Protecting endangered species

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  • Created by: portia
  • Created on: 14-08-17 15:50

An endangered species is one that is threatened with extinction

There are a variety of ways to protect endangered species but the best way to conserve any species is to keep it in its natural habitat.

Maintaining the natural habitat means that all the 'life support systems' are provided. Equally important is the protection of whole ecosystems threatened by development; the most popular is the tropical rainforest and other less well-known, rare ecosystems such as karst limestone, because they are very vulnerable to pollution.

National parks

  • most countries now set aside areas where wildlife and the environment have some form of protection, and where the activities of human are limited
    • for example, conservation areas may be set up where there are strict limits on buldung, grazing farm animals, hunting or other activities that might adversely affect animal and plants that live there
  • national parks are areas of land that are controlled by the government of a country and protected by legislation
    • agriculture, building, mining and other industrial activities are strictly controlled
    • in some countries, national parks act as conservation areas where populations of wild animals are maintained
  • alien animal species, such as rats and goats, are being removed and invasive plants, such as elephant grass, dug up and destroyed
  • there are captive breeding and reintroduction programmes, notably for giant tortoises, coordinated by the Charles Darwin Research Station
  • there are restrictions on human activities in national parks
  • tourism brings in money to pay for the maintenance of the parks, and also helps to inform people about how conservation takes place
  • this raises awareness of important issues and can elicit support from the pub;ic
    • this works best if local people are involved in som way, so they feel that the park is 'theirs' and can obtain benefits from it
    • this may involve allowing them to use some areas of the park for herding their animals or growing crops, employing them as wardens or rangers, or using some of the money raised from tourism to improve local health or education facilities
  • a marine reserves have been set up to conserve fragile ecosystems and areas at risk of overfishing, dredging and pollution
  • the marine reserve off the coast of Little Cayman is a 'no-take' reserve that protects one of the last spawing grounds of an endangered fish
  • establishments of marine parks and reserves increase biodiversity and may lead to an incease in fish catches
  • some conservation areas are designated by international bodies
  • wetland habitats, such as estuaries, salt marshes, blanket bogs, ponds and mangrove forests, are ecosystems with high biodiversity
  • Ramsar sites are wetlands considered to be important for the conservation of wildlife
  • they are designated under an international treaty signed at Ramsar in Iran and under the terms of the convention, a designated site must be 'used wisely'
  • this gives protection against such threats as building development and extraction of minerals
  • the ecologically important Okavango Delta in Botswana is a Ramsar site

The standard of management of parks and reserves varies throughout the…

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