Unfortunately, despite the effort put into conservation by organizations and activists, their work can easily be undermined by those who have other interests. This occurs, for example, from habitat destruction, illegal poaching, to influencing or manipulating laws designed to protect species.
The current form of globalization has also been criticized for ignoring sustainable development and environmental concerns. For many years, critics, NGOs, activists and affected peoples have been accusing large corporations for being major sources of environmental problems.
As a recent example, a study reported by the journal Nature concluded that almost a third of threats to animal species around the world stem from trade to meet the demands of richer nations. And with some poorer nations such as China increasing their development, this picture will get more complex.
Consequently, helping species and ecosystems to survive becomes more difficult.
Declining Number Of Large Carnivores
Three quarters of the world’s big carnivores are in decline. A study in the journal Science, notes that these large animals — such as lions, leopards, wolves and bears — are in decline, due to declining habitats and persecution by humans. In the developed world, most large carnivores are already extinct, while in the rest of the world, most face threats of extinction locally or globally.
This also has a negative impact on the environment, perhaps partly formed by outdated-views that predators are harmful for other wildlife. As the study notes, these large carnivores are an intrinsic part of an ecosystem’s biodiversity. As a simple example, the loss of a large carnivore may mean in the short term the herbivores they prey on may increase in numbers but this can also result in a deterioration of the environment as the herbivores can graze more, largely unchecked.
Current ecological knowledge indicates that large carnivores are necessary for the maintenance of biodiversity and ecosystem function. Human actions cannot fully replace the role of large carnivores. Additionally, the future of increasing human resource demands and changing climate will affect biodiversity and ecosystem resiliency. These facts, combined with the importance of resilient ecosystems, indicate that large carnivores and their habitats should be maintained and restored wherever possible.
— Status and Ecological Effects of the World’s Largest Carnivores, Science, 10 January 2014: Vol. 343 no. 6167, DOI: 10.1126/science.1241484
This observation applies to the seas as well, whereby a few decades ago some fisherman had justified hunting and killing whales because they were affecting the fish supply. It turned out that this disruption of the natural food chain led to a series of ecosystem changes that reduced fish supplies, and many fishermen’s livelihoods were destroyed. This is explained further in this site’s section on biodiversity loss (in particular the section on declining ocean biodiversity).
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