Sustainable use of biodiversity: Bracing the change
TO make biodiversity sustainable is one thing; and to practice sustainable use of biodiversity is another. Making biodiversity sustainable is the process; and sustainable use of biodiversity is the technique. To us important is that, we shall have to understand the process of making biodiversity sustainable, and the technique to be adopted for its use at the same time, for the soundness of environment.
To go for sustainable use of biodiversity, conservation of biodiversity is essential either in the in-situ or ex-situ conditions. So, use of scientific technique is a prerequisite for biodiversity conservation. Sustainability of species assemblage and their interactions with abiotic factors in any certain area of the biosphere is the technique required for sustainable use of biodiversity then it is necessary to exercise the functional structure of the interactions in a certain area of the biosphere.
To make biodiversity sustainable means the sustainability of species assemblage. We can take an example of forest ecosystem to explain. Sustainability of the forest is based on the steps like: i) vegetation richness, ii) richness of the animal distribution and abundance, iii) richness of functionality of the interactions between abiotic (climatic factors) and biotic factors, iv) richness of interactions between biotic and biotic factors (between plants and animals; between animals and animals).
Integration of all the factorial functions produce assemblage of species richness and then it migrates towards conservation of biodiversity. As biodiversity is dealt with the living organisms, if species assemblage is conserved, conservation of the assemblage ensures multiplication of all organisms in a sound way. When species are conserved, they become resources. Now the question comes how the resources are sustainably used?
Sustainable use of biodiversity is measured under the headings -- 'Direct-use value', 'Indirect-use value' and 'Non-use value'. Direct-use value includes food, medicine, biological control, industrial materials, recreational harvesting and ecotourism. Indirect-use value is dealt with biodiversity and ecosystem functions for maintenance of soundness of environment as a whole. Non-use value provides options value, bequest value, existence value and intrinsic value. All use-values of biodiversity are possible to make sustainable when conservation of biodiversity is made sustainable.
Living sequences of the bio-resources are always dependent on Changing of abiotic factors (climatic conditions). If any such change occurs, continuity in multiplication of the biotic resources immediately stands stagnant. That stagnancy causes stoppage of use of biodiversity in any one of the above said value assessment fields.
How the stagnancy in the use of biodiversity comes? It comes when any one of the above four points (i, ii. iii. iv) get disturbed in an ecosystem or in an area of the biosphere like forest ecosystem. As we talk about the situation of forest ecosystem, let us take an example of the less disturbed forest in Bangladesh and see what is happening there regarding the question of sustainability of biodiversity.
To my study knowledge, I have found Satchari forest area in Sylhet district as the less disturbed forest because richness of vegetation still sustains there. Plants are distributed more or less equally in three typical layers. This forest has got distribution of small plants at the soil surface layer (1st layer of vegetation); at the man-height layer plants are available by the distribution of hedges, vines and climbers (2nd layer of vegetation); big trees are there which are providing canopy layer for the forest (3rd layer of vegetation). These vegetation layers are providing suitable habitats, nutritional supplies, successive trophic levels and the suitability of occurring interactions among them.
If any layer of vegetation remains disproportional among them, then homes of the respective animals are destroyed and home for them does not remain available. Consequently, multiplication in animals of different trophic levels does not remain functional. Use of biodiversity becomes shattered. Question does not come whether sustainable use is possible or not.
It goes without saying that, for conserving biodiversity, for making biodiversity sustainable, and for using biodiversity we need the sound and normal distribution of three layers of vegetation in our tropical rain forest ecosystem. Any climatic change or otherwise abiotic change causes serious impacts on the phenology of the plants in all the three layers of vegetation. It is to be noted that animals of different niches and different habitats are respective to the layers of vegetation. And that is why, they are distributed and habituated with the three layers of vegetation.
Moreover, the successive trophic levels are highly sensitive in their life stages to the phenological changes of the plants in different layers. If phenology of the plants is disturbed and time-lag happened, obviously life cycle of the related animals is hampered and declassed. Change of climate makes the change in genetic-flow sequence and then conservation of biodiversity and use of biodiversity stand blocked.
To live sustainably, the human population must do so within the biosphere's regenerative capacity, drawing on its natural capital without depleting the capital stock. Evidence suggests that since the 1980s, human exploitation of the Earth's biological productivity may well have exceeded this capacity, such that the ecological footprint of the global population in 1999 was 1.2 times that of the entire Earth.
Issues of sustainability thus extend far beyond the frequent media focus on trade in particular commodities of high economic value, such as wood from mahoganies, horn from rhinoceros, body parts from tigers and ivory from elephants. Put simply, most present use of biodiversity is just not sustainable (management approaches have often focused on maximizing short-term yield and economic gain rather than long-term sustainability).
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