The biosphere constitutes a vital life support system for man. It existence in a healthy and functional state is essential for the existence of the human race. It is the complex collection of innumerable organisms. The word conservation has been derived from the two Latin words “con” meaning together and “servare” meaning to keep or guard. Literally it means to keep together. Shortly after the white house conference of 1908 Gifford Pinchot first coined the word conservation. In general the concept of conservation was started for non renewable resources, but for renewable resources, also proper management is necessary. No one knows the exact number of species in our planet. Scientist believes that the total number of species on our planet is between 10 million to 80 million (stork and Wilson 1998). However only about 1.4 million have been identified.

WHAT IS BIODIVERSITY?

Complex beyond understanding and valuable beyond measure, biodiversity is the total variety of life on our planet, which is the total number of races, varieties, microbes, plants and animals present in a system.

Biological diversity is usually analyzed at 3 different levels which are ;

· Diversity of biotic communities and ecosystem

· Diversity of specie in a community

· Diversity of genetic organization within a specie

ENDEMISM AND HOT-SPOTS OF BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY:

Endemism species can be define as those species that are confined only to a particular locality, such organism are very important from the point of view of conservation on their disappearance means extinction of the species as they are not found elsewhere.

Naturally, the endemic specie and their habitats which are likely to be lost forever should receive urgent conservations attention, once lost there is no way to recover them. Based on the degree of endemism in specie conservation, Myers (1988) has identified 12 such localities in tropical regions of the world which require urgent attention. These localities include;

· Hawaii islands

· Columbian chako

· Western equador

· Uplands of western Amazonia

· Atlantic forest area of brazil

· Eastern Madagascar

· Eastern Himalayas

· Peninsular Malaysia

· Northern Borneo

· Philippines

· Queens – island, Australia

· New Caledonia

These hot-spots area represents 0.2% of the earth surface, 3.5% of primary forest biological species; however, they posse’s 34,400 endemic plant species which is about 27% of all tropical forest species and 13% of total plant species found on earth.

In 1990, Myers identified another 8 hot-spots of endemic species diversity in other climatic regions of the world which are:

· Western floral province, California

· Central Chile

· Ivory coast

· Cape floral province, Africa

· Western Ghats, India

· Sri-lanka

· South west Australia

· Eastern arc province, Tanzania

These 8 hot-spots covers 0.3% of world total land surface but posses 15,555 endemic species of plants representing 6% total number of species of plants worldwide.

On worldwide basis, about 4.9% of earth land surface has been set aside for nationally protected areas. However, much of earth hot-spots of biodiversity which comprises only one tenth of these areas are not protected at all.

IMPORTANCE OF BIODIVERSITY

To human race, the biosphere is a life support system. Each species has its own role to play. Conservation of these biodiversities is vital to biospheres health, stability and proper functioning. They are four major importance of conservation of species:

1. Biological diversity as a valuable natural resource:

Plants and animals have been exploited by man since time immemorial. Food, clothing, shelter and a number of useful products come from a wide variety of living organism. Biological diversity is a valuable natural resource for the survival of mankind. A gradual reduction of which may result in disappearance of species of economic value to human race.

2. Biological diversity as a valuable genetic resource:

Repeated cultivation of variety over a long period of time under human care gradually reduces its vigor and productivity and this can lead to an extensive damage to cultivate species. They yield quality resistance to disease, pest, and adverse climatic condition are due to genetic factors.

3. Biological diversity as instrument of maintaining stable and healthy ecosystem

In an ecosystem everything is related to everything else. A system of complex interactions exists between various components of a healthy ecosystem which occur in a state of dynamic equilibrium. There are several species or alternative which can take over and keep the system in a functional state. But in a simple system loss of a single or few species could be catastrophic because of the lack of alternatives. Thus, diversity imparts stability to an ecosystem.

4. Biological diversity as a means of optimum utilization and conservation of abiotic resources in an ecosystem:

Biological diversity serves as ecosystem as an effective instrument, which ensures optimum utilization of abiotic resources. In moist tropics with rich biodiversity in the world, most of the nutrients are lodged in its biotic community. Decomposition of organic matter and regeneration of nutrients are very rapid processes due to the warm and humid conditions. A wide variety of plants which include large trees, herbs, shrubs, grasses, climbers, etc quickly absorb all the nutrients which are made available to them as a results of mineralization.

REDUCTION IN BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY; THE SITUATION TODAY

Millions of years of organic evolution handed over to us a vast variety of plants, animals, and microbial species. We have been able to describe only 2.5% to 12% of the total number of species present on our planet, which scientist believe is between 10-80 million (John C. Ryan 1992). The approximate total number of species in different taxa of animal and plant as compiled from taxonomic studies shows that we have about 1,595,255 known species on our planet that is I,685,500 animal species and about 300,000 plant species.

Ordinarily, if a particular life form is not located for a considerable period of time, it is considered to be extinct. But an element of uncertainty always persist, it is not possible to rule out the possibility of occurrences of the organism in some unexplored corner of the earth surface.

The pattern of extinction which emerges from a study of about 500 cases since 1600 AD indicates that nearly 75% of extinctions have occurred in islands instead of main continents. These were mostly associated with extinction of European influence. In the case of continent extinction more than 65% involved aquatic organisms {Diamond 1989)

MAJOR CAUSES OF REDUCTION IN BIODIVERSITY

Usually, disturbances of any type in ecosystems lead reduce its biological diversity. As human population raises, an ever increasing demand for raw materials, food and spaced is placed on natural ecosystem while enormous quantities of wastes and spoils are introduced into the environment. The major causes of reduction in biological diversity are:

Destruction of natural resources:-

The requirement of space, food and raw materials for expanding human establishments is one of the most importance singular causes of such rapid decline. In biodiversity, much of the surface area of our globe where agriculture or cattle ranching is possible has been brought under human use. All over the world the process of biological impoverishments is taking its toll of species after species.

Adverse changes in biotic or abiotic environment

Unfavorable changes in the biotic and abiotic factors of the environment of an ecosystem may be brought about by:-

· Environmental pollution :-

Pollution involves the introduction of undesirable and harmful material or energy into the ecosystem. Most of these pollutants, even seemingly harmless materials adversely affect the biotic community. The hardy, tenuous and resistance species survive while the weaker and susceptible species are eliminated.

· Over exploitation of selected species:-

Merciless hunting or collection of a selected group of living organism for food, profit or recreation is an old cause of extermination. There is a considerable evidence to suggest that the extinction of large pleistone animals in North America. The wooly mammoth, horses, camels and mastodons was caused by the Stone Age hunters. Even today hunters and collectors are significant threat to a number of species. Whales, elephants, most wild cats, rhinoceros, many species of snake, crocodiles, etc are mercilessly hunted for their hides, tusks or horns.

Other forms or causes of reduction in biodiversities include:-

· Natural events or calamities

· Introduction of exotic species

· Habitat fragmentation

CONSERVING THE BIODIVERITY

As human enterprise expands and biodiversity habitat shrinks, numerous species will be lost. Many protected areas are too small and subject to frequent changes to sustain the viable population of species. The conservation of this biodiversity could be in two forms, we have the ex-situ conservation and the in-situ conservation.

The ex-situ conservation is an age old practice. Man has been breeding animals and plants under his care for times immemorial. Ex-situ conservation involves maintenance and breeding of endangered species of plant and animals under partially or wholly controlled conditions in zoo, gardens, nurseries and laboratories.

The in-situ conservation involves the conservation of species in their natural habitat that is in places where the species normally occur. The natural surrounding or the entire ecosystem is protected and maintained so that all the constituent species known or unknown to us are conserved. We simply try to eliminate factors which are detrimental to the existence of species concerned and nature take care of its own self.

SOME EXTINCT SPECIES IN THE WORLD

ANIMAL EXTINCT SPECIES	YEAR OF EXTINCTION
Zanzibar leopard	1996
West African black rhinoceros	2006
Spix macaw	2004
Pyrenean ibex	2000
Round island burrowing boa	1975
Po’ouli	2004
Javan tiger	1979

PLANT EXTINCT SPECIES	YEAR OF EXTINCTION
St. Helena olive tree	2003
Kokia cookei	1978
Woods cycad	1916
Radula visiniaca	2000
Sri lanka legume tree	1998
Arunchal hopea tree	1998
Sigillaria	19^th century

WORLD GENERAL ASSEMBLIES ON CONSERVATION OF SPECIES

Several world assemblies have been held to deal with environmental issues concerning the extinction of species in the past years by different organizations. Some of the general assembly’s held in the past include:

1. The Rio summit of 1992 in Brazil.

2. The green web summit of 1984 in Madrid.

3. The United Nations earth summit in New York.

4. The IUCN: world wildlife fund of April 1977 in Switzerland.

5. The IUCN: world conservation congress of 1969 in New Delhi India.

While some of the recent and upcoming events on species conservation include:

1. The IUCN congress in Hawaii by September 2016.

2. The 8^th world ecosystem service partnership conference November 2015.

3. The 6^th African Eurasian migratory water bird agreements session November 2015.

4. The sustainable ocean summit November 2015.

5. Forest and livelihood assessments conference November 2015.

REFERENCES

1. Environmental problems and solutions D.K. Asthana and Meera Asthana 1998

2. Myers N. 1998, threaten biotas.

3. Myers N. 1990, the biodiversity challenge

4. Natural resource conservation and environmental management Prof S.A. Qazi and Prof. Navaid Shabir Qazi, 2008.

5. Environmental science pp 222-238, willians D. and Mary Ann 2012

6. Irin Gray tropical rainforest animal 2012.

7. www.iisd.ca

8. www.popularmechanics.com

Sadeeq Gumel

Sunday, 22 November 2015

CONSERVATION OF SPECIE

INTRODUCTION: