Environmental Issues: Conservation of Plants and Animals

The earth is blessed with a great variety of life forms, this is what makes the ecosystem self sustaining. However, the activities of mankind most times affect the ability of the ecosystem to sustain itself. Activities such as logging, illegal fishing, and hunting outside the hunting season as well as the killing of endangered species contribute in creating an imbalance in the environment.

Under these conditions, the ecosystem will not be able to support itself and as such a conscious effort should be made by man to conserve the plant and animal population in order to maintain ecological balance.

With an increase in population coupled with an increase in human activities, mankind has become very dependent on the environment. This has caused a great deal of pressure to be exerted on the environment thereby reducing the available natural resources.

Conservation is not easily achieved

Environmental conservation is an uphill battle that takes a great deal of effort to accomplish. This is mainly due to the fact that certain measures that should be effectively put in place in order to conserve the environment may go against certain stakeholders who may tend to reject such policies or undertake underground dealings that will not serve the ecosystem in the right direction.

Without getting all hands on deck, environmental campaigners as well as governments may put in a lot of effort in an attempt to conserve and restore ecological balance but these activities may not yield any meaningful impact on the environment because there would be people who are prepared to undermine the activities of these friends of the environment.

Another point that can be blamed for making environmental conservation difficult to achieve is globalization. Globalization can often be blamed for the rapid urbanization and industrialization efforts that are ongoing in all parts of the world. The quest to industrialize and create modern cities has clouded the view of most large corporations that are driven by the desire to record huge profits. These companies will clear huge forest lands thereby destroying the homes of different animals and organisms so that they would put up buildings and infrastructure that serves their own parochial interest.

All across the world, large corporations are often blamed for the destruction of the environment. However, individual activities can also play a major role in endangering the lives of plant and animal resources. For example in Africa, the elephant population is drastically falling due to the international trade in ivory. In spite of the fact that ivory trade is illegal, the practice is still going on with impunity. This is endangering the lives of these elephants. In a similar way, tigers are on the verge of seeing a decline in their numbers. This is because tiger bone has medicinal use in China. The practice of killing tigers for this purpose is endangering these animals.

The author of this article is a green peace campaigner holding an equivalent work experience degree who has been fighting for stricter laws that will protect endangered species.