Preserving Biodiversity with Biological Corridors
"In assessing the environmental impact of any project, concern is usually shown for its effects on soil, water and air, yet few careful studies are made of its impact on biodiversity, as if the loss of species or animals and plant groups were of little importance" Franciscus, 2015.
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This project reflects and elaborates on a thesis derived from Pope
Franciscus (2015) publication relating to
climate change.
Biodiversity Decline
The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and Zoological Society of London (ZSL) established an analytical database to study vertebrate population trends, encompassing over 17,600 species (WWF and ZSL, 2014). This database, the Living Planet Index (LPI), serves as a measure of global biodiversity. In 2014, the LPI displayed a 52 percent decline in vertebrate species between 1970 and 2010 (Figure 1).
Figure 1. The Living Planet Index measurement of global vertebrate biodiversity, published in 2014
(WWF and ZSL, 2014).
Information on primary threats to LPI populations were identified for 3430 various populations and assigned to seven categories, by the WWF and ZSL (2014). In 2014 habitat loss and fragmentation were the primary threats to biodiversity, second to human exploitation (Figure 2). Establishing connective biological corridors will preserve biodiversity and combat the decline, by
facilitating movement between local habitats (Rosenberg, 1997).
Connecting biological corridors: A possible solution
The World Wildlife Fund (2014) identified six ecological patches in the Carpathian Mountains required to connect five brown bear corridors and maintain a
viable population (Figure 3). Currently 380-470 brown bears live within the Carpathian Mountain region, but to survive the population needs space to feed, shelter, and habitat connectivity (WWF, 2014). However, increasing human activity and development in the region, such as roads, has fragmented preexisting habitat connectivity (WWF, 2014). As a first step towards preserving connective habitat, suitable patches were identified but legal protection of this network is still required. Future efforts of the WWF (2014) plan to focus on official legal protection of the six ecological patches which connect brown bears corridors. After connective habitat patches are established future population data will reveal an increase of Carpathian Mountain brown bears.
Figure 3. Six habitat patches connecting brown bear corridors in the Carpathian Mountains (
WWF, 2014).
References
Franciscus,
2015. Laudato Si’: on care for our common home. Retrieved on 30 August
2015 from http://m.vatican.va/content/francescomobile/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html.
Rosenberg,
K., B. Noon, and C. Meslow, 1997. Biological Corridors: form, function,
and efficacy. Retrieved on 5 September 2015, from http://www.fs.fed.us/psw/publications/rosenberg/rosenberg2.PDF.
World
Wildlife Fund, 2014. WWF identified important brown bear corridors between
Romania and Ukraine. Retrieved on 5 September 2015, from
http://wwf.panda.org/homepage.cfm?220453/WWF-identified-important-brown-bear-corridors-between-Romania-and-Ukraine#.
World Wildlife Fund and Zoological Society of London, 2014. Living planet index. Retrieved on 2 December 2015, from
http://wwf.panda.org/about_our_earth/all_publications/living_planet_report/living_planet_index2/.
