International Day for Biological Diversity

[lara.luke]

International Day for Biological Diversity

A message from the Secretary General on the International Day for Biological Diversity

On behalf of the Ramsar community, I send my best wishes on the occasion of the International Day for Biological Diversity, 22 May 2009. This year’s theme, ‘Invasive Alien Species’, is an especially appropriate one for the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands: as the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment wetland synthesis report has indicated, invasive species are considered one of the main direct drivers of the degradation of wetlands alongside habitat change, climate change, over-exploitation, and pollution.

Wetland ecosystems, including lakes, rivers, marshes, rice fields, and coastal areas, provide many services to humans that contribute to our well-being and to the alleviation of poverty – the loss of such services through the introduction of alien invasive species is well documented and likely to increase through aquaculture, shipping and global commercial practices. To take but one example of the economic impact on just one ecosystem service, the cost of water hyacinth, a pan-tropical weed, and other water weeds in developing countries, related directly to water use, is estimated at US$ 100 million per year. At the global level, the yearly damage and control costs of invasive species are estimated at US$1.4 trillion.

This International Day for Biological Diversity is therefore an appropriate time to remind ourselves of the immense value of wetland ecosystems and the significant impact that the introduction of invasive species can have on ecosystem health, and thus on human health and local livelihoods. It is a time to encourage all members of society to take some responsibility, at an appropriate level, for avoiding the introduction of invasive species and to minimize their impact wherever possible.

The Convention on Biological Diversity is to be congratulated on the selection of this important theme and for the production of some excellent materials on the extent, impact, and opportunities for control of invasive alien species.

Anada Tiéga,
Secretary General,
Ramsar Convention on Wetlands

[Calimachon]

I could not agree more.

You only have to look at the invasion of Elephant Grass in our island to see what an aggressive, vigorous species of plant can do to the landscape and how it affects unused and fallow fields.  I know these are not wetlands but it is not indiginous and is costly and difficult to remove and the labour removing it would increase the cost of producing food.

Britain, New Zealand, Australia, USA and other countries try and protect their cash crops by introducing laws to stop these types of invasive plants, pests and diseases from being imported, or even from crossing state boundaries.  Good inspection of freight, good training and self-regulation by Farmers and Horticulturalists is essential in these areas.

[Dylan]

One of the problems we have is that the degeneration of species, caused by pesticides and land "altering" farm practises (outlawed in UK for over 27 years) alongside the introduction of new grass species of general terrain cover means that there are many tiny polyoptera species which are teetering on the borderline of extinction. For the government, the payoff is that there will always be a substitute, knowing that the "local" specie may well exist elsewhere in abundance. This way of Governance is repetitive in Jersey with all species, including our own.

[poet]

Thing is Callimachon that ten years ago elephant grass didn't manage to survive so well because winter temperatures were lower.This is not a problem , one more time, that can be addressed on a national level

[lara.luke]

Purely for debate purposes, by preserving biodiversity are we preventing natural succession? Throughout the history of earth there has been many different species that have evolved and then  become extinct, then new species evolving in their place, along with new species we have found new cures in medicine. Are we hindering medical science by conserving species which may make way for the cures of the future?

[Calimachon]

Are we hindering medical science by conserving species which may make way for the cures of the future?

You threw a spanner in the works with that statement lara.luke and it made me think and my immediate thought was.

Who the heck would have saved me if I was around in the Dinosaur age.  I don't think a fun-loving meat-eating Dinosaur would have had a lightbulb moment and skidded to a halt, mid-gallop, to save me from being eaten because he realised that I might be becoming extinct.  So I suggest survival of the fittest is the key.

Maybe we should let the Creator (whoever or whatever they/that might be) decide and not try and play GOD!

[lara.luke]

The problem with survival of the fittest, is that man is predominently taking over the world with lovely concrete structures everywhere, destroying natural habitats, exploiting various species etc. Will species evolve that can live in our concrete world as they do in the wilderness. With any populations there is an end point where a population can not be supported anymore. Imagine a grassy field with rabbits, they reproduce eat the grass, more rabbits eat more grass, the grass can not grow back quick enough to sustain all the rabbits. Then the rabbits fall ill, starve, contract disease and die and the population falls. The grass will grow to once again be able to sustain the smaller population. We are at some point as humans to meet the pinacle of an unsustainable population, water shortage is already a huge problem in some areas of the world.

[White Knight]

That is very interesting what you said there Lara. Luke i can where you are coming from and the world is not that far away from the little field with rabbits. The crops that feed the population on this earth in the last couple of years how not done very well. In mid America where the wheat is grown they had i am sure you would know in the 20's - 30's what they called the dry bowl where the hot and  dry summer that they had and the wind blowing left nothing but earth not fit to grow anything and the farmers lost their homes and we had the great depression. Well it is coming very close to that again and the powers of B are worried. I believe the chinese have not got enough rice for their people according to news items.

[lara.luke]

If looking at the situation as an outsider, biodiversity loss is a result of the over population of humans. The solution to the problem is not easy, if you were a farmer with too many rabbits in your field you would probably cull the population. Not a solution I'm suggesting for humans! However occasionally nature has a way of causing multiple deaths, earthquakes, tornadoes etc, and then we have the Harold Shipman's of the world. Can the world sustain both the concepts of population growth and the prevention of biodiversity loss. Is there a harmony that can be found or will population growth destroy the land we need to survive?

[Calimachon]

The problem with survival of the fittest, is that man is predominently taking over the world with lovely concrete structures everywhere, destroying natural habitats, exploiting various species etc. Will species evolve that can live in our concrete world as they do in the wilderness. With any populations there is an end point where a population can not be supported anymore. Imagine a grassy field with rabbits, they reproduce eat the grass, more rabbits eat more grass, the grass can not grow back quick enough to sustain all the rabbits. Then the rabbits fall ill, starve, contract disease and die and the population falls. The grass will grow to once again be able to sustain the smaller population. We are at some point as humans to meet the pinacle of an unsustainable population, water shortage is already a huge problem in some areas of the world.

I honestly believe that our planet will survive in one form or another but not necessarily evolve into what we remember it as being.  There are many forces that are influencing out planet that we don't even know about yet and that we definitely have no control over.

I have always been beguiled by man's fascination with the future and trying to predict what will happen to the world ever since, as a small child of about 8 yrs, looking at a cartoon with a man who had a sandwich board on his back and I asked my father why he was worried because the 'end was nigh'.  I was amused even then by Dad's answer.

I must be what one calls a Fatalist because, even if one where in a position to correctly predict what was about to happen to the planet, depending upon the magnitude of any disaster there would not be much we, as a humans, could do about it.  I just thank my lucky stars that, so far, I was born when I was and managed to be in the right place and at the right time to survive well. I only wish others would have been as lucky.

[lara.luke]

I honestly believe that our planet will survive in one form or another but not necessarily evolve into what we remember it as being.  There are many forces that are influencing out planet that we don't even know about yet and that we definitely have no control over.

I have always been beguiled by man's fascination with the future and trying to predict what will happen to the world ever since, as a small child of about 8 yrs, looking at a cartoon with a man who had a sandwich board on his back and I asked my father why he was worried because the 'end was nigh'.  I was amused even then by Dad's answer.

I must be what one calls a Fatalist because, even if one where in a position to correctly predict what was about to happen to the planet, depending upon the magnitude of any disaster there would not be much we, as a humans, could do about it.  I just thank my lucky stars that, so far, I was born when I was and managed to be in the right place and at the right time to survive well. I only wish others would have been as lucky.

I agree, on the whole we are in a fortunate position at the present time. Scientific predictions are simply based on assumptions that a factor (be it population growth or climate change) will extrapolate in the same manner as the past shows. They are simply mathematical models, such as the Java Climate Change Model, which use various calculations to make assumptions on the future. How accurate are these models - well the only way of knowing is when we catch up with the future and make comparisions between the predictions and the then current situation. 

[Dylan]

Hahahahaha!!!

Bio-diversity is not associated with the spelling disfunction spin-off of tourettes!