Biodiversity and Conservation

Five Kingdom Classification

Protista (the single-celled eukaryotes); Fungi (fungus and related organisms); Plantae (the plants); Animalia (the animals); Monera (the prokaryotes). 

Kingdoms phylum class order family genus species. A species represents one type of

organism,

Monera (includes Eubacteria and Archeobacteria)

single-celled, cell wall, no chloroplasts or other organelles, no nucleus. Absorb nutrients through the cell wall or produce their own by photosynthesis.

Protista single-celled, mobile. no cell wall. Has

organelles including a nucleus and may have chloroplasts, photosynthesise, ingestion of other organisms, or both.

Fungi multicellular, a cell wall, organelles including a

nucleus, but no chloroplasts. Do not move. Nutrients are acquired by absorption.

Plantae Multicellular, don't move, nucleus, chloroplasts

and cell walls. Nutrients are acquired by photosynthesis.

Animalia multicellular, mobile. organelles including a

nucleus, but no chloroplasts or cell walls. Animals acquire nutrients by ingestion.

Biodiversity

Biodiversity is the degree of variation of life forms within a given species, ecosystem, biome, or an entire planet.

Biodiversity is a measure of the health of ecosystems.

Maintaining Biodiversity

Maintaining and restoring biodiversity within the environment is important for many reasons: biodiversity provides us with many natural products

including food, medicines and timber ecosystems underpin many of our natural resources

and provide services such as clean water, healthy soil and pollination of crops

many people find enjoyment from the range of leisure activities undertaken in the natural environment.

Endangered Species

An endangered species is a population of organisms which is at risk of becoming extinct because it is either few in numbers, or threatened by changing environmental or predation parameters. 

There are well over 5,000 species of officially Endangered or Threatened animals and birds on our planet.

Tigers

Every single tiger in the world has their own distinct pattern of stripes.

6 species of tigers left in the world and 3 more are known to be extinct.

Bengal Tigers are seriously endangered. There are believed to be less than 2,000 Bengal tigers left in the world.

White tigers are a result of a genetic mutation.

Total Population in the Wild: around 3,500

Subspecies:Bengal tiger (Panthera tigris tigris)Population: Fewer than 2,000 Status: Endangered SpeciesThe Indochinese tiger (Panthera tigris corbetti)Population: Fewer than 500. Status: Endangered SpeciesMalayan Tiger (Panthera tigris jacksoni)Population: Fewer than 500 Status: Endangered SpeciesSumatran tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae)Population: Fewer than 500 Status: Critically Endangered SpeciesSiberian Tiger (Panthera tigris alataica)Population: Around 500 Status: Endangered SpeciesSouth China tiger (Panthera tigris amoyensis)Population: No sightings in years. May be 0. Status: Critically Endangered Species

Why are they endangered?

In order to live in the wild, tigers need water to drink, animals to hunt, and vegetation in which to hide. As the mountains, jungles, forests, and long grasses disappear, so, too, do tigers.

Since 1900, the tiger's habitat and numbers have been reduced by up to 95 per cent.

Asia's explosive population growth demands that more be converted to agriculture.

In India, where about 60 per cent of the world's wild tigers still roam, the human population has grown by 50 percent in the past 20 years.

Over the past 40 years, China's population has more than doubled; and 99 per cent of China's original forest habitat has been destroyed.

1. Population

2. Competition

As tigers compete with humans and industry for land, they find less and less to eat.

Local people hunt the same prey as tigers do, pressing tigers to resort to domestic animals and, on rarer occasions, even humans. (Tigers are one of only two animals--the other is the polar bear--that are known to stalk humans.)

Threatened villagers often poison, shoot, or snare the encroaching tigers.

In addition to food, local communities also need to use the surrounding patches of forest for livestock grazing and wood for fuel.

3. Trade in tiger parts

The single greatest threat of extinction that looms over the tiger is the massive demand for traditional medicine.

The booming economies and personal incomes of Southeast Asia have caused demand and prices to soar, lifting the international trade in wildlife products to an estimated $6 billion-a-year business.

The use of endangered tiger products and their medicines is seen as a symbol of high status and wealth. 

According to South Korean immigration statistics, the country imported 3,994 kilograms of tiger bones from Indonesia between 1970 and 1993. The bones of one tiger weigh approximately 10 kilograms.

Due to increased demand, tiger bone prices have skyrocketed in South Korea, Taiwan and many other countries. The price is estimated to be between $140-$370 per kilogram in U.S. dollars depending on the size of the bones.

In Taiwan, a bowl of tiger penis soup (to boost virility) goes for $320, and a pair of eyes (to fight epilepsy and malaria) for $170. Powdered tiger humerus bone (for treating ulcers rheumatism and typhoid) brings up to $3,000 per kg. in Seoul.

Tiger - Human Conflict

To protect tigers from poachers and the rapidly increasing loss of land, wildlife conservationists have worked with governments to establish wildlife reserves.

Most reserves, however, are isolated islands of forest in which the tiger has little chance to survive due to the difficulty of meeting mates, the threat of disease, and genetic drift and in-breeding. Furthermore, these "protected areas" are extremely difficult to protect.

Forestry and wildlife departments are too understaffed and under-budgeted to save the tiger from the intensity of poachers.

Lacking organization, compensation for high-risk work, training, camps inside the protected areas, night patrols, recognition, motivation, and resources such as firearms, vehicles and communication equipment, the guards' enforcement of anti-hunting laws is limited.

Some efforts to protect tiger habitat have focused on programs aimed at reducing conflicts between tiger protected-area managers and people living in and around the reserves, although so far, few programs, if any, have been successful.

Have Efforts to Curb the Trade in Tiger Parts Worked? Several Asian nations have endorsed tough protections

for tigers in the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).

Laws banning the trade of tiger derivatives, preserve tiger habitat, and form a regional network to halt tiger trade.

But lack of government resolve and corruption at the highest levels have inhibited enforcement of other wildlife agreements that the nations have signed.

A thriving black market is also very difficult to monitor.

Conservation

Wildlife reserves and National Parks

A nature reserve is a protected area of importance for wildlife, flora, fauna or features of geological or other special interest, which is reserved and managed for conservation and to provide special opportunities for study or research

A national park is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns. 

Seed Banks

The storage of material in the form of seeds is one of the most widespread and valuable ex situ approaches to conservation.

Seed banking advantages include ease of storage, economy of space, relatively low labour demands and consequently, the capacity to maintain large samples at an economically viable cost.

200 botanic gardens have seed banks maintaining seeds in long term and medium-term storage

Millennium Seed Bank Project International Programme The Millennium Seed Bank Project is an

international collaborative plant conservation initiative.

It aims to safeguard 24,000 plant species from around the globe against extinction (10% of the world's flowering flora).

It has already successfully secured the future of virtually all the UK's native flowering plants.

Botanical Gardens

A botanical garden is a well-tended area displaying a wide range of plants labelled with their botanical names.

In principle their role is to maintain documented collections of living plants for the purposes of scientific research, conservation, display and education. 

Zimbabwe National herbarium and botanical gardens The National Herbarium and

Botanic Garden is a center for research and information on the indigenous plants of Zimbabwe.  

It s responsible for the study of Zimbabwe flora in order to promote its conservation, development and sustainable use.  

Its mission is To Increase Knowledge and Appreciation of Zimbabwean Plants. 

The National Herbarium stores preserved plant specimens while the living specimens are grown in the National Botanic Garden. 

The institute has three interlinked sections:   The Herbarium has about 500 000 plant specimens.  It

is the main reference center for research on identifying and naming plants of the Flora Zambesiaca Region.  This region comprises Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, Botswana  and the Caprivi.

The Botanic Garden grows over 900 trees and shrubs of Zimbabwe in groups to show the associations that are found in various parts of the country.  It has sections with trees of the Highveld, Lowveld and Eastern Highlands.  Also growing are a number of trees from other countries that have climatic conditions similar to Zimbabwe e.g. Asia and Australia.

The Education Centre disseminates information on the plants of Zimbabwe and the plant kingdom in general to educational institutions especially schools.

Kew Gardens

Zoos

Captive breeding programmes Try to keep genetic diversity using in vitro Surrogate mothers

Reintroduction programmes Preparation of habitat Education of local people

Funding and Research Entrance fees etc can be donated to conservation Animals can be studied to find out about their needs

to help conservation