Conservation is the care and protection of  resources so that they can persist for future generations.

Conservation seeks the sustainable use of nature by humans along with preservation.

Preservation means protecting nature.

World Nature Conservation Day is celebrated on 28 July annually.

It is celebrated to generate awareness of the nature and its conservation.

Nature conservation means conserving habitat of different living organism, preventing deforestation, halting species extinction, reducing overfishing and mitigating climate change.

There is increasing interest in extending the responsibility for human well-being to include the Welfare of sentient animals.

Government play a major role in conserving our natural resources and various living organism.

There are various natural conservation is the laws implemented by government.

There are various threat to biodiversity:-

• Habitat loss and fragmentation
• Introduction of alien invasive species
• Disturbance
• Harvesting and over exploitation
• Soil, water and atmospheric pollution
• Intensive agriculture and forestry
• Climate change

Habitat loss and fragmentation

• Forests and grasslands turned into deserts.
• Mangroves get cleared for fuel wood and prawn farming leads to Habitat loss of marine fish.
• Waste land is increasing.
• Human activities likely to eliminate approx 10 Millions species by the year of 2050.
• Rate of disappearance of tropical forest in India is 0.6 % per year.

Thus, there is a need for conservation of living organism as well as natural resources.

Project Tiger – 268 in 1972 in 9 tiger reserve which increases to 1500 in 1997 in 23 Tiger Reserves.

Extinction of Dodo in Madagascar

Alien species

• Introduction of Exotic breeds and disappearance of native species through biotic interaction.
• Invasive species is a threat for Island ecosystem due to lack of competitors and Predator that control the population of native ecosystem.
• E.g.-
  • Amazon sailfin catfish responsible for destruction of the population of Switzerland of Kolkata
  • Water hyacinth
  • Lantana bushes

Disturbance

• Natural disturbance are very much differ from man made disturbance.
• Natural disturbance like forest fire, cyclone, draught, Tsunami, etc. They disturb ecosystem very different way.
• Human disturbances like synthetic compound, pesticides, massive release of radiation or spillover of oil in soil also affect our environment.
• Biomagnification.
• Eutrophication i.e, nutrient enrichment
• Effect of anti-inflammatory drugs, diclofenac on vultures.

Harvesting and over exploitation

• Exploitation includes hunting, fisheries, the impact of trade in Species and species parts.
• Due to exploitation many species are getting treated at Global label such as births 30%, mammals 33%, amphibian 6%, marine fishes and reptiles.
• Fishing often takes large incident catches of non-targeted species and crawling can destroy whole Marine community that live on sea floor.
• Illegal poaching of animal for large economic benefit.
  • Skin and bones of Tiger, Ivory of elephant, horns of Rhinos, perfume of the Musk deer.

Climate change

• Climate change is a major threat for all the species present on the globe.
• Due to climate change the Global temperature is rising (0.74 degrees celsius in global mean surface temperature relative to pre- industrial levels), more extreme weather events, changing pattern of rainfall and drought can expected to have significant impact on biodiversity.

These factors affect directly and indirectly to the species in the form of:-

• Loss of Polar habitat
• Loss of coral reef
• Ocean acidification
• Shifting of weather
• Effect on food chain

IUCN  Red List category

Red list is a catalogue of taxa that are facing the risk of extinction.

• At present it is known as International Union for the conservation of nature and natural resources
• IUCN has recognised 9 Red List categories of species:-
  1. Extinct
  2. Extinct in the wild
  3. Critically endangered
  4. Endangered
  5. vulnerable
  6. Near threatened
  7. Least concern
  8. Data deficient
  9. Not evaluated

The protected areas of India are :- National Park, Wildlife sanctuaries, conservation Reserves, community Reserves, biosphere reserve, Marine protected areas.

Measures should be taken to conserve nature:-

• Reduce reuse and recycle
• Choose sustainable development
• Choose long lasting light bulbs
• Try to use renewable resources more than non-renewable resources.
• Save water
• Volunteer for clean up our environment
• Volunteer for clean up our environment
• Use public transport system
• Plant more trees
• Try to avoid plastic
• Try to minimise pollution at individual level
• Use reusable shopping bags
• Educate others about anthropogenic activities or impact of anthropogenic actions on our environment and what can we do to prevent its bad effects.