CONSERVATION OF ECOSYSTEM

Context:

The World Nature Conservation Day celebrated on 28^th July, highlights preserving the environment, and the planet.

Driven by wasteful, unbounded greed, man’s plunder of land and marine resources has led to a situation where nearly 25% of species face the threat of extinction.

Key Points:

• It is time to realize and recognize the role of protection & conservation play in maintaining the pristine nature of biodiversity.
• Conservation is the only hope for the future of the planet and for succeeding generations as it allows sustainable livelihoods, climate change mitigation, food & water security and reduces the threat of natural disasters.
• The idea of conservation encompasses various facets of nature including flora, fauna, energy resources, soil, air, and water.
• Conservation and ecological balance form the cornerstone of the cosmic vision of Indian civilization.
• The Vedas, Upanishads, Itihasas, and Puranas teach us to worship nature, elements like water in rivers, mountains, birds and animals, stars, and planets.
• The Prithvi Sukta in Atharva Veda serves to remind the relationship with nature.
• with time we forgot the essential lessons our ancestors taught about the life-giver, our nature.
• The mindless exploitation and destruction of our natural resources have only unleashed nature’s fury in the form of disasters like floods, landslides, and earthquakes.
• Climate change is often referred to as the defining issue of our time which brought irreversible changes in ecosystems.
• Due to anthropogenic actions, climate change brought us to the Lakshman Rekha of ecological balance, which is not easy to cross.
• Sudden changes in weather patterns causing heat waves, ocean warming, diminishing amounts of snow, ice, melting glaciers, forest fires and floods resulted in threatening livelihoods, and food production.
• Global climate efforts to build partnerships to make the transition to low-emission economies & meet the goals and targets set by Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement have to be intensified.

Loss of Forest:

• Apart from climate change, the conversion of forests to farming land, overgrazing, poor forest management, invasive infrastructure development including the ill-planned expansion of urban settlements, mining, oil exploitation, anthropogenic forest fires and pollution have impacted forest biological diversity.
• The Food & Agriculture Organisation recently estimated that about 13 million hectares of the world’s forests are lost due to deforestation each year.