"With great power comes great responsibility." Yes, we use that saying too in Environmental Sciences! That's because of the knowledge that we are environmental custodians. Custodian means watcher or keeper. We can create or destroy habitats on Earth. With this kind of "power" comes the responsibility of learning how to keep existing ones alive - enter habitat conservation. Keep reading to learn more about habitat conservation methods, regulations, and more!
Habitat Conservation Definition
Habitat conservation is a method of biodiversity and resource conservation.
Habitat conservation is the practice of protecting natural areas and the species that live there.
These are two such practices of protecting an area.
Habitat conservation is an in situ method of wildlife conservation.
In situ (habitat) conservation is the conservation of endangered or threatened species and the natural environment features they need to survive.
Habitat conservation allows various species to adapt to changes in their environment and maintain their natural behaviours. A habitat typically refers to a large area of multiple complex natural or artificial elements that work together to ensure ecological health and stability.
Habitat Conservation Methods
In order to sustain the natural cycle, we must give back to nature in some form. Some typical habitat conservation methods include corridor creation between habitats or establishing protected areas. Entirely new habitats can also be created for conservation purposes.
Sometimes, habitats can be created unintentionally. Aquatic or semiaquatic wintering birds extensively use dam reservoirs, but those lakes are mainly designed for storing water for hydropower electricity.
Habitat conservation can be achieved with the help of social-economic schemes.
Land-buying schemes (e.g. buying land to set aside for conservation),
voluntary conservation schemes (e.g. maintaining hedgerows on fields),
or the establishment of conservation laws (e.g. which affect public access and activities within a protected site).
Direct Methods of Habitat Conservation
Direct methods aim to modify or alter features to create positive change directly.
Land ownership is when private and public land can be used for conservation, such as by purchasing land to protect it. In the UK, the Woodland Trust, RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) and the National Trust may buy land for conservation.
Conservation areas are sensitive to climate changes and pollution, even when originating outside their geographical boundaries.
Indirect Methods of Habitat Conservation
The rural community acts, and agriculture and fishing activities regulations influence the quality of natural habitats by preventing or allowing humans to harvest, hunt, etc., the species present.
Agri-environmental incentives from the government, such as in the form of annual payments, help farmers choose maintenance and conservation over intensive agriculture, where their land contains valuable natural resources or biodiversity or where the grounds have the potential to be developed into areas of ecological importance.
Landscape conservation (the protection of geological and landscape features) may target specific rocky formations in a habitat, such as limestone cave formations, thus granting an area protection status. However, the protected status may not directly extend to biodiversity.
Some may call this... putting limestone in the limelight!
Carbon stock reserves are areas protected for their capacity to sequester GHGs (greenhouse gases), especially carbon. Carbon dioxide can be efficiently sequestered by mangroves, young forests, bamboo forests or peatlands, thus granting them protection status and making them popular choices for carbon offset projects.
Designated protected areas include national parks (e.g. Apuseni National Park, Romania) and marine protected areas (e.g. Mayumba National Park, Gabon).
In some countries, such as the US, some public land can only be acquired if you plan to use it for consumptive purposes, such as drilling for fossil fuels or cattle rearing, but not for conservation.1 This is an excellent example of "value conflict" and "economic efficiency".
Therefore, habitat conservation can depend highly on laws that enable or prevent it.
Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations
In the United Kingdom, habitat conservation is governed by several laws and regulations. The Wildlife and Countryside Act of 1981 is the primary piece of legislation that protects native flora and fauna. The Act prohibits the intentional destruction of habitat and requires landowners to take measures to prevent habitat loss on their property. In addition, some European directives provide habitat protection, including the Habitats Directive and the Birds Directive. Some aim to protect habitat resources, such as the Water Framework Directive.
There may be regional differences in how these Directives are adopted and implemented, depending on whether the activities take place in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland or England.
Post-Brexit, a number of these EU regulations continue to be enforced.
Significantly protected habitats in the UK can be categorised as follows:
SSSIs - Sites of Special Scientific Interest (e.g. The West Pennine Moors)
NNRs - National Nature Reserves (e.g. Ingleborough)
SPAs - Special Areas of Conservation (e.g. Liverpool Bay)
Ramsar sites - Wetlands of international importance (e.g. Avon valley)
The Importance of Habitat Conservation
There are many reasons why habitat conservation is essential:
It helps preserve biodiversity, which is essential for the health of ecosystems and humans.
It can help to mitigate the effects of climate change by providing refuge for plants and animals as their habitats shift.
Habitat conservation also has a number of social and economic benefits, such as providing recreation opportunities and supporting local economies.
The benefits can be further split into less general categories.
Let's start with the 4 Es.
An endemic species is a plant or animal found only in a particular area and not found naturally anywhere else in the world.
For example, the endemic species of the Hawaiian Islands include the Hawaiian duck (Anas wyvilliana) and the Hawaiian monk seal (Monachus schauinslandi). The kangaroo is also endemic to Australia.
Sensitive or critical species are at greater risk of extinction than other species.
For instance, the endemic people of Easter Island relied heavily on the island's endemic palm trees for food and construction materials. When the trees were depleted by over-exploitation, the people of Easter Island were left without a key resource, and their society collapsed.
Last but not least, habitat conservation grants us the following:
Resources including clean water, clean air, energy, food, existing and new medicines, and genetic resources.
Despite knowing its advantages, development projects do not often prioritise habitat conservation or creation.
At the EU level, only 15% of habitat assessments have good conservation status, with 81% having poor or bad conservation status. Grasslands, dunes, and bog, mire and fen habitats show strong deteriorating trends, while forests have the most improving trends.3
Habitat Conservation Examples
Specific habitats require special conservation efforts. The range of habitats can include:
Temperate broadleaf woodland comprised of deciduous tree species that lose their leaves each year, e.g. Atlantic hazelwood.
Tropical rainforests comprised of tropical tree species adapted to high temperatures and humidity, e.g. Australian Daintree rainforest.
Coral reefs comprised of tiny coral polyps that build impressive limestone structures (the coral skeleton), e.g. gulf of Eilat Reefs, Israel.
Oceanic islands comprised entirely of isolated islands or clusters in the ocean, e.g. Polynesian Pitcairn and Rapa Nui.
Glacial landscapes comprised of rocky formations or bare ground covered in snow and ice, and extreme (cold) temperatures, e.g. Cape Crozier, Antarctica.
All the examples given are protected habitats!
However, the increased habitat destruction and fragmentation rate, coupled with underfunded conservation efforts, means that some species cannot survive in the wild anymore:
South-Asian tigers have entirely perished in Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, even from within national parks meant to protect them, such as the Nam Et-Phou Louey National Protected Area.
Roaming or migratory species worldwide, including sturgeons, river dolphins and salmonoid fishes, have collapsed due to river fragmentation through hydroelectric constructions.
Both examples were also affected by poaching.
The River Thames is considered a successful habitat conservation story for 2021 as "it passed its annual health check". The Zoological Society of London reported significant improvements in its water quality after stating that "60 years ago, the river was declared 'toxic' due to industrial pollution."4 Increasing dissolved oxygen concentration levels in the river are a positive change, as aquatic species can breathe or photosynthesise more efficiently.
Yellowstone National Park case study: The creation of national parks has sometimes affected indigenous people or communities practising subsistence living. The establishment of the world's first "modern" national park, Yellowstone, has included the expulsion or forced elimination of Indigenous American tribes living within the area.
Similar events have occurred in other parts of the world, such as India, Colombia, the Philippines, and South Africa.5 The phenomenon known as "indigenous land grabbing" can, therefore, also happen due to habitat conservation orders that do not allow for the continuation of human habitation.
Habitat Creation and Management
Habitat management can be done by manipulating the environment to maintain habitat suitability for species of concern.
Habitat degradation due to human activities such as deforestation and pollution can be mitigated through habitat restoration.
Methods to maintain habitat suitability include:
Provision of abiotic features: water, heat, minerals, pH control, etc.
Control of biotic features: food availability, control of pathogens, and of prey and predator numbers.
Ring barking: forests need at least a third of their areas covered in decaying matter. Ring-barking involves the removal of the bark of a tree in a circle, causing the tree to deteriorate that way slowly. This slow selective elimination of trees ensures the survival of saprophytic species (who feed on the dead matter).
Seed sowing: spreading plant seeds mixtures.
Grazing: conservation grazing with selected animal species (native cattle breed) to maintain habitats such as meadows.
Plagioclimax maintenance - allowing changes to occur within a habitat naturally meant to evolve in size, ecological capacity and quality, etc.
Hopefully, conserving an entire habitat doesn't look like a titanic piece of work anymore! We have now learned what contributes to efficient (as well as inefficient) conservation. The habitats and their inner workings are like puzzle pieces we must put together to form the most interactive and beautiful works of art.
Habitat Conservation - Key takeaways
Successful and unsuccessful habitat conservation stories provide insight into what can be done to prevent biodiversity loss, habitat degradation, loss of resources and cultural identity.
New habitat design, protected areas, and conserved private land are all forms of habitat.
Methods to achieve and maintain habitats include conservation grazing, coppicing, selective burning or seed sowing.
Climate change is so pressing that any habitat can be affected by it, no matter how isolated the location. Pollution is also significant in degrading habitat quality.
Traditional communities of people, such as the Indigenous American tribes around Yellowstone and the Khoisan of Southern Africa, have a significant role in delivering conservation targets, and traditionally inhabited areas are protected nowadays.
References
- Shawn Regan, Why Don't Environmentalists Just Buy the Land They Want To Protect?, 2019
- WWF & ZSL, Bending the curve of biodiversity loss, 2020
- EEA, Conservation status of habitats under the EU Habitats Directive, 2021
- James Ashworth, The conservation success stories of 2021, 2021
- John Vidal, The great green land grab, 2008
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