40% of the Earth’s net water and coral reefs, all the nation’s 48 million people in the U.S. who primary productivity.25 waters are protected to a depth of 60 watch backyard birds at feeders, 20 Early wilderness advocates meters.21 million also traveled for about two may have bristled at the thought of The high commercial value of weeks a year in search of birds.22 Just managing nature, but given our vast wildlife is hardly confined to small as cities compete for sports arenas, population, we now must accept the and underdeveloped countries. In communities should and often do tout role of planetary steward to the wild. the United States, federal agencies the many recreational opportunities Human density is a good predictor of interview hunters, fishers, and wildlife that their nearby unspoiled natural conservation conflict: nearly 20% of enthusiasts every five years to study areas provide. That said, recent studies all people—more than a billion—now
54 | Solutions | January-February 2010 | www.thesolutionsjournal.org live within biodiversity hotspots, and widely underestimated, threat. today, of course, for many species and their growth rate is faster than By contrast, alternative strategies and for many reasons. Examples are the human population at large.26 To that employ native grasslands on legion. After industrial overfishing in complement gains from preservation degraded lands have the potential Ghana caused a collapse of fish stocks, and restoration, they must focus to be a win-win situation, reducing local demand for bushmeat protein more attention on countryside carbon emissions and preserving increased, resulting in a sharp decline biogeography, the endeavor to make biodiversity.30,31 of 41 species of mammals.33 And for at the human landscape—four-fifths Economic incentives, such as least two millennia, hunters, in search of the planet—more hospitable to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s of economically valuable wildlife biodiversity. Research indicates that Conservation Reserve Program, have products such as rhinoceros horn, some well-managed agricultural areas been used successfully to encourage elephant ivory, and civet glands for in the tropics can help sustain many biodiversity-friendly practices on perfume, have devastated particular of the birds, mammals, and other private lands. Funds for such programs species.34 organisms native to original forests.27,28 are often more dependable than Present laws, commissions, and In many ways, agricultural those for protected species. They treaties, when fully enforced, may and even urban areas can be made have the added advantage of helping be best able to handle the direct friendlier to wildlife. Living hedges populations of common species stay exploitation of wildlife species. support bats, farmland birds, and healthy—rather than ending up Treaties such as the Convention on other animals around agricultural in conservation’s equivalent of an International Trade in Endangered plots.29 Specimen rainforest trees left intensive care unit. Species and the International in tropical pastures can help support Whaling Commission’s moratorium forest bird species. Endangered species on commercial whaling have helped such as whooping cranes forage Nearly 20% of all lower trade in rare and declining comfortably on ranches in Florida, species. Domestic laws, such as the where cattle may help keep predators humans—more than a Endangered Species Act in the United such as the bobcat at bay. Even top States, are explicitly designed to stop carnivores such as pumas, jaguars, billion—now live within anthropogenic extinctions. The act cheetahs, and wolves can coexist on has been successful in reducing the ranch and agricultural lands when biodiversity hotspots, extinction rate and recovering several owners manage their properties in high profile species, such as the economically rational ways that allow and their growth rate alligator, bald eagle, and gray whale. for a coexistence of business with is faster than the Many other species including the wildlife. Privately owned properties Carolina elktoe mussel, the Louisiana such as the Mpala Ranch in Laikipia, population at large. prairie vole, and 13 Hawaiian plants Kenya, support lions, leopards, hyenas, went extinct while they waited to and wild dogs, in addition to healthy be listed.35 Legislation and economic populations of native and domestic 5. Legislation disincentives should be strengthened herbivores. A vast and discouraging literature and enforced on local, national, and The implementation of this documents the depletion of harvested international levels, with the latter mixed-land-use approach is likely to species ranging from cod and cacti to designed especially to exert pressure be specific to particular environmental passenger pigeons and whales. Stacks on noncompliant nations. Incentives, and economic settings. The recent of buffalo bones once towered over the economic and otherwise, are also movement toward biofuel provides boxcars of the Santa Fe and other rail essential. Payments for the ecosystem an example. In theory, renewable lines in the late nineteenth century, services provided by habitat protection fuels could benefit biodiversity by awaiting transport to fertilize plants can be used to help fund communities helping to mitigate climate change. (for phosphorus) and sugar refineries near conservation areas, thereby However, all fuels are not created (carbon) in the eastern U.S. One making biodiversity protection both equally. Monocultures of oil palm, newspaper quipped, “Buffalo bones are more appealing and profitable. soybeans, and sugarcane for biodiesel legal tender in Dodge City.”32 A species Hardin36 famously identified and ethanol have replaced forests that once spread across a continent and the challenge to such regulatory throughout the tropics, from the numbered in the millions was reduced approaches: “Prohibition is easy to Brazilian Amazon to Indonesia. to tens of individuals in isolated legislate (though not necessarily These fuel crops are a tremendous, reserves. Overharvesting continues enforce); but how do we legislate
www.thesolutionsjournal.org | January-February 2010 | Solutions | 55 temperance?” Since 1986, after a human economy was separate from be valued for its appeal to tourists. moratorium on commercial whaling the natural order. Instead, the rational These values can be calculated in went into effect, whale numbers have behavior of man and individual various ways. One is to put a price increased. Elephant populations have utility were paramount.37 To many tag on ecosystem services through expanded since the ivory ban was Victorians, the economy became replacement value. How much imposed in 1989. By contrast, despite a product of human deliberation, would it cost to treat wastewater and regulations and treaties, many marine divorced from nature. Ecology was agricultural runoff if you removed the fish stocks have continued to decline. relegated to the sidelines of economics wetlands that filter them naturally? The push toward moderation has been until recent years. You can also use straightforward travel depressingly slow and ineffective, The relatively new field of costs to estimate the economic value but moderation is the only way to ecological economics is a grand of species and habitats. How much achieve a sustainable future for synthesis of human activity and the will people pay to see a bald eagle or a both the industry and the fish stocks natural world. Within this sphere, manatee? In his global survey of whale that it has overexploited. Much the there is plenty of room for discourse watching in 2001, Erich Hoyt estimated same can be said for many human on individual human behavior, that more than a billion dollars a year interactions with nature. One possible economic activity, ecology, and was spent on whale watching in 87 way forward is a rights-based approach countries.38 Most people will never see for biodiversity. Ecuador recently a humpback in the ocean, a tiger in the established constitutional rights for forest, or a blind salamander in a Texas nature. Rather than simply regulating cave, but many people are willing to environmental destruction, the new pay to keep such species alive. The law gives Ecuadorans the right, and price they are willing to pay is known obligation, to protect ecosystems, as existence value. even if they are not directly injured When addressing the value of themselves. This approach may offer a an ecosystem, the account should promising new path. entail whole-system benefits: an intact mangrove forest versus a shrimp farm Economy in Thailand, a virgin forest versus 6. Ecological Economics a farm in Cameroon, or a wetland In the seventeenth and eighteenth versus a landfill in Canada. In many centuries, economic relationships cases, expensive technologies would were seen as a reflection of the natural be required to replace the services world. The scholar and philosopher supplied by these ecosystems—costs David Hume regarded economic that will outweigh the short-term processes as part of nature. His gains of habitat conversion.39 contemporary Carl Linnaeus praised Understanding the relationship the “economy of nature” in a treatise between biodiversity and ecosystem on self-regulation in animals and The Mossman Gorge in the Daintree Rainforest in function will be helpful in making plants. Thomas Malthus worked Tropical North Queensland, Australia. The Daintree is a these determinations. UNESCO World Heritage Site. Jeremy Edwards within the tradition of the natural Perhaps the biggest crisis facing sciences. For these and other thinkers global change. For those working ecological economists is resolving the of the Enlightenment, human reason in this discipline, nature is seen as disparity in income and consumption was understood as a derivative benevolent: the provider of goods between the wealthy industrial West of natural instincts; nature was a and services, a protector against and the rest of the world. The ecological benevolent force in creating wealth.37 catastrophes such as hurricanes, footprint of our species began to exceed This view began to lose ground droughts, and floods. the Earth’s regenerative capacity in in the midnineteenth century, most Great strides have been made in the 1980s. We have now overshot the famously with the work of John Stuart valuing these services. Economists total biocapacity of Earth—its ability Mill. Mill supported women’s rights, can estimate an ecosystem’s value by to fully meet and absorb the results opposed slavery, and lamented a the carbon it sequesters, the waste it of our actions—by about 30%.40 We world that was empty of wild animals absorbs, the water it provides, or the would need several planets to support and plants. Yet, he also saw nature air it cleans. One species might provide humanity if everyone consumed as as unjust and cruel, proposing that pollination services and another might much as Americans.
56 | Solutions | January-February 2010 | www.thesolutionsjournal.org So, what to do? Proceed with human numbers and consumption in the context of other institutions business as usual, striving to are burgeoning and populations of such as research universities, which elevate everyone to Western levels many wildlife species are in decline. sometimes have endowments in the of consumption? This outcome In these developing countries, money billions of dollars. Costa Rica’s green is certainly unsustainable, if not to maintain national parks is often image abroad is enhanced by these unattainable; it would likely result short. In many cases, expenditures are efforts, increasing its appeal as an in more environmental catastrophes. less than five percent of those deemed ecotourist destination, and Costa Alternatively, nations such as China necessary to establish and maintain a Ricans nurture a sense of pride in their and India and the rest of the developing viable reserve network.43 Unlike taxes, world-leading reserve network. world could be blocked from achieving user fees, and debt swaps, endowments We should think about how Western living standards. This outcome provide sustained funding and are tourists and benefactors might is also unrealistic, not to mention relatively resilient to the fluctuations contribute to national and global unjust. A third alternative seems to of power and tourism.44 Permanent conservation trusts. Could visitors offer the only viable course: wealthy funds, ideally administered by a board to national parks around the nations must learn to live sustainably, without co-opting much more than a fair share of Earth’s bounty. This means reducing material consumption in rich countries, stabilizing the human population, and if possible humanely decreasing it.41 Avoiding disaster can begin as simply as skipping a bacon cheeseburger or going an extra year with an aging car, but ultimately it requires changing a system currently based on the presumption that endless growth is possible. Academic institutions and businesses can take the lead on this effort by converting their facilities to zero emissions. Religious leaders and churches can take a proactive role in getting the message Giraffe in Kruger National Park, South Africa. David Hartstein out. The Bishop of London has told his vicars to preach sermons on the of qualified trustees, will be critical world become alumni to those moral obligation of Christians to lead in maintaining conservation areas in areas, recruited to support their ecologically friendly lives: “There is perpetuity. As of 2000, conservation favored reserves? Companies that now an overriding imperative to walk trust funds had been established in 40 are involved in bioprospecting in more lightly upon the earth, and we countries, with nine nations boasting conserved areas should contribute to need to make our lifestyle decisions in endowments of $10 million or more.44 preserving the habitat from which that light.” The church’s environmental This modest beginning is an important they profit. Local communities, while policy director added, “Indiscriminate first step. Costa Rica is aiming to they may not benefit directly from use of the earth’s resources must be create a $500 million endowment these discoveries, should be taught seen as profoundly wrong, just as we fund to consolidate 25% of the the value of ecosystem services now see slavery as wrong.” 42 country into eleven conservation coming from these protected areas. areas. One hundred million dollars It is also possible to use trust funds 7. Endowment: Biodiversity would be spent to consolidate the for individual charismatic species, Trusts areas, and annual revenue from the such as tigers, pandas, or manatees, One innovative way to establish and remaining $400 million would be to preserve the habitat where those maintain protected areas is by creating divided among the conservation areas species live. Such megafauna could conservation trust funds. There is an to cover operating costs. Five hundred help protect the many species that urgent need for such endowments, million dollars is a large sum for a lack the charm to inspire large especially in the tropics, where small country, but it is achievable put contributions.
www.thesolutionsjournal.org | January-February 2010 | Solutions | 57 Education and Science humpbacks on Stellwagen Bank, species, and habitat destruction can be 8. Bioliteracy regent honeyeaters in the Australian drivers in the ecology of diseases, by Since people only protect what they outback, wolves in Yellowstone. helping pathogens and vectors spread value, the most important—and Not everyone will be able to visit quickly around the world. Yellow perhaps most difficult—step in remote sites, but most people will be fever, dengue, malaria, and West Nile slowing biodiversity loss will be able to access green spaces housing encephalitis are a few of the diseases transforming human attitudes charismatic species nearer to home: a that have breached geographical about nature. As a society, we need snowy owl on a wintry day in Jamaica barriers through human transport. to establish an ecological identity Bay in New York City, a peregrine Many emerging infectious diseases that helps foster a love of nature. falcon on the John Hancock building come from wildlife, typically jumping Biologists can convey the excitement in Boston, orcas in Puget Sound, or sea from animals or their carcasses to of natural history and the joy of otters in Monterey Bay. For many these humans, as habitats are opened up or scientific inquiry to students and the are defining moments—“radioactive otherwise abused. We now know that general public. Social scientists can jewels,” as one psychologist has put chimpanzees were the source of HIV-1; the Ebola virus can jump
Since people only protect what they value, the most important— and perhaps most difficult—step in slowing biodiversity loss will be transforming human attitudes about nature.
Ljupco Smokovski between gorillas, chimpanzees, help make the connection between it—of life experience that are visited humans, and even small antelopes; wildlife conservation and human and revisited, “emitting energy and severe acute respiratory virus well-being. Great places to start are in across the years of our lives.” 46 We (SARS) came from a crowded wildlife the home and in elementary school. need to integrate these moments market in Guangdong Province in “See spot run” should be replaced by into a broader societal dedication to China.48 One might expect that more “See the plant grow in the sun.” Many conservation. There is considerable diverse habitats support more diseases, authors have written convincingly on hope along these lines, indications but low diversity habitats—disturbed the need for environmental literacy that education programs on whale- habitats—often pose the greater and outdoor education, to take watch tours and even on nature risk. Biodiversity loss and habitat students directly into parks, farms, television influence people’s behavior transformations have increased the and shorelines. There is evidence that and increase their environmental prevalence of various vector-borne students who receive such place-based consciousness.47 diseases, including Lyme disease from education typically outperform their Bioliteracy can entail far more ticks, and malaria and West Nile virus peers.45 than an appreciation of wildlands from mosquitoes.49 Mice and other How do we enhance the devotion and whatever large animals they rodents are important reservoirs of to biodiversity and increase the might contain. It can help students hanta viruses and other hemorrhagic awareness to threats we have created? explore the role of biodiversity in fevers. As diversity decreases, There’s great value in seeing animals human well-being. Recent studies overcrowding of one species—usually in the wild: gorillas in the Virungas, indicate that biodiversity loss, invasive an opportunistic one such as the deer
58 | Solutions | January-February 2010 | www.thesolutionsjournal.org Baboons in Kruger National Park, South Africa. David Hartstein mouse Peromyscus maniculatus—leads been good, but not perfect. Twenty Biological Diversity was ratified to fights, especially among males. species, including the Peregrine falcon, by 188 countries in 1994 (the U.S. The virus is then transmitted quickly have recovered and been delisted. signed on but has still not ratified through the population. Greater Nine others, including the dusky the treaty). The CBD’s target for 2010, transmission in rodents increases risk seaside sparrow of Florida, have also endorsed by the United Nations to humans.50 A better understanding been delisted, but only after they had General Assembly is to reduce the of the protective role of nature and gone extinct. Some threatened species rate of biodiversity loss significantly biodiversity will ultimately benefit probably would not have survived by 2010. There is still a long way to conservation efforts. without the legislation; others are go. One of the biggest challenges likely to remain permanently reliant for conservation biologists will be 9. Toward Zero Extinction on conservation efforts. Still, hundreds launching and sustaining this effort The goal needs to be made clear: to of species and populations have been in a politically sensitive and cost- reverse the current trend and add left unprotected, and underfunding has effective way.6 Nonprofit groups anthropogenic extinction to the been a chronic problem. An intensive such as the Nature Conservancy, injustices—slavery, child labor, search of remote forest pockets in Sierra Club, and World Wildlife Fund apartheid, the Iron Curtain—found Queensland for the lemuroid white play an important role in species abhorrent by civilized people. possum, thought to be one of the first and habitat conservation. So, too, Achieving such a social and ecological mammalian victims of climate change, do associations gathered around transformation will require ingenuity turned up three individuals this year. a single taxon, such as Polar Bears and initiatives that are global in scope, There is still hope, however slight. International or the Gopher Tortoise yet regional in implementation. The It is clear that an unprecedented Council, or many taxa, such as the Endangered Species Act mandated international effort is needed, one Xerces Society for Invertebrate the end of species extinction in the that develops new attitudes and Conservation and the Center for Plant United States in 1973. Its record has institutions. The Convention on Conservation. The Alliance for Zero
www.thesolutionsjournal.org | January-February 2010 | Solutions | 59 Extinction states its conservation Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 103: Roemer, GW & Smith, FA. Pleistocene rewilding: goal in its title. International 10941 (2006). An optimistic agenda for twenty-first century organizations such as the IUCN and conservation. Am Nat 168: 660-681 (2006). Diversitas can help bridge the efforts 6. Ceballos, G & Ehrlich, PR. Mammal between national governments, population losses and the extinction crisis. 17. Nicholls, H. Darwin 200: Let’s make a raising the level of urgency in the Science 296: 904-907 (2002). mammoth. Nature 456: 310-314 (2008). public eye. Ideally, the yearly additions of 7. Myers, N, Mittermeier, RA, Mittermeier, CG, 18. Fuller, RA, Irvine, KN, Devine-Wright, P, species to lists of threatened and da Fonseca, GAB & Kent, J. Biodiversity hotspots Warren, PH & Gaston, KJ. Psychological benefits endangered taxa must decline and, for conservation priorities. Nature 403: 853-858 of greenspace increase with biodiversity. Biology eventually, approach zero long before (2000). Letters 3: 390-394 (2007). the planet’s biodiversity has been irreversibly gutted. Indeed, the human 8. Pressey, RL, Whish, GL, Barrett, TW & Watts, 19. Maas, J, Verheij, RA, Groenewegen, PP, de stewards must look forward to a time ME. Effectiveness of protected areas in north- Vries, S & Spreeuwenberg, P. Green space, when no species are marked with an eastern New South Wales: recent trends in six urbanity, and health: how strong is the relation? EX for newly extinct. measures. Biological Conservation 106: 57-69 Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health 60: (2002). 587-592 (2006). Acknowledgments Parts of this article were drawn from 9. Kelleher, G & Recchia, C. Lessons from marine 20. Janzen, DH. Costa Rica’s Area de papers presented by Paul Ehrlich, protected areas around the world. PARKS, Conservación Guanacaste: a long march Rob Pringle, and John Avise during International J. Protected Area Man. 8: 1-4 (1998). to survival through non-damaging the Arthur M. Sackler Colloquium biodevelopment. Biodiversity 1: 7-20 (2000). of the National Academy of Sciences 10. Janzen, DH in Handbook of Ecological in 200751,52 and from Joe Roman’s Restoration Vol. 2 (eds Perrow, MR & Davy, AJ) 21. Uyarra, MC, Cote, IM, Gill, JA, Tinch, R, Viner, forthcoming book Extinction’s in the “Restoration in Practice” 559-583 (Cambridge D, Watkinson, AR. Island-specific preferences House: How Saving Endangered Species Univ. Press, Cambridge, 2002). of tourists for environmental features: Can Save Us (Harvard University implications of climate change for tourism- Press). William Laurence, George 11. Anderson, RC et al. Micro-scale restoration: dependent states. Environmental Conservation 32: Lozano, and two anonymous a 25-year history of a southern Illinois barrens. 11-19 (2005). reviewers helped improve an earlier Restoration Ecology 8, 296–306 (2000). draft. 22. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. 12. Suding, KN, Gross, KL & Houseman, GR. Department of Commerce & U.S. Census Bureau. References Alternative states and positive feedbacks in National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, and 1. IUCN. The IUCN Red List of Threatened restoration ecology. Trends in Ecology & Evolution Wildlife-Associated Recreation (2006). Species. (2008). (http://www.iucnredlist.org/) 19: 46-53 (2004). 23. Pergams, ORW & Zaradic, PA. Evidence 2. Schipper, J, Chanson, JS, et al. The status of the 13. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Endangered for a fundamental and pervasive shift away world’s land and marine mammals: Diversity, Species Program Private Stewardship from nature-based recreation. Proceedings of threat, and knowledge. Science 322: 225-230 Grants Program (2008). http://www.fws.gov/ the National Academy of Sciences 105: 2295-2300 (2008). endangered/grants/private_stewardship/ (2008).
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