Biodiversity (1988) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
Part 11: Present Problems and Future Prospects
Part 11: Present Problems and Future Prospects
Pages 419-462
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Is: ~' ~ (' ii A -3 ~ k S ~ S 'S s.
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LOVEJOY* Executive Vice President, World Wildlife Fund, Washington, D.C.
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The meaning of pattern in relative abundance and diversity in communities has only begun to be initially understood and remains largely tantalizing (Fisher et al., 1943; Hutchinson, 1958; MacArthur, 1957, 1965; May, 1975; Patrick 1961, 1984; Preston, 1948~. Furthermore, it is very difficult to understand the function of any of the large number of rare species in an ecosystem precisely because they are so rare.
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Nonetheless, all rare species in ecosystems are likely to be able to respond with population increases, given the 1 00% a: us t 10% `g 1.0% > 0.1% 0.01 % ~ i ~ \~N 1949 s = 3 t I ~ 1919 ~ s=8 \ \ 1 903 s= 10 1872 1 862 s = 16 s = 28 SPECIES SEQUENCE b.,, 1 856 s = 49 FIGURE 47-2 Changes in the patterns of relative abundance of species in an experimental plot of permanent pasture at Parkgrass, Rothamsted, England, following continuous application of nitrogen fertilizer since 1856. (Species with abundance less than 0.01% were recorded as 0.01%.)
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Survival strategies of this kind have as yet only been superficially explored. Nevertheless, the role rare species may play under changing conditions suggests that the accumulation of species in an ecosystem, while perhaps only an accident of the history of any particular system, can turn out to be of value.
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The problem of population growth sometimes seems so enormous as to be intractable. Even with stringent birth control, future population growth is inevitable because of the very youthful age structure of populations in developing countries.
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1957. On the relative abundance of bird species.
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1961. A study of the number and kinds of species found in rivers in eastern United States.
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In the United States, for example, there were the Smithsonian Institution meeting in December 1985, the World Wildlife Fund meeting in September 1986, the National Academy of Sciences and Smithsonian Institution joint meeting in September 1986, and the meeting of the New York Zoological Society in October 1986. All are clear examples of this general trend.
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International organizations such as the World Wildlife FuncI/ Conservation Foundation and the Nature Conservancy International Program are supporting this grass-roots movement through direct economic support, official recognition, training of personnel, and infrastructure to help NGOs carry out their functions. THE SOCIOECONOMIC ENVIRONMENT Mexico is a clear example of a country in the process of development.
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The international economic crisis has brought additional problems to Mexico. It was because of the impacts in Mexico that the international community first recognized the major problems confronting Third-World countries in relation to the international debt.
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Although Mexicans try to control the supply of natural resource goods, the international community must help to control the demand from their countries. Prices soar into the thousands of dollars for rare and endangered species of wild animals and plants, and while the demand exists, someone in the developing world will find, trap, and sell them.
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The democratization process now occurring in the official political party may facilitate the inclusion of more environmental considerations in the official party platform in the years to come. Environmental policy statements were also issued by the left-wing political parties in late 1982.
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Among the most prominent institutions with these capabilities are the Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones sobre Recursos Bioticos (INIREB) , the Centro cle Investigaciones de Quintana Roo (CIQRO)
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Amidst all this difficulty, we should recognize that as correctly pointed out by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources in its World Conservation Strategy (IUCN, 1980) , the way out is the achievement of a proper balance between conservation of natural resources and socioeconomic development.
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It is cheaper ancI ethically more correct in the long run. Good examples are the Conservation Data Centers of the Nature Conservancy International Program in Latin America and the support given to Restauracion Ambiental, Inc., in Mexico by the Conservation Foundation and the World Wildlife Fund.
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Twenty-fifth Anniversary Conference of the World Wildlife Fund, September 17, 1986, Mayflower Hotel, Washington, D.C. UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme)
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. The first policy element states that the Bank normally cleclines to finance projects involving the conversion of wildlands of special concern, which are areas recognized as exceptionally important in conserving biological diversity or perpetuating en ~Includes the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD)
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First are wildlands officially designated as protected areas by governments, sometimes in collaboration with the United Nations or the international scientific community. These are national parks, biosphere reserves, world heritage sites, wetlands of international importance, areas designated for protected status in national conservation strategies or master plans, and similar Midland management areas (WMAs)
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The Worlc! Bank normally declines to finance projects within wildlands of special concern even if they were partly converted prior to the Bank being invited to consider financing.
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This need not necessarily include public hearings or town meetings, which are required in applications of the U.S. National Environmental Policy Act (CEQ, 1978~.
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Four types of economic development projects need compensatory wildland management components, as required under the fifth policy element: ~ Agriculture and livestock projects involving wildland clearing, wetland elimination, wildland inundation for irrigation storage reservoirs, watershed protection for irrigation, displacement of wildlife by fences or domestic livestock; fishery projects involving elimination of important fish nursery, breeding, or feeding sites; over' fishing or introduction of ecologically risky exotic species within aquatic wildlands; forestry projects involving access roads, clear-cutting or other intensive logging of wildlancis, wilciland elimination. Plantations of fast-growing tree species are often an important complement to more direct wildland management activities by reducing the economic pressures for cutting the remaining forest wildland.
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should be an important element of Bank-supported wildland management components. The establishment or strengthening of WMAs is particularly effective when the government includes these wil(lland areas in a national conservation or lan(l-use plan.
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Human Ecology of Tropical Land Settlement in Latin America. Westview Press, Boulder, Colo.
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At the completion of any necessary studies, information on whether the project involves the conversion or disintegration of a relatively unmodified ecosystem and alternative suggestions for achieving the goals of the government should be added to the project brief. If conversion is justified, the brief should explain why and should identify the wildland management components needed.
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A GOODLAND / 445 As part of the appraisal process, the Banks project staff assesses the planned wildland management and other environmental measures.
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Over a million readings were involved in the 1982 inventory, literally almost down to the individual farm. The inventory told us precisely where the soil erosion was occurring, under what conditions, and how much soil was being lost.
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THAT'S RIGHT, soil erosion." Once public concern was aroused and there was a public awareness of the issue, it became possible for politicians to act. In addition to the traditional organizations (e.g., the Soil Conservation Service of America)
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THAT'S RIGHT, biodiversity." REFERENCES American Farmland Trust.
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To this daunting picture must be aclded a newly recognized threat, one with potentially disastrous consequences for biological diversity. This threat is global warming, commonly called the greenhouse effect.
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At least as important as temperature rise itself in affecting the distributions of species and the stability of biological communities will be the widespread changes in precipitation it causes (Hansen et al., 1981; Manabe et al., 1981; Wigley et al., 19801. Thus, the southern limit of the European beech tree (Fagus sylvatica)
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1981~. Other factors associated with rising temperatures that have biological im' plications include the direct physiological effects of rising atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration itself on plants (in Lemon, 1983)
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caused by a doubling of carbon dioxide concentration would result in the shifting of entire ecosystem complexes, including the loss of as much as 37% of boreal forest (Emanuel et al., 1985~. Because each species disperses at a different rate, major climatic changes typically result in a resorting of the species constituting natural communities and the creation of new plant and animal associations (e.g., Van Devender and Spaulding, 1979; see also Figure 51~2)
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(b) In response to climatic change, latitudinal shifting occurs at species-specific rates and the ranges disassociate.
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Although some species, such as plants propagated by spores, may be able to match the 30 kilometers per year needed, many other species could not disperse fast enough to compensate for the expected climatic change without human assistance. Even some large animals that are phys' ically capable of rapid dispersal do not travel far for behavioral reasons.
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To win, a population must track its shifting climatic optimum and reach suitable habitat north of the new southern limit of the species range. Ski is the species southern range limit under initial conditions.
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If efforts to prevent global warming fail, however, and if global temperatures continue to rise, then ameliorating the negative effects of climatic change on biological resources will require substantially increased investment in the purchase and management of reserves. To make intelligent plans for siting and managing reserves, we need more knowIedge.
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~ Reserves should be heterogeneous with respect to topography ant! soil types, so that even given climatic change, remnant populations may be able to survive in suitable microclimatic areas.
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1976. Climatic changes of the past and present.
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1985. The greenhouse effect and nature reserves: Global warming would diminish biological diversity by causing extinctions among reserve species.
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Van Devender, T
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