Conservation for the People

Notes
three vultures were placed into the wild and the populations reached 40 million by the 1990’s but then if fell 97%
it fell because of anti-inflammatory drugs
caused renal failure(sharp kidney failure)
people from Conservation International discovered 25 hot spots
Some of the hot spots are
the Brazilian Cerrado
The horn of Africa
the concept of hot spots provided a set of rigorous quantifiable criteria by which to guide conservation investment
for the past 15 years the strategy has been embraced by philanthropic and multi-national organizations alike
one recent survey showed that only 30% of Americans have heard of the term “biodiversity”
biodiversity hot spots clearly are not galvanizing the public to fund or participate in conservation
Neither Louisiana’s marshes or Sri Lanka’s mangroves rank among the world’s biodiversity hot spots because they have virtually no endemic plant species.
Connections between habitat loss and economic loss that are not always as obvious can also be significant.
Without a close connection between conservation and social issues, policies that protect biodiversity are unlikely to find much public support.
The conservation efforts we envision will be assessed not just by the number of species protected, but by improvments to people’s well being.
Services were divided into four categories:
provisioning (supplying products such as food or genetic resources)
regulating (contributing regulatory functions such as flood control)
cultural (supplying non material benefits such as a sense of spiritual well-being)
supporting (providing basic elements of the ecosystem, such as soil formation)
At issue are not just “exotic” diseases, however. By eliminating wolves and mountain lions, people in the eastern U.S. triggered an explosion in the deer and deer tick populations, which has resulted in more than 20,000 new cases of Lyme disease annually
Every animal in the food chain is important
One quarter of a million people join the planet every day. More forests and wet- lands will be cleared for agriculture, and more ocean species will be fished to depletion.
Biodiversity is going to decline
Wilderness separate from human influence no longer exists.
The future of ecosystem services as a conservation strategy may depend on the unlikely collaboration of ecologists and finance experts.