Answers to research questions [Part 2]
Q2 Why should we protect endangered species?
Q16 How many species are endangered in the world?
Q17 How can we protect endangered animals?
Q29 What should be the punishment for animal poachers?
[Endangered species]
Plants and animals maintain the health of an ecosystem. When a species becomes endangered, it’s a sign that an ecosystem is out of balance. And the consequences can be critical. Ecosystems are groups of plants and animals that are found in the same area and interact with each other. These interactions make up and maintain the environments we know today – like rainforests, mountains and savannahs. But the balance within an ecosystem isn’t always easy to maintain; the loss of one species often triggers the loss of others. For example, when grey wolves were hunted to near-extinction in the United States’ Yellowstone National Park, the beaver population also decreased significantly. This happened because the elk population, which are usually hunted by wolves, were able to graze freely and more heavily on the plants that were also needed by beavers to survive during winter.The conservation of endangered species, and restoring balance to the world’s ecosystems, is vital for humans, too. There were 41,415 species on the IUCN Red List, and 16,306 of them are endangered species threatened with extinction in 2020. This is up from 16,118 last year. This includes both endangered animals and endangered plants. The species endangered include one in four mammals, one in eight birds, one third of all amphibians and 70% of the world’s assessed plants on the 2007 IUCN Red List are in jeopardy of extinction. The total number of extinct species has reached 785 and a further 65 are only found in captivity or in cultivation. In the last 500 years, human activity has forced over 800 species into extinction. One of the best ways to protect endangered species is to prevent their decline and deterioration in the first place. Toward that end, National Wildlife Federation works to maintain healthy populations of fish, wildlife, and plant species through promoting broad-based conservation efforts such as State Wildlife Action Plans. National Wildlife Federation is advocating for passage of the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act, which is a bold new approach for providing the funding needed to carry out these proactive conservation plans.
[Animal Poaching]
Poaching has been defined as the illegal hunting or capturing of wild animals, usually associated with land use rights. Poaching was once performed by impoverished peasants for subsistence purposes and to supplement meager diets. It was set against the hunting privileges of nobility and territorial rulers.In 1998, environmental scientists from the University of Massachusetts Amherst proposed the concept of poaching as an environmental crime, defining any activity as illegal that contravenes the laws and regulations established to protect renewable natural resources including the illegal harvest of wildlife with the intention of possessing, transporting, consuming or selling it and using its body parts. They considered poaching as one of the most serious threats to the survival of plant and animal populations. Wildlife biologists and conservationists consider poaching to have a detrimental effect on biodiversity both within and outside protected areas as wildlife populations decline, species are depleted locally, and the functionality of ecosystems is disturbed.
[References]
"Why should we save endangered species?" by GVI (May 9,2022) https://www.gvi.co.uk/blog/why-should-we-save-endangered-species/
"Endangered Earth" https://www.endangeredearth.com/
"Protecting Endangered Species" https://www.nwf.org/Our-Work/Wildlife-Conservation/Endangered-Species
"Poaching" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poaching
-A.K.
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