Conservation of biodiversity

1. CONSERVATION OF
BIODIVERSITY
PRESENTED BY
DR. SHWETA YARAGATTI
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR
DEPARTMENT OF DRAVYAGUNA

2. BIODIVERSITY
✿ Biodiversity is all the different kinds of life you’ll find
in one area—the variety of animals, plants, fungi, and even
microorganisms like bacteria that make up our natural world.
✿ Biodiversity (Biological diversity) is the total variety of living
organisms living on planet Earth.
✿ Each of these species and organisms work together in ecosystems,
like an intricate web, to maintain balance and support life.
✿ Biodiversity supports everything in nature that we need to survive:
food, clean water, medicine, and shelter.

3. CONTD..
✿ Diversity is found in various levels of biological organization.
✿ The most important of them are –
• Genetic diversity - Diversity in genes or genomes.
• Species diversity - Diversity at species level.
• Ecological diversity - Diversity of Ecosystem.

4. CONTD...
✿ It has taken millions of years of time for different kinds of
ecosystems to flourish.
✿ Thus, accumulating this enormous amount of diversity of organims.

5. IMPORTANCE OF SPECIES DIVERSITY
✿ There is not any definitive answer to why species diversity is
important to our ecosystem.
✿ It was believed by ecologists that communities with more species
tend to be more stable than those with less species.
✿ Ecologist David Tilman conducted a long-term experiment on
various ecosystems.

6. CONTD..
✿ He found that ecosystem with more species showed stable
productivity.
✿ He also concluded that increased diversity leads to high
productivity.

7. RIVET POPPER HYPOTHESIS
☸ Although there are no direct answers to the importance of
biodiversity but a proper perspective can be developed through an
analogy.
☸ Paul Ehrlich a Stanford ecologist made an analogy between
airplane and ecosystem.
☸ In an airplane (ecosystem) all parts are joined by thousands of
rivets (species).

8. CONTD..
✿ If every passenger starts popping a rivet to take home (extinction of
a species), it may not affect flight safety (proper functioning of the
ecosystem) initially.
✿ But as more and more rivets are removed the plane becomes weak
and unsafe.
✿ Moreover, which rivet is removed is also critical (extinction of key
species that drive major ecosystem function).

9. CONSERVATION OF BIODIVERSITY
✿ It is obvious from previously discussed hypothesis that biodiversity
is important for proper functioning of biosphere.
✿ There are many reasons for conservation of biodiversity, they can
be grouped into threecategories-
 Narrowly utilitarian
 Broadly utilitarian
 Ethical

10. CONTD..
✿ When we conserve and protect the whole ecosystem, its
biodiversity at all levels is protected –we save the entire forest to
save the tiger.
✿ Narrowly utilitarian arguments for conserving biodiversity are the
direct economic benefits we get from nature.Examples are – food,
firewood, fibre, construction material, industrial products and
medicines.

12. CONTD..
✿ Broadly utilitarian argument says that biodiversity plays a major
role in many ecosystem services that nature provide and also its
aesthetic value for humans.
✿ For example the oxygen which we inhale, the pleasure that we get
from walking through woods.
✿ These are intangible benefits.

13. CONTD..

14. CONTD..
✿ Ethical reasons for conserving biodiversity refers to the moral
values regarding the services provided by nature.
✿ It relates to what we owe to millions of plants, microbes and
animals and the moral duty to conserve it for our future
generations.

16. METHODS OF CONSERVATION OF
BIODIVERSITY
✿ There are mainly two methods of conservation:
 In-situ Conservation
 Ex-situ Conservation

17. IN-SITU CONSERVATION
✿ When the natural habitat of a species is protected, this is called as
in situ (on site) conservation.
✿ All the biodiversity hotspots regions with very high level of species
richness are conserved bythe governments of many nation.
✿ There are 34 biodiversity hotspots in the world.
✿ Examples include biospheres, national parks and wildlife
sanctuaries.

18. CONTD..
✿ In India there are 14 biosphere reserves, 90 national parks, and
448 wildlife sanctuaries.
✿ India has also a history of religious and cultural traditions that
emphasised protection of nature.
✿ Many sacred grooves are found across India – Aravalli Hills of
Rajasthan, Western Ghat regions of Karnataka and Maharashtra
and Bastar area of Chhattisgarh are some examples.

20. EX-SITU CONSERVATION
✿ Ex-situ conservation involves maintenance and breeding of
endangered plants and animals under partially or wholly controlled
conditions in specific areas including zoo, gardens, nurseries, etc.
✿ That is, the conservation of selected plants and animals in
selected areas outside their natural habitat is known as ex-situ
Conservation.
✿ The stresses on living organisms due to competition for food,
water, space etc. can be avoided by ex-situ conservation there by
providing conditions necessary for a secure life and breeding.

21. CONTD..
✿ For ex-situ conservations, the species to be conserved should be
identified followed by adoption of different ex-situ methods such as,
long-term captive breeding and propagation for the species which
have lost their habitats permanently, short-term propagation and
release of the animals in their natural habitat, animal translocation
and reintroduction and advanced technology in the service of
endangered species.

22. CONTD..
✿ The different advantages of ex-situ conservation are,
✿ It gives longer life time and breeding activity to animals
✿ Genetic techniques can be utilized in the process
✿ Captivity breed species can again be reintroduced in the wild

23. CONTD..
✿ The ex-situ conservation strategies include
 botanical gardens
 zoological gardens
 conservation stands
 gene, pollen, seed, seedling, tissue culture
 DNA banks.

24. CONTD..
Animals in a Zoo Botanical Garden

25. CONTD..
✿ Seed gene banks make the easiest way to store germplasm of wild
and cultivated plants at low temperature.
✿ While in field gene banks, preservation of genetic resources is being
done under normal growing conditions.
✿ In recent years ex situ conservation is advanced beyond keeping
threatened species in enclosure.

26. CONTD..
✿ Now gametes of threatened species can be preserved in viable
and fertile condition for long periods using cryopreservation
techniques.
✿ These gametes can be fertilized afterwards and can be propagated
using tissue culture.
Plant tissue culture

27. GLOBAL APPROACH TO CONSERVE
BIODIVERSITY
Biodiversity knows no political boundaries and its conservation is therefore
a collective responsibility of all nations.
✿ The historic convention on Biological Diversity ( The Earth Summit)
was held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992.
✿ It called upon all nations to take appropriate measures for conservation
of biodiversity and sustainable utilisation of its benefits.
✿ Since then, many conventions were held to conserve biodiversity.
✿ In India, Biodiversity protection act was passed in 2002 and wildlife
protection act was passed in 1972.

29. INDIVIDUAL APPROACH TO CONSERVE
BIODIVERSITY
✿ To conserve our biodiversity people should know its importance
and all the methods to conserve it.
✿ A great deal of biodiversity is threatened by the act of poaching. It
can be stopped if the poachers know the importance of biodiversity
rather than their money.
✿ Also many human activities that causes extinction of species, like
use of DDT and many other fertilizers, can also be stopped if
people will know its effects on living organisms.
✿ Also, we can conserve diversity by the simple act of cleaning and
less polluting our environment.

30. DISCUSSION...

31. THANK YOU!!