Daily Times

Biodiversity is the diversity of life on Earth. It’s such a hallmark of nature that varies with the variability of living species like microorganisms, plants, animals to coral reefs, forests, rainforests, and deserts with their specific existence on Earth. Today, we are experiencing biodiversity loss and it is estimated that in the last five decades, we have already lost more than 60 percent of the planet’s biodiversity.

In this course, tropical rainforests cover only 7% of Earth’s land surface and they contain more than half the species in the entire world’s biota. They are the most fragile among all habitats that they will mostly disappear in the next century, taking with them hundreds of thousands of species to extinction.  These species are so important that with each species lost we lost an entire food chain along with habitats that are specific to these species.

Biodiversity holds social, cultural, and economic values. Currently, the world has millions of species of insects, more than 10,000 species of birds, and more than 20,000 plant species. Man had discovered just a few numbers until now. However, there are still millions of species that are not known by anyone. Due to this fact earth is home to almost 50 million species or even more than that and in the coming days, there may be many new species evolving. Biodiversity is the totality of genes, species, and ecosystems in a defined area. Any damage to this defined area either by human intervention including deforestation, farming, urban development, pollution, or natural causes that lead to wiping out of rare species as a result of forest fires, volcanic eruptions, and floods. These types of biodiversity losses are normal and the planet can restore them once the damage has passed. Some seeds like those of pine trees, won’t germinate until their parent tree has burned in a wildfire. Similarly, if an environmental change occurs and some organisms can’t be able to thrive longer then nature plays its role in a form that others can take their place and fulfill essential functions. But that doesn’t mean overexploitation, deforestation, or forced fires are beneficial and give good outcomes instead, it’s a matter of realization for humans that every living creature is essential for the daily functioning of this planet.

There are possible ways to reverse biodiversity loss and Anthropocene extinction including the protection of endangered species and their surrounding by inhibiting hunting, poaching, killing, and giving the natural reservoir the status of a national park. Control growth of the human population will limit the exploitation of natural resources for their survival. Because without species existence, no more scientific research would occur, drugs and medicines could no longer be derived from plants and animals as they aren’t left for such purposes. Another importance of biodiversity is that it provides food to all. It is a source of new crops, pesticides, and agricultural practices. It is also important for industrial use, trading purposes, and religiously. For this, cumulative changes must be done by developed as well as low GDP income countries.

A low-income country like Pakistan contains three of the world’s six biogeography realms with their distinct biota spans four of Earth’s ten biomes (desert, tropical seasonal forest, temperate grassland, and mountain). A high percentage of Pakistan’s bird fauna is migratory, over 30% of recorded species are Palearctic winter visitors. Among reptiles 13 species are endemic. Several species of marine turtles nest on the shores of Pakistan.

Pakistan’s woody biomass is declining at a rate of 4.6% per year. Mangrove forest cover has been halved from 2600 km² in 1970s to 1300 km² in mid-1990s. It represents about 3 percent of the country’s forest area. Mangroves play an economically significant role in providing breeding grounds for shrimp and fish larvae, protecting ports from floods, protecting from excessive siltation, and acting as sanctuaries for migratory birds. This natural wealth is quickly disappearing by coastal population increase that leads to overexploitation of coastal resources, pollution, and acute scarcity of freshwater from the Indus River as river water is extremely used for coastal urbanization, industrialization, and inland agriculture. On the other hand, over the past 50 years, Pakistan’s annual temperature has increased roughly about 0.5 degrees Celsius makes the situation even worse.  Average annual rainfall is extremely low (221m) and in some years no rain at all will cause reduced availability of freshwater to Indus delta mangroves. Habitat degradation resulting from a high level of salinity and disruption to the ecological balance lead to the decline of migratory bird’s population along with sea dolphins due to marine pollution by the local community.

There have been initiatives by governments all over the world in collaboration with the local community to play their role in sustaining existing biodiversity. For example, Mangrove rehabilitation projects include mangrove afforestation, conservation, and bringing new areas under forest cover will surely prove benefitted for them in reducing poverty in coastal tracts in form of increased tourism, high biological productivity, and stabilizing the coast from cyclones. But these conservation measures could only be done when we consider protecting biodiversity as a national duty. So, we have to recycle every plastic, paper, and wood that we use on a daily basis. Buy sustainably harvested species without endangering them. Focusing on drive green by reducing carbon footprint and this can be done by using the electric vehicle or using local transport or bicycle. Instead of using plastic, go to a packaging-free solution that saves hundreds of marine species from suffocating to death.

In the end, conservation laws and policies should be formulated, implemented and signature by all countries of the world for the betterment of wildlife sanctuaries because protected wildlife cohabiting in their respective environment will make this world a better place of living for future generation and we are bound to reverse this loss of biodiversity for our own sake of living otherwise we have to look beyond this planet Earth in searching of new resources that can fulfill our demands.

The writer is a freelance columnist, essayist and blogger, pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Science from Lahore college for Women University (LCWU). She’s interest in environmental issues and the need for political change.