Conservation and maintaining biodiversity

In a nutshell

Conservation efforts can help increase biodiversity. Maintaining biodiversity is beneficial to humans as it protects food supplies and food chains, as well as industrial materials and fuels. However, conservation programmes come with challenges such as disagreements, costs and effects on the local economy.

Conservation programmes

Conservation can help protect biodiversity by conserving species or their habitats.

Method	Explanation
Protecting habitats	This includes activities such as controlling water levels to conserve wetlands and coppicing to conserve woodlands. This allows organisms to continue in their natural habitat.
Controlling or preventing the introduction of harmful species	This includes preventing the introduction of harmful species that would threaten local biodiversity such as the control of grey squirrels in some areas of the UK as they are not native to the UK.
Creating protected areas for organisms	Protected areas such as national parks and nature reserves. Both organisms and habitats are protected in these areas as the development of the land are restricted. This means the land cannot be used for building houses or farming.
Protecting organisms in safe areas away from their natural habitat	These include zoos for animals and botanical gardens and seed banks for plants. The organisms are protected from hunting and habitat destruction. Safe areas also increase the number of particular organisms before they are released into the wild. This is known as captive breeding of animals.
Reintroducing hedgerows and field margins	Field margins are areas of land around the edges of the field where wildflowers and grasses are left to grow. Hedges can be planted around the fields to form hedgerows. Both hedgerows and field margins provide habitat for lots of types of organisms. This is particularly useful in fields with only one type of crop as they have low biodiversity.
Recycling	Recycling reduces the amount of waste that gets dumped at landfill sites which may reduce the amount of land taken over by landfill. This protects habitats.
Government programmes	The government can implement programmes to increase biodiversity. Some governments have made rules to reduce deforestation and put limits on the amount of carbon dioxide released by businesses.

Maintaining biodiversity

Conservation schemes help maintain biodiversity by protecting species, they also benefit humans.

Examples

Method	Explanation
*Protecting the human food supply*	Over-fishing has greatly reduced fish stocks in the world's oceans. Conservation programmes ensure future generations have fish to eat.
*Ensuring minimal damage to food chains*	If one species becomes extinct, it will affect all the organisms in that food chain, therefore conserving one species may help others to survive.
*Providing future medicines*	Many medicines come from plants, undiscovered plant species may contain new medicinal chemicals. If these plant species become extinct this could mean valuable medicines are not found.
*Providing industrial materials and fuels*	Plants and animal species are involved in the production of some industrial materials and fuels. If these species become extinct, these resources may become more difficult to produce.

Ecotourism

Ecotourism is tourism that focuses on the appreciation of nature and its conservation but still has a minimal negative impact on the local ecosystem. Maintaining areas with high biodiversity encourage ecotourism. Ecotourism is also beneficial as it helps to bring money to areas where conservation work is taking place. This can help fund conservation work.

Example

The Eden Project in Cornwall contains huge plastic domes that represent different ecosystems. This educates people on biodiversity and conservation.

Challenges with maintaining biodiversity

Maintaining biodiversity can be challenging. This is because agreements about conservation schemes can be difficult to arrange and conservation schemes can be difficult to monitor. Biodiversity programmes also cost a lot of money and can affect the local economy and food security.

Agreeing on conservation schemes

Some conservation schemes require several different countries to work together, this can be difficult if they do not all agree. Local conservation projects might be objected to by local residents. Some people may not be keen on a scheme if it reduces their income.

Example

The International Whaling Commission has tried to restrict whaling and get countries to sign up to stop the practice altogether. However, countries such as Norway, the Faroe Islands and Iceland have not signed up. This leads to approximately $2000$ whales being killed each year.

Monitoring conservation schemes

Keeping track of schemes such as fishing quotas is difficult to manage. This is particularly challenging if you want to work out how successful a scheme is.

The cost of programmes

Protecting biodiversity costs money. It also costs money to keep watch on certain programmes and ensure the correct regulations are being followed. There can be a conflict between protecting biodiversity and saving money so that it can be used on other issues.

The local economy

Protecting biodiversity may impact people's livelihoods.

Example

Reducing deforestation is beneficial to biodiversity but it may leave people who worked in the tree-felling industry unemployed. This may impact the local economy, especially if people move away to find work.

Protecting food security

Deciding whether to protect biodiversity and maintain food security can be challenging. Certain organisms such as locusts and foxes are seen as pests by farmers and they are therefore killed to protect crops and livestock. This allows more food to be produced but it can affect the food chain and biodiversity.

The development of society

Development is necessary for society but it can affect the environment. Housing developments are important but can reduce the biodiversity of previously untouched land.

Biology; Ecosystems and material cycles; KS4 Year 10; Conservation and maintaining biodiversity