Reserves and National Parks

Textbook chapter- Conservation of Biodiversity

• Nature reserve, area set aside for the purpose of preserving certain animals, plants, or both.

• A nature reserve differs from a national park usually in being smaller and having as its sole purpose the protection of nature.

• Endangered species are often kept in reserves, away from the hunters who brought them close to extinction. In the United States, numerous wildlife refuges have served this purpose, especially with respect to birds. Nature reserves are also numerous in Europe, India, Indonesia, and some African countries.

Komodo dragon

• National park, an area set aside by a national government for the preservation of the natural environment.

• A national park may be set aside for purposes of public recreation and enjoyment or because of its historical or scientific interest. Most of the landscapes and their accompanying plants and animals in a national park are kept in their natural state.

• .

Yosemite National Park

• The national parks in the United States and Canada tend to focus on the protection of both land and wildlife

• Case study page 132

AMBOSELI NATIONAL PARK OF KENYA SAFARI

• Africa national parks primarily exist to conserve animals

Yukon national Park

• A wildlife corridor is a protected passageway where it is known that fauna migrate. The Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative is an excellent example of this type of conservation effort.

Yukon- Home to 105 species of birds

• According to Conservation International, the term biodiversity hotspot refers to "the richest and most threatened reservoirs of plant and animal life on Earth... To qualify as a hotspot, a region must meet two strict criteria: it must contain at least 1,500 species of vascular plants (> 0.5 percent of the world’s total) as endemics, and it has to have lost at least 70 percent of its original habitat." [5] These hotspots are rapidly disappearing due to human activities, but they still have a chance of being saved if conservation measures are enacted. Biodiversity hotspots could be considered the most important places to put reserves.

• biodiversity hotspot refers to "the richest and most threatened reservoirs of plant and animal life on Earth...

• To qualify as a hotspot, a region must meet two strict criteria:

• it must contain at least 1,500 species of vascular plants (> 0.5 percent of the world’s total) as endemics,

• and it has to have lost at least 70 percent of its original habitat."

• endangered species, any species of plant, animal, or other organism that is at risk of extinction because of a sudden rapid decrease in its population or a loss of its critical habitat.

CITES

• Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (of Wild Fauna and Flora)

• an international agreement• treaty aimed at preventing trade in endangered

species of plants and animals• thereby reducing demand;

and contributing to organisms’ conservation•

e.g. ivory/rhino horn/many marine turtle species/many species of parrots;

Weakness

• some countries are still outside the Convention;• provisions difficult to implement/enforce, particularly in LEDC • Lengthy procedures for making changes to the

Convention;• a number of “exceptions” exist e.g. import/export

of organisms for scientific purposes (Article III part 3 of the Convention);

http://www.iucnredlist.org/

• The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™ is committed to providing the most objective, scientifically-based information on the current status of globally threatened biodiversity.

Protecting Biodiversity

24 March 2009 Biodiversity.ppt 23

• Island Biogeography– Everyplace is an island– Habitat fragmentation

• Smaller fragments hold fewer species

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reserve_design• http://morriscourse.com/elements_of_ecolog

y/chapter_28.htm