Benefits Of Developing Conservation Strategies Environmental Sciences Essay

Benefits Of Developing Conservation Strategies Environmental Sciences Essay Increases in the human population and degradation of habitats have caused many species that were formerly common to decline to near extinction. As a result, we have become increasingly involved in attempting to preserve populations of rare or endangered species (Deborah T., 1987). Over the last two decades almost all arguments about nature conservation have involved the issue of biological diversity and ways to preserve it. These discussions culminated in the 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity and its implementation (Glowka L, 1994). The conservation of biodiversity is a vast undertaking, requiring the mobilization of existing data, huge amounts of new information, and the monitoring and management of wildlife on an unprecedented scale (Malcolm L. Hunter, 2007). The biologists are fairly skilled at looking at the big picture, at seeing forests not just trees. They understand that we cannot maintain genetic diversity without maintaining species diversity and that we cannot maint ain species without maintaining without ecosystem diversity (Malcolm L. Hunter, 2007). In addition, the size of a habitat and the number of species it can support are systematically related. Physically larger species and those living at lower latitudes or in forests or oceans are more sensitive to reduction in habitat area (Drakare S, 2006).Therefore, endangered species conservation requires many lines of inquiry to provide the evidence required for a holistic approach to conservation planning (Sutaria D 2009). Conservation biology is reforming around strategic plans that include principles, guidelines, and tools for the purpose of protecting biodiversity (M. E. Soule, 1986). Conservation biology is crisis-oriented and multi-disciplinary, including ecology, social organization, education, and other disciplines outside of biology (F. van Dyke, 2008). Preserving biodiversity is a global priority in strategic conservation plans that are designed to engage public policy and concerns aff ecting local, regional and global scales of communities, ecosystems, and cultures (Gascon C., 2007). Action plans identify ways of sustaining human well-being, employing natural capital, market capital, and ecosystem services (G. W. Luck, 2003). A strategy, simply defined, is a set of actions that a conservation project implements to reduce threats, capitalize on important opportunities. Examples of strategies include building the capacity of local law enforcement, educating schoolchildren about wildlife, and developing alternative livelihood options such as ecotourism. One could say that the conservation of endangered species to be effective, both biological and social elements of the conservation process must be considered as a basic for minimizing threats (Beasley L. 2007). This essay will discusses about evaluating the conservation costs and benefits of developing conservation strategies focusing on species, then habitats and finally on the resources. Biological species – tigers, butterflies, trees, frogs, whales, and so on are integral to nature; they are the players on the stage; species and their interrelationships, including the relationship to people. Many of the closest relationships human beings have established with nature are based on species (IUCN, 2008). There are several strategies that are beneficial for species and human. One of several strategies is the Opportunities for Debt Investment in Environmental Conservation. By combining microfinance lending approaches with performance-based payments for conservation of environmental assets, long-term incentives for environmental conservation and sustainable economic development can be coupled. For example, migratory species like loggerhead and leatherback sea turtles suffer from a suite of human impacts, including harvest of eggs and adults on nesting beaches across many Pacific island nations and mortality from industrial fishing on the high seas. These species are at a critical point, it h as been estimated that loggerhead turtles may be extinct in 50 years. Some governments have taken steps to minimize impacts on marine turtles by limiting coastal development and regulating fisheries, at some cost to the public and private sectors. Investment in endangered species recovery in low-income countries can deliver local benefits, such as increased opportunities for sustainable harvest, nature-based tourism or other non-turtle related economic activities, as well as monetary and non-monetary dividends back to governments’ .There are a number of potential advantages with using debt investment as a tool for environmental conservation. The program is aimed directly at improving livelihoods and lending can be targeted at reducing unsustainable resource use, an environmental mortgage program could directly address the alleviation of poverty. In some instances local people are as motivated, or even more motivated than conservationists to protect the animals in their homela nd, especially when they represent a valuable resource for food or commerce. But for some communities, it comes down to protecting animals that are as much a part of a hostile environment as drought or fire (C. Josh Donlan). As with African villagers expected to protect an elephant herd that continually destroys their crops and leaves them hungry without a means of generating income. For example, when villagers living in or near a game reserve are told by authorities that they can’t hunt an animal because it is endangered even as they are struggling with hunger. Although, the African elephants are protected by CITES (Kimbra C, 2010).