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When attempting to salvage a single species in the presence of the conditions that caused their decline, a large number of questions must be answered in detail:

• level of threat: how many are left? Is their number declining? How rapidly? When did decline begin? What is causing the decline?
• population: how long does it live? at what age does it reproduce? how frequently? is reproduction a problem? how well do the young survive? what are their threats? in what season does it mate? does it have breeding areas?
• biology: what does it eat? how much? where does its food live? is it in decline too? is it competing with humans? what are its natural predators or causes of death? where does it live? what is its natural habitat? is it under threat too? daily migrations? yearly migrations? does it migrate across national boundaries? how important is the species to the survival of other species? must they be protected too?

Conservationists recognise a number of species by their role in conservation:

• keystone species: upon which the diversity of the community depends. A food species is always a keystone species. Because the functioning of living ecosystems and the functional interrelationships between species are still poorly understood, keystone species are difficult to identify. The whole concept may live only in our imagination. Certain root fungi (mycorrhizal fungi), producing nitrogenous fertiliser from air, are more important to an ecosystem than their volume would suggest.
• umbrella species: require large areas, thus bringing other species under protection. By protecting a viable population of tigers, large areas of natural habitat have to be set aside. The tiger then becomes the umbrella species. Most large, territorial predators are umbrella species. Very large herbivores like elephants and rhinoceros are umbrella species too.
• flagship species: popular species attracting public sympathy. Cuddly, furry and awesome mammals attract more public sympathy than spiny tiny reptiles. This natural sympathy can be used to protect a large area, which includes many other species.
• indicator species: give early warning of harm to a community. Conservationists hope to find species that are specific to certain threats. Exploited species: are good indicators of the amount of exploitation. Likewise, species predated upon by exotic predators, give a good indication of this level of threat. Juveniles appear to be more sensitive to environmental threats than fully grown individuals. For a species to be an indicator of threats, it must ideally be:
• unexploited: to exclude the threat of exploitation; people interfering.
• common: sufficient numbers must be found in an unspoiled environment to facilitate observation.
• easily seen: one should not need to turn boulders, peel bark, etc. in order to find them.
• long-lived: each individual should have experienced the threat for some time, and fluctuations in numbers must be minimal.
• sensitive to a specific threat: a combination of indicator species will then be able to indicate the kinds of threat experienced by the ecosystem.

f004933: A sea cucumber (Stichopus mollis) cleaning an orange finger sponge. With ten sticky mops in its mouth, it cleans sediment from the bottom and from encrusting animals like these sponges. Thus it helps to keep the sponges clean, enabling them to survive in a degrading habitat. One can clearly see where the sea cucumber has been. It is of critical importance to this habitat.

f000832: A parore (Girella tricuspidata) grazing the fine green algae off the coarser featherweed (Carpophyllum plumosum). In doing so, it prevents the seaweed from being covered all over with algae, which would shade it out. Unable to grow, the featherweed then dies. The parore provides a cleaning service to coastal reefs. Where it is caught in gillnets for baiting crayfish pots, the environment degrades.

• why is this place special? Unique densities, variety or species. Clear water. Life-sustaining currents. A coincidence of different habitats. A special feature.
• what habitats and communities are involved? Being more specific about the ecosystem and its functioning.
• what is the nearest place like this? Indicates uniqueness.
• how many places like this are known? Indicates uniqueness.
• what are its threats? How likely is it to stay special? How can the threats be taken away?
• is it within easy reach? The easier to get to, the easier to destroy and to enjoy.
• is it large enough to be sustainable when protected? Are there sufficient numbers of species and individuals to provide food, stable populations and genetic diversity?
• how is it related to its surroundings? Can it be made more resilient by including a large part of its surroundings? Creatures often wander around and need other habitats for their special needs.
• can visitors be allowed? If the place is within easy reach, and successful by its protection, can it sustain the numbers of visitors expected?
• how can progress be monitored? How can the effect of protection be measured and monitored?

• migration relays: many birds migrate and need a safe place for feeding and sleeping, before being able to continue on their journey. It is important to remember that such animals have not become accustomed to the presence of disturbing factors such as people. They require a large safety margin around themselves. Whales need migration relays.
• watering holes: in the dry season, a watering hole draws a great variety of species. It can be of critical importance to their survival. The nearest similar place may be well out of reach.
• relics: places which have not been disturbed (earthquakes, fires, ice ages) for a long time, and which therefore have developed a unique structure, soil and standing biomass. Large areas of the deep sea are relics, having been left undisturbed for millions of years, and containing a high biodiversity (of relict species, or relicts), spread over a large area.
• areas of high productivity: places with high productivity such as upwellings in the sea, estuaries and wetlands. Whales need upwelling areas for feeding.
• mating areas: special places where herds gather for mating. Spawning areas.
• nurseries: areas important to the upbringing of juveniles. Whales need nursing areas in warm oceans.
• oases: places with high productivity and good living conditions compared to surrounding areas. Oases attract high densities and high variety of wildlife. The wildlife stays because there is nowhere else to go. Islands act as oases to sea life. Oases have natural 'fences'.

On land, one is left with very few choices, since most valuable habitat has already been used by people. Conservation then consists of using wisely, what has been left for nature. However, in the sea, many habitats have not been changed to such extent. The problem here is that everything under water is hidden from view, and that our knowledge of the sea is far from complete. One could question therefore, whether people would be better able to choose a representative sample habitat than one chosen at random, by the throwing of dice, so to speak. However, as has been illustrated above, what we know of ecosystems, habitats, communities and populations, can be used to improve the quality of any (marine) reserve.

Scientists have made the following distinction in the quality of a habitat for a given species:

• source habitat: where a species reproduces and lives successfully.
• sink habitat: where a species may migrate to, but lives marginally while not reproducing.

Ideally, one would like to be able to measure the value of living biota to arrive at some objective conservation value. Areas with high conservation value then have high priority for being preserved. The following formula has been suggested:

High Conservation Value  HCV= biota value x vulnerability
As one can see, it consists of two factors which are not only difficult to measure, but are also open to interpretation.

Land reserves benefit most from being large and interconnected so that animals can meet for mating. Plants benefit from having a large area for the propagation of their seeds (seeds in cultivated lands are not successful). On the land, genes can travel only physically with the individuals or carried as seeds by animals. In the sea, this is somewhat different, because nearly all marine plants and animals produce larvae which take part in the plankton for a few days to months of their lives. In the process, they become dispersed far afield by ocean currents, carrying their genetic diversity with them (the thistledown effect).

Note! Be suspicious of the word Network. It is being overused, and often out of context. Check whether connection is present and the interchange of genetic information.

• paying for our past: we are thankful of being able to remember the clean waters, the bounties of the ocean, the vistas of pristine wilderness. We feel guilty of having taken our share, and we want to do something in return.
• saving for our future: the idea of saving something for future enjoyment appeals to many, particularly when the interest on those savings accrues with time (a reserve becoming better, higher quality of living). Postponement of direct satisfaction, for our childrens' benefit, is a human need.
• suffering for an ideal: trying to achieve the impossible, inspires many. It engenders high qualities in people, such as inventiveness, making do, determination and stamina.
• enjoying the progress: in everything we do, and with all the goals we have, we must remember that much time is spent not arriving there. Those who enjoy the progress have more to enjoy than those who enjoy only the result. The simple fact of doing something about an issue, is satisfying.
• doing something together: our problems cannot be solved by a single individual. Many people are needed, working together as teams. It is a totally voluntary effort, where good and motivated people meet and work together. Doing something together makes every day worthwhile.
• to educate: learning something new and teaching others. Taking a role in educating children and showing them the way. Showing them the solutions and making them feel the spiritual dimension. Nothing learns better than doing it and being involved with inspiring adults. Everyone is a role model for others. Educating about what lives there and why it needs protecting.
• to motivate: motivating others and being motivated oneself. Inspiring others and inspiring oneself. Being able to achieve results, to make a difference. Respecting rules, knowing how to behave and how to help.
• to care: conservation is about caring, for our children, for our future, for nature, for animals, for plants, for others, for an ideal.

Now a fisherman arrives at the reserve. For the reserve to work, he must become aware by reading a sign (he must be told), then he must understand what not to do. Then he must agree and finally, he must actually do it. As one can see, a very long chain of most unlikely events. It makes a conservation area very sensitive to failure, particularly when a few can spoil it for so many. It takes just one fisherman, one day, to wipe out a substantial stock of old fish. As reserves do become successful, their stocks increase, and so does the temptation for poaching.
 
 

In my lectures to children, I liken the reserve concept to a bank note, asking why this piece of paper is worth five dollar. Children (and parents) come up with acceptable answers, like its special form and paper, but nobody guesses that it is our belief that makes it worth five dollar. I show that it is paper by sequentially ripping bits from the bank note. Paper tears. Paper also burns, and half the bank note goes up in flames. What do I have now? Everybody is in turmoil for burning the note (a belief has been challenged or shattered) and in confusion about the question, but nobody is keen to give me $2.50 for half the note. Eventually we agree that half a note is worth nothing. But this does not make sense, logically speaking. Eventually the reality of our belief sinks in. We do not believe that a half-burnt banknote retains half its value or its whole value. Our belief has been shattered. A (marine) protected area works likewise. Half a reserve is no reserve. We can't have half the people going there to fish, whereas the other half wants to observe the fish and be friendly to them. It takes only one disbeliever to damage the reserve considerably. It shows how fragile a conservation area really is. But the good news is that like the banknote, its value lives in our minds, and as long as we all believe in it, it will be real. The reserve lives only in our minds, and since it lives inside each and everyone of us, it has become portable. We are walking around with the fertile conservation concept in our minds, able to apply it to every situation that may arise, anywhere, anytime. How powerful! (Invariably, children then ask me whether I always burn banknotes, and why. Then I tell them that it is worth every cent to me, that is $5 divided by the number of children and parents, if they remember the lesson.)

To Study is to Learn...   To Learn is to Understand... To Understand is to Appreciate...  To Appreciate is to Value... To Value is to Save

Others remind us that we are living in a changing world. Why would we want to preserve its previous state? Why would we wish to live in the past? We can't go back, because everything has changed, and even going back would change it further. Why not move on and incur some losses along the way? People are not only talking about natural and human habitat conservation & restoration, but also about the conservation & restoration of culture and language. When is conservation just obstruction of progress, and when is it not? What is conservation and what is it not? What deserves conservation and what not? Fortunately, concerned people have recognised the changes that are neither beneficial to us nor to the natural world around us. They have recognised the threats, as these manifested themselves one by one, and these conservationists have done something practical that helped. Apparently, conservation can be done with common sense. The following ways of conserving may help us identify practical approaches:

Conservation =

setting aside what is unused: even before problems arise, one can set aside a part which is still unused. Future generations may then be able to decide wisely what to do next. This kind of conservation requires vision, but has the highest chance of success because it works preventatively.

taking threats away: problems have occurred, and are recognised as such. Human activity (proactive conservation) is needed to take the threats away in the designated conservation areas. Reserves are meant to save species. If threats remain, reserves are ineffective, regardless of size. A wilderness area may be set aside to save it from logging and burning (habitat loss). But hunting, collecting and poaching must also be stopped. Introduced pests must be exterminated too. Local communities must be engaged to play a role. This level of conservation has a good chance of succeeding, as long as the protected areas are large enough, and sufficient resources available.

reducing damage and fixing problems: nothing is set aside, but human actions are modified to reduce damage. The idea is that nature can absorb and repair some damage. As long as humans do not exceed the limits, business can continue as usual. However, both human activity and human population are still increasing, requiring the fixes to become more and more effective. These fixes have a low chance of success, but should be attempted anyway.

• having very little choice as to what can be set aside, since all the good land and most of the bad land has already been occupied and modified. Pockets and remnants of natural forests that were set aside by visionary owners, do not make ideal sanctuaries. As a result, extensive human intervention is needed.
• fencing to keep cattle out and wild animals in. Some special fences are able to keep pests out too.
• boundary control to keep wild animals from transgressing human habitat. This is particularly difficult for large animals living in large areas surrounded by a poor neighbourhood.
• interference with natural populations: culling herds because of insufficient predators, transporting animals from one place to another, controlled burning, and so on.
• fighting pests: the fight against pests requires continual effort, where they cannot be exterminated completely (unlike islands).
• extensive research is required to understand the ecology of the area and animal behaviour.

By the 1990s there were about 1500 national parks in the world, protecting about 3.9 million km2 in over 120 countries, amounting to 2.6% of the terrestrial world (149 million km2). The United Nations World Network of Biosphere Reserves now consists of 411 sites in 94 countries. The emphasis of the network is on maximizing the harmony and concord between conserving unique natural environments and human populations.

Afghanistan:  652,090km2, population (1998) 23,731,000, grew with 9 million in 20 years; density 36 people per km2. It is a country of great mountains, scorching deserts, fertile valleys, and rolling plains. Afghanistan is one of the world's least developed countries (80% rural) but most overpopulated. The fundamental Sunni muslim religion prohibits education, and most are illiterate. The country has rich mineral resources which have not been developed. Located between tall mountain ranges, the area receives 50-350mm of rain annually. Droughts of recent years have caused 5 million people to depend on foreign help for food. 3-4 million people have fled the country for neighbouring Pakistan, for reasons of famine and war. Located far away from the sea, the rain over Afghanistan depends on the moisture evaporated by the cultivated lands of Iran and Pakistan. As a result, it suffers from increasing droughts. As its population increases at maximal rates (religion prohibits birth control), the nation has outgrown its carrying capacity, facing a grim future. Soils and natural vegetation are vanishing rapidly. There are no resources and intentions for conservation.

America:  Area 9,363,563 km2; population (1998) 270 million (25% rural). Population density 29 people per km2. The USA is the most deveopled nation in the world, and one of the largest as well. It spans many climate zones. The USA has a Wilderness Preservation System, comprising 643 areas, or 106 million acres, which amounts to less than 5% of all US land. If the remaining 95% is allowed to be changed for human use, it could give rise to a loss of 20% of all living species. Biological hotspots like Hawaii have suffered a disproportionately high species decline due to introduced species and habitat destruction.
Erosion of land is very high in the USA, resulting in severe threat to coastal ecosystems. South of the Mississippi River, very large Dead Zones now exist. The quality of the seawater along most beaches is so poor that they need to be closed frequently. The tropical reefs of the Florida Keys are under severe threat.

Australia:  Area 7,713,364 km2, including 67,800 km2 for Tasmania. Popuation (1998) 18,758,000 (15% rural). Population density 2 people per km2. Australia is the only country that is also a continent. It is a dry, thinly populated land with a huge central desert, surrounded by semidesert zone. Australia's wildlife includes many species of pouched animals called marsupials. It is one of the few nations left, with a lot of unclaimed habitat. Its terrestrial conservation policy is to reserve a minimum of 5% of the land for plant and animal life, including areas containing every kind of plant variety found in Australia.  The Australian National Park and Wildlife Service, set up in 1975, helps to maintain the areas controlled by the federal government and to select key Australian landscapes and ecosystems to be conserved.
Australia pursues an active policy on marine conservation with many proposed Marine Protected Areas. However, the great Barrier Reef, for a long time held as a World Heritage Park because of its uniqueness, is now under severe threat from land erosion. As rains have become heavier in recent years, the mud plumes from rivers now extend their deposits to the outer edges of the reef. The low water quality along most of Australia's coast is threatening marine life.

The Netherlands:  Area 41,447 km2. Population (1998) 15,760,000 (39% rural! Over 70% employed in service industries!). Population density 464 people per km2. Holland is a very densely populated, small, flat land with beautifully kept dwellings, public buildings, gardens and parks. In order to gain more land, the Dutch have reclaimed lakes and margins from the sea (polders). Nearly half the land lies below sea level. Holland enjoys a moist sea climate with rain in all seasons, amounting to 630-750mm per year. The Dutch are an advanced and tolerating society, well educated and enjoying a high standard of living. The Dutch have always been a seafaring nation, with overseas colonies, and active participation in whaling and fishing, which brought them welfare. Since the discovery of large natural gas reserves, Holland has made the transition to a welfare society with a knowledge economy, which may not be sustainable in the future. Although highly industrialised with clean industries, Holland is not self-sufficient in food and products, and imports these from countries with pollluting industries and agriculture with degrading soils. Holland has in this manner been spared from those kinds of pollution. However, environmental problems are experienced from dairy farming and piggeries, while intensive horticulture has taken its share. The parks and reserves in Holland are well kept and traversed with tracks for eco-friendly bicycles. However, they are no longer naturally pristine. Holland spends a fortune on making cities livable, and nature parks and wetlands effective. It has no nature parks of world stature.

New Zealand: Area  270,534 km2 (North Island 115,777 km2; South Island 151,215 km2). Population 3,683,000 (15% rural). Population density 14 people per km2. New Zealand is a beautiful country of snow-capped mountains, green lowlands, beaches, and many lakes and waterfalls.  No place is more than 130 kilometres from the coast, and in few places are mountains or hills out of view. Rain falls in each season at 400-1200mm, and in Fiordland up to 6000mm annually.
New Zealand's 10 national parks, which cover nearly 8 per cent of the country, come under a National Parks Authority, set up in 1952.  New Zealand also has nearly a thousand areas reserved for their qualities of scenic interest.
New Zealand has a very large area of Exclusive Economic Zone (), which makes it fourth largest in the world. New Zealand's marine conservation strategy is to create a network of marine reserves representing all habitats in all regions. It aims to cover 10% of its seas. After 25 years of active marine conservation, less than 1% of its territorial seas (out to 13km) have been set aside. No areas in its EEZ have so far been set aside.

Note that most nations are prepared to lose 95% of their natural habitats, which may eventually lead to over 20% of species to go extinct.

What is the purpose of conservation when others in our country are breeding like rabbits while our Government lets in streams of immigrants?