Conservation Biology: Scope & Importance

Conservation may be defined as the management and wise use of natural resources
for ethical reasons and the benefit of humanity.

Conservation Biology is an interdisciplinary subject especially focusing on sciences in the practice of natural resource management for human welfare. It is the scientific study of the nature and status of Earth’s biodiversity, whose aim is to protect species, their habitats, and ecosystem from excessive rates of extinction and the erosion of biological resources.

It is a new discipline of applied science addressing the problems of
threatened species, communities, and ecosystems that bring together the people
and knowledge from many different fields to address the biodiversity crisis.

Conservationist Gifford Pinchot believed that natural resources should be used for
the benefit of humanity- “the greatest good of the greatest number of people for
the longest time“.

Importance of Conservation Biology

1. Human activity is killing nature at an imbalance rate as consequence we are in the middle of the sixth mass extinction caused by humans and their population growth.
2. It is the long-term preservation of the entire biological community as a primary consideration, economic factors often may be a secondary consideration.
3. It focuses on biodiversity and its maintenance for human welfare.
4. It attempts to keep normal evolutionary processes within a functional ecological setting.
5. It is the response of scientists to the ecological crisis.
6. It believes “what is bad for biodiversity is certainly bad for human wellbeing”: both are interdependent.
7. Over-carrying capacity on Earth- is not supporting the world’s population at the current level of consumption.

Initiatives for Conservation

1. Developed country: Increasing land under cultivation, more fire and hunting led to the decline of wild animals—a place to initiate enormous sps conservation policies and programs.
2. The number of PAs around the globe continues to increase.
3. Conservation is also enacted and supported by private cons organizations and other international conservation-related organizations (e.g. WWF, EU).
4. Developing country: began to develop legal instruments (policy/act/regulation….)
5. initiation of community or participatory approach in nature conservation (e.g. CFUG, BZ).
6. International commitment to nature conservation eg CBD, Nagoya, CITES, etc.
7. Increased governmental participation in conservation activities (WCS, PAs, Protected forest, Herbarium, arboretum, zoos, etc.).
8. Increase funding (Nat geo, WWF, SWBGCF, Rufford, etc.).
9. Expanding professional society.
10. Certain endangered species (rhino, and tiger) are now recovering as a result of conservation measures.