Could tigers be the last big mega-project for conservation?
In a time of extreme pressure on nations budgets the money available to protect and save wildlife needs to be used wisely. A recent survey of wildlife researchers and conservationists have shown the majority – 60% – in favour of operating a triage system for conservation.
A wildlife triage system would see the money available for conservation concentrated on those species where long term survival is possible while those species who are too far gone are left to die out.
Latest Red List publication shows continuing species losses.
With the latest Red List showing at least one rhino subspecies now officially extinct and another probably extinct in the wild the publication of the survey is a timely reminder of the pressures facing us. Populations are increasing in almost all countries – there’s now over 7 billion of us on the planet – and we need to house and feed these people.
At the moment in the western economies wildlife tends to take priority over humans but in many developing nations people are much more important than animals and plants. We’ve recently seen Zambia introduce a new wildlife policy of when there’s a clash between humans and animals then humans must always take priority. Indonesia has banned some western environmental organisations from operating in the country because the government needs to provide housing, food and jobs for it’s residents which the west based organisations want to prevent.
In the UK we might consider consigning the young to overcrowded, poor quality and expensive housing as being a price worth paying in order to protect a mouse or an insect from being disturbed but there are many countries who don’t have that same disregard for the next generation or young families.
Increasing global population will increase pressure on species.
As the world’s population continues to expand in predominately developing nations then much of the planet’s wilderness is going to become developed. Increasingly we are going to come up to the situation of species becoming at risk because of that development. There is, quite simply, not going to be the money, or increasingly the habitat, available to conserve all the species and sub species there currently is.
There is going to have to be some sort of managed loss of biodiversity, we will eventually come to the situation of what species do we save and what species do we allow to go extinct. The millions of pounds that China has spent on panda conservation is just not going to be available for every threatened species.
We’re going to have to ask ourselves whether we can afford to protect endangered subspecies of non-endangered main species. We have to be pragmatic and it’s inevitable that some sort of wildlife triage will be the way forward.
It could be that the current action plan to save tigers may be the last major international plan to save a species because it’s just going to be too expensive to do for other species.
Survey of conservationists reveals acceptance of need for wildlife triage system.
The recent survey of conservationists was published in Conservation Biology and it was undertaken by the University of York. The researchers contacted 583 conservationists across the world and asked a number of questions about management actions and priorities.
Study author Dr. Murray Rudd from the Environment Department at the University of York stated, ”The survey posed the key questions facing conservation science: why people care, how priorities should be set, where our efforts should be concentrated and what action we can take. Scientists were also asked about a range of potentially controversial statements about conservation strategies to gauge shifting opinions.“
60% of conservationists support wildlife triage system.
The results showed that just over 50% agreed and just over 9% strongly agreed that some sort of triage system was inevitable for nature conservation.
As more money will need to be set aside for nature conservation due to increasing threats such as climate change there will also be increasing calls to ensure that conservation offers good value for money. This is especially so in countries that are facing budget cuts and restrictions on public spending. The public who are going to be footing the bill will need to be sure that the projects they fund are effective.
Dr. Murray Rudd said at the time of publication, ”As with climate change the large level of investment needed if loss of biodiversity is to be stopped will result in an increase of public and political scrutiny of conservation science. That makes it important to show how much scientific consensus there is for both the problems and possible solutions.“
External Sites:
Al Jazeera Inside Story : Who decides what endangered species to survive.
Alpha Galileo: Conservation Scientists ‘Unanimous’ in Expectations of Serious Loss of Biological Diversity, Study Shows.
