PRR & VS GOVT.

COLLEGE
INTERNAL QUALITY ASUSRANCE CELL
FACULTY FORUM

LECTURE HANDOUT
DATE: 10/07/2017

BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION – ISSUES & CHALLENGES

Biodiversity is the “living foundation” for sustainable development. Now, to make

biodiversity sustainable is one thing; and to practice sustainable use of biodiversity is another.
Making biodiversity sustainable is the process; and sustainable use of biodiversity is the
technique. To us important is that, we shall have to understand the process of making
biodiversity sustainable, and the technique to be adopted for its use at the same time.

Sustainable use of biodiversity is measured under the headings -- 'Direct-use value',

'Indirect-use value' and 'Non-use value'. Direct-use value includes food, medicine, biological
control, industrial materials, recreational harvesting and ecotourism. Indirect-use value deals
with biodiversity and ecosystem functions for maintenance of soundness of environment as a
whole. Non-use value provides options value, bequest value, existence value and intrinsic value.
All use-values of biodiversity are possible to be sustainable when conservation of biodiversity is
made sustainable.

Truly sustainable development requires entities to redefine their policies on land use,
food, water, energy, employment, development, conservation, economics and trade. Protection
and sustainable use of biodiversity requires the participation of ministries responsible for such
areas as agriculture, forestry, fisheries, energy, tourism, trade and finance.

Conservation of biodiversity and its use in sustainable development have been impeded
by many obstacles. The need to mainstream the conservation and sustainable use of biological
resources across all sectors of the national economy, the society and the policy-making
framework is a complex challenge at the heart of the Convention on Biological Diversity(CBD).
This will mean cooperation with many different actors, such as regional bodies and
organisations. Integrated management of natural resources, based on the ecosystem approach, is
the most effective way to promote this aim of the Convention. Provision by developed country
Parties of resources to implement the Convention is critical and essential. The Strategic Plan can
promote broad-based action by bringing about a convergence of actions around agreed goals and
collective objectives.
Major challenges to implementing the conservation of biodiversity and its use in
sustainable development are many. Only some selected ones are discussed below.

Population growth and increasing demand for biological resources

As we use biodiversity to meet our demand under the above points, population increase
in the world stands as a major problem because it increases consumption creating pressure for
using bio-resources more and more. The world is losing its tropical forests at the alarming rate of
almost 42 million acres per year. This means that nearly 1.3 acres of tropical forest disappear
every second. The largest areas of forest loss occurred in Latin America, followed by Africa.
However, when deforestation is measured as a percentage of the remaining forest, the most
losses happen to have occurred in Asia. At the current rate tropical forest will be gone within 115
years.
The Indian forest with its exuberant majesty and biodiversity depleted and shrank to 6
per cent from 20 per cent of land area within a time span of 50 years. This happened due to
policy weakness, over-exploitation and law and order failures. It is fact that, there is lack of
legislation to provide protection to the national forest but poor implementation mechanism of the
existing rules perhaps causes a greater damage in this regard.
At the beginning of the British rule, the Indian subcontinent appeared to hold
inexhaustible forest resources. Rennel's map (1886) indicated that the Sundarbans, sal forest of
the Bhawal-Madhupur tracts covered an area several times larger than it is at present. The hill
forests of Chittagong, CHT, Sylhet, Mymensingh and Comilla were also densely populated by
more than 2000 flowering plant species including 300 tree species. Nearly 30 tree species in hill
forest, 20 species in plain land forest and 30 species in the littoral forests used to be
commercially exploited. In addition, the homesteads were covered with valuable fruit, fodder,
timber, fuel wood, bamboo and many multipurpose tree speies.
Environmental Biology and Biodiversity Laboratory (EBBL), University of Dhaka has
recently made a study on the traditional and cultural involvement of local people and the causes
of deforestation in some forest areas of Chittagong and Cox's-Bazar districts. In the study the
impact of population growth and increase, demographic statement of the local people involved,
family affairs and tradition, and their education systems were taken under consideration. The
local people (because they are poor and illiterate) are culturally habituated to go inside the forest
every morning and have some wood or undergrowth plants cut for selling in the market nearby.

Exotic species

Introduction of exotic species is another major challenge to biodiversity conservation and

its use in development.

In India, some plant and animal species have been introduced from different countries.
These exotic species have hampered endemic species both in their population dynamics and in
the position of their trophic levels. At the same time, in many cases the importation has opted for
changing ecosystem. In the aquatic ecosystem, the major introduced species those have changed
a lot the ecosystem are African magur (Clarias garipinus) and red Piranha (Pygocentrus natteri).
In the terrestrial ecosystem the species are Tectona grandis (Shegun), Acacia spp. Eucaliptus
spp. and Swietenia mahagoni. .

Forest canopies are among the most species rich and highly threatened terrestrial habitats.
Unlike the sheltered under storey in the forest, the forest canopies are a highly variable
environment. They are exposed to greater daily temperature and humidity fluctuations,
experience high levels of solar radiation, strong winds and pelting rain that could make the
habitat extremely inhospitable for most organisms. Despite these extremes, canopies contain a
major portion of the diversity of the organisms and constitute the bulk of photo synthetically
active foliage and biomass in forest ecosystems.
 Unlocking the secrets in the forest canopies has been a fascinating topic of research and
adventure in the past and continues to be one of the priorities of biological research today. 
Studies on canopy arthropods have changed our estimates of global species diversity from 1-5
million to 30 million (Erwin 1983). Research in this high frontier continues to uncover new
species. The discovery of a new species of canopy scorpion, by scientists from the Indian
Institute of Wood Science at Bangalore in the evergreen forests of Western Ghats made
international news. Similarly there are still several species of arthropods and lesser organisms, of
both the plant and animal kingdom, that are yet to be discovered and identified. .The diversity in
the forest canopies can be attributed to its complex three-dimensional structure which affords
opportunities for niche diversification and vertical stratification. With such high biodiversity one
could easily expect that the tropical forest canopies are also an arena for multitude of
interactions; many of which still needs to be understood . The function of forest canopies and the
ecosystem services that it provides remain fairly unknown.. First layer of vegetation is with the
soil surface and does not come up to the height of more than one meter. They are mainly the
grasses and the members of Zingiberaceae family. They keep the soil surface wet. This layer is
the suitable shelter for microbes' growth and sustainability. It supports the second layer of
vegetation and also the third canopy layer.

Second layer of vegetation is the vegetation of man height level. This is the vegetation
layer comprised of vines, grubs, hedges and shrubs plants. These provide enough shade,
protection and make favourable conditions for the plants' and microbes' growth of first layer. The
layer is called the “Undergrowth Vegetation” in the forest. Third layer is the canopy layer of
typical Garzon population or the population with other related trees. Third layer protects the
grubs, vines, shrubs and hedges. During the variation of seasons the leaves fall on the ground and
the fallen leaves provide enough organic deposition for the growth of both first and second layer
of vegetation. In this way the entire typical forest ecosystem in the endemism sustains and
survives in a normal and usual situation. If any unusualness appears because of introduction of
any exotic species then the change of the ecosystem happens.

In typical aquatic ecosystem of our country (like pond ecosystem), fishes like shingi
(Heteropneustes spp.) feed on the chironomid larvae keeping them in the status of fourth trophic
level (3rd consumer). The carnivorous fishes of our endemic nature like Chital (Nostosterus spp.)
and Boal (Walago spp.) feed on the fishes of fourth trophic level and attain the status of fifth
trophic level (fourth consumer). In our typical aquatic ecosystem (pond ecosystem) the energy-
flow and ecological pyramids are arranged in this pattern. On the other hand, when African
magur (Clarias garipinus) and Red Piranha (Pygocentrus natteri) are introduced to the ecosystem
they drastically consume without maintaining the chronology of the ecological pyramid-pattern
in an ecosystem. These introduced species drastically reduce the population of animals of all
trophic levels and create ecological hazard for the population of all other aquatic animals and
many aquatic plants also. Consequently aquatic ecosystem gets changed or “altered”.

Government policies

At least two conditions must be fulfilled if a country has to achieve or at least make
significant progress towards the targets of realising biodiversity use in sustainable development.
One relates to the capacity of the country to implement policies and programmes effectively. In
most developing countries, governance is poor in terms of human capability on one hand and
lack of transparency and accountability on the other. It is, therefore, essential that the developing
countries take necessary steps to establish good governance, including rule of law and
improvement in the economic and social management capacity. In INDIAN perspective, main
constraints for the development are corruption and inadequacy in administration.
Biodiversity conservation has got a great role in maintenance of species richness and proper
functioning of an ecosystem. Conservation of biodiversity means the conservation of biotic and
abiotic factors together and their interaction to provide the sustainable situation for living
organisms in an ecosystem. If the normal proliferation and reproduction of all living organisms
and their interaction with abiotic factors fail in an ecosystem, then ecological imbalance remains
in its persistence. Persisted ecological imbalance makes the environment unfavourable for
initiating any kind of development plan. And this is why the biodiversity conservation stands at
epicentre of the sustainability of the global developmental goals and targets.
Habitat degradation

The major threats to biodiversity that result from human activity are habitat destruction,
habitat fragmentation, habitat degradation, overexploitation of species for human use,
introduction of exotic species, and increased spread of diseases. Most threatened species face at
least two or more of these threats, speeding their way to extinction and hindering efforts to
protect them. Typically, these threats develop so rapidly and on such a large scale that species
are not able to adapt genetically to the changes or disperse to a more hospitable location.
Habitat degradation becomes threat to biodiversity in different appearance and dimension. In
different countries, the habitat loss is different and causes the loss of biodiversity in different
ways. One example could be cited from Cambodia, its habitat loss and its impact on biodiversity
depletion. Before the Vietnam War, Cambodia was a quiet, forest-rich country. The war
disrupted all aspects of the country's life for 20 years, and the ensuing civil war continued the
disruption, with environmental consequences that would be felt for many more years to come.
Cambodia has lost approximately three fourths of its wildlife habitat and has put at risk more
than half of its wetlands.
- Dr. I.S.CHAKRAPANI
Lecturer in Zoology &
IQAC Co-ordinator
PRR & VS Govt. College
Vidavalur
 Some important threatened/misunderstood fauna of India

1. Naja naja (Linn.1758) 2. Ophiophagus Hannah 3. Bungarus cauerulius

(Shneider, 1801)

4.Bungarus fasciatus 5.Daboia russelii (Gray, 1842) 6. Echis carinata

(Schneider, 1801

7.Python molurus 8.Eryx Johnii 9.Uropeltis ellioti

(Russell, 1801)
10.Micrurus fluvius (Linneaus, 11.Ramphotyphlops braminus 12.Amphiesma stolatum
1758)

14.Lycodon capucinus
13.Boiga dendrophila

15.Oligodon affinis 16.Ptyas mucosus

(Schneider, 1799)
17.Dendrelaphis punctulata 18.Xenochrophis piscator 19.Sibynophis subpunctatus
(Daoubin, 1803)

20.Coelognathus helena 21.Coluber gracilis (Günther, 1862) 22. Ahaetulla pulverlenta

(Daoubin, 1803)

23.Varanus bengalensis 24.Chameleon 25.Calotes

 26.Calotes rouxi 27.Sitana ponticeriana 28.Hemidactylus leschenaultia
(Cuvier, 1829)

29.Hemidactylus triedrus (Daudin, 1802) 30.Hemidactylus brookii 32.Calodactylodes aureus

34.Mabuya 35. Lygosome punctatum

31.Hemidactylus
flaviviridis
35.Sphaerotheca breviceps 36.Euphlyctis hexadactylus 37.Fejervarya limnocharis

38.Uperodon systoma 39.Uperodon globulosus 40.Kaloula taprobanica

(Schneider, 1799)

41.Duttaphyrynus 42.Polypedates maculates

melanostictus (I.E Gray,1830)
(Schneider,1799)
 INTERANL QUALITY ASSURANCE CELL
FACULTY FORUM
PRR & VS GOVT COLLEGE

BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION –
ISSUES & CHALLENGES
DR.I.S.CHAKRAPANI
Lecturer in zoology
& IQAC Coordinator
10/07/2017

Faculty forum Lecture on Biodiversty Conservation – Issues & Challenges 10/07/2017

Dr.I.S.Chakrapani