The biodiversity loss caused by all the above pressures is alarming. Scientists estimate that current extinction rates are 100 to 1000 times the natural background rate. Many efforts are underway to slow or reverse the loss.
Methods of conservation
Habitat protection:
- National parks and nature reserves set aside large areas where wildlife is protected
- Marine protected areas for ocean wildlife
- Wildlife corridors linking fragmented habitats so animals can move between them
- Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) designations in the UK to protect small but ecologically valuable sites
Species-specific programmes:
- Captive breeding in zoos for endangered species. The Arabian oryx was extinct in the wild by 1972, bred in zoos, and reintroduced. There are now over 1000 in the wild.
- Seed banks preserve plant genetic diversity. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway stores millions of seed samples as a backup against agricultural catastrophe.
- Frozen zoos preserve animal cells (sperm, eggs, tissue) for possible future use, including potential cloning of extinct or endangered species.
Legal protection:
- CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) bans trade in many endangered species
- National laws protect specific species (e.g. all UK bats and their roosts are protected)
- Anti-poaching enforcement in countries with iconic but threatened species (elephants, rhinos, tigers)
Sustainable use:
- Sustainable forestry allows forest products to be harvested without destroying the forest
- Sustainable fishing quotas allow long-term harvesting
- Ecotourism lets people pay to visit wildlife without harming it, providing economic incentives for local communities to protect their wildlife
Habitat restoration:
- Reforestation of cleared land
- Wetland restoration to recover lost biodiversity hotspots
- Reintroducing species to areas where they had been lost (e.g. wolves reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park, beavers reintroduced to Britain)
Reducing demand for wildlife products:
- Education campaigns to reduce the market for rhino horn, tiger bone and other illegal wildlife products
- Banning trade in ivory and other endangered-species materials
Why conservation matters
Beyond the moral question of whether humans have the right to drive other species to extinction, there are practical reasons to protect biodiversity:
- Ecosystem services: insects pollinate crops, soil organisms recycle nutrients, wetlands filter water. Lost species mean lost services.
- Medicines: many drugs come from wild species; future discoveries are impossible if the species is extinct first.
- Food security: crop wild relatives carry genes that may be vital for future agriculture.
- Climate regulation: forests, peat bogs and oceans help regulate the global climate.
- Cultural and recreational value: people value wildlife for its own sake.
Conservation success stories
It is easy to be pessimistic, but conservation does work when given resources and time:
- Bald eagle (USA): nearly extinct in 1970 after DDT; now over 70,000 pairs
- Humpback whale: hunted to near-extinction by 1960; protected since 1966; now over 80,000 worldwide
- Mountain gorilla: down to 250 individuals in the 1980s; now over 1000 thanks to anti-poaching and ecotourism
- California condor: down to 27 birds in 1987; captive-bred and reintroduced; now over 500
- European bison: extinct in the wild by 1927; reintroduced from zoos; now several thousand in Poland and Belarus
These examples show that with concerted effort, declines can be reversed. But the underlying pressures (habitat loss, climate change, pollution) continue to grow, and many more species are at risk than there are conservation programmes to save them.