ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES

Dr. Rakesh Kr. Chhikara

(Assistant Professor)
Department of Applied Sciences
MSIT, Janakpuri, Delhi

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 UNIT 1
BIODIVERSITY
Biodiversity is the variety and differences among living organisms from all
sources, including terrestrial, marine, and other aquatic ecosystems and the
ecological complexes of which they are a part.

“Biodiversity is the total variety of life on earth which include plants, animals
and microorganisms”.

Biodiversity is expressed at 3 levels on earth i.e.

• Genetic diversity
• Species diversity
• Ecosystem diversity

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 Types of Biodiversity

Genetic diversity refers to the variation of genes within a species.

• The genetic diversity enables a population to adapt to its environment and to
respond to natural selection.
• The amount of genetic variation is the basis of speciation. Genetic diversity
within a species often increases with environmental variability.

Species diversity is a measure of the diversity within an ecological community

that incorporates both species richness (the number of species in a community)
and the evenness of species' abundances.
“Species diversity refers to the variety of species within a region”.

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• Ecosystem diversity refers to the diversity of a place at the level
of ecosystems.
• Ecosystem diversity can also refer to the variety of ecosystems present in a
biosphere, the variety of species and ecological processes that occur in
different physical settings.

Diversity at the level of community and ecosystem exists along 3 levels. It

could be within-community diversity (alpha diversity), between-communities
diversity (beta diversity) or diversity of the habitats over the total landscape or
geographical area (gamma diversity).

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Biogeographical classification of India

The forest and wildlife

dept. of government
of India has indentified 10
biogeographical zones:
1. Trans Himalayan zone
2. Himalayan zone
3. Semiarid zone

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 Hotspot of Biodiversity

• A biodiversity hotspot is a region with a significant reservoir

of biodiversity that is under threat from humans.
• The concept of biodiversity hotspots was originated by Norman Myers in
two articles in “The Environmentalist” (1988).
• To qualify as a biodiversity hotspot on Myers 2000 edition of the hotspot-
map, a region must meet two strict criteria: it must contain at least 0.5% or
1,500 species of vascular plants as endemics, and it has to have lost at least
70% of its primary vegetation.
• Around the world, 25 areas qualify under this definition, with nine others
possible candidates.
• These sites support nearly 60% of the world's plant, bird, mammal, reptile,
and amphibian species, with a very high share of endemic species.

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 Hotspots in world
North and Central America
• California Floristic Province •8•
• Caribbean Islands •3•
• Madrean pine-oak woodlands •26•
• Mesoamerica •2•
South America
• Atlantic Forest •4•
• Cerrado •6•
• Chilean Winter Rainfall-
Valdivian Forests •7•
• Tumbes-Chocó-Magdalena •5•
• Tropical Andes •1•
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Europe and Central Asia
• Caucasus •15•
• Irano-Anatolian •30•
• Mediterranean Basin •14•
• Mountains of Central Asia •31•
Africa
• Cape Floristic Region •12•
• Coastal Forests of Eastern Africa •10•
• Eastern Afromontane •28•
• Guinean Forests of West Africa •11•
• Horn of Africa •29•
• Madagascar and Indian Ocean Islands •9•
• Maputaland-Pondoland-Albany •27•
• Succulent Karoo •13•
7
 Hotspots in the world

South Asia East Asia and Asia-Pacific

• Eastern Himalaya, India •32• • East Melanesian Islands •34•
• Indo- Burma • Japan •33•
India and Myanmar •19• • Mountains of Southwest
• Western Ghats, India•21• China •20•
• Sundaland & Srilanka 16 • New Caledonia •23•
• New Zealand •24•
These four hotspots are • Philippines •18•
considered as hotspots of • Polynesia-Micronesia •25•
India • Southwest Australia •22•
• Sundaland •16•
• Wallacea •17•

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Fig. Hotspot of biodiversity in world

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 Biodiversity at global level and
National level
Biodiversity at Global level: The biodiversity of planet Earth is the total
variability of life forms. Currently about 1.9 million species are known, but
this is thought to be a significant underestimate of the total number of species.

Table. Known and estimated total number of species on Earth (WCMC, 1992).
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 Biodiversity at National level:
India as a Mega Diverse Nation
• India is a megadiverse nation, housing around 6-12% of world's species.
• India, known for its rich heritage of biological diversity, has so far
documented over 91,200 species of animals and 45,500 species of plants.
• India ranks among the top ten species-rich nations and shows high
endemism. India has four global biodiversity hot spots (Eastern Himalaya,
Indo-Burma, Western Ghats and Sri Lanka, and Sundaland).
• Faunal diversity in India are being progressively updated and analyzed
with several new discoveries. So far, nearly 91,212 of faunal species
(7.43% of the world’s faunal species) have been recorded in the country.
Endemic rich Indian fauna is manifested most prominently in Amphibia
(61.2%) and Reptilia (47%).
• India ranks tenth in the world and fourth in Asia. With over 45,500
plant species, India represents nearly 11% of the world’s known floral
diversity.

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Biodiversity at National level

ug

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Endangered and Endemic Species
in India
Endangered Species

An endangered species is a population of organisms (animals or plants)

which is facing a high risk of becoming extinct because it is either few in
numbers, or threatened by changing environmental or predation parameters.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has calculated
the percentage of endangered species.
• Snow Leopard • Indian Bison (Gaur)
• Asian Elephant • Kashmir Red Stag (Hangul)
• Tiger • The Nilgiri Tahr
• Asiatic Lion • Asiatic Black Bear
• Ganga River Dolphin • Blue Whale
• Lion Tailed Macaque • Red Panda
• Indian Rhinoceros • Golden Leaf Monkey

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 IUCN Red List of Endangered Species
A Red Data Book is a document that keeps a record of all the endangered
species of animals, plants, and fungi in a country or a state. The
International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) established the Red
Data Book in 1964 to safeguard the rare species of flora and fauna on Earth, so
as to prevent their extinction.
The IUCN Red List
Categories and Criteria
are intended to be an
easily and widely
understood system for
classifying species at high
risk of global extinction.
There are the 7 categories
of the IUCN Red List as
shown in below figure

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 Endemic Species

An ‘Endemic Species’ is one that is • Grey-headed Bulbul

only found in that region and • Nilgiri Wood-Pigeon
nowhere else in the world. As such • Lion-tailed Macaque
they are of conservation concern
because they are not widespread and • Nilgiri Tahr
may be confined to only one or two • Servant Mouse
protected areas. • Andaman Rat
• Kerala Rat
Endemics can easily beco- • Brown fish owl
me endangered or extinct if their • Indian Giant Squirrel
restricted habitat changes, • Nicobar Flying Fox
particularly but not only due to
human actions, including • Nilgiri Leaf Monkey
the introduction of new organisms. • Rock Eagle-owl

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 Threats to Biodiversity

Main threats to biodiversity are:

Human Activities and Loss of Habitat
Deforestation
Desertification
Marine Environment
Increasing Wildlife Trade
Climate Change
Human population growth and unsustainable resource use
Invasive species

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Conservation of Biodiversity

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 In situ conservation

In-situ Conservation
• This type of conservation includes conservation of plant and animals in
their native ecosystems or in manmade ecosystem where they naturally
occur.

• In-situ conservation includes a system of protected areas of different

categories, e.g., National Park, Sanctuaries, Biosphere Reserves, Cultural
Landscapes, and National Monument etc.

• According to the World Conservation Union, protected area is defined as:

"An area of land and/or sea specially dedicated to the protection and
maintenance of biological diversity and of natural and associated cultural
resources and managed through legal or other effective mean."

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 Ex situ conservation

Ex-situ Conservation
• Ex-situ conservation means conservation of species (sample of genetic
diversity), particularly of endangered species away from their natural
habitat.

• It is done through establishment of 'gene banks', which include genetic

resource centers, botanical gardens, cultural collection and zoos etc.

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Difference between Biosphere reserve, national parks &
wild life sancturies

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 Bioprospecting and Biopiracy
Bioprospecting
Bioprospecting or biodiversity prospecting is the exploration, extraction and screening of
biological diversity and indigenous knowledge for commercially valuable genetic and
biochemical resources.
In short, bioprospecting is the search for, and commercialization of, new products derived from
nature. OR Bioprospecting is the process of discovery and commercialization of new products
based on biological resources.
In the early stages, prospecting largely centred on the plants from the forest ecosystem.
Bioprospecting, if well managed, can be advantageous, it can lead to the development of new
products, including for example new medicines.

There are many examples of bioprospecting:

1. The opium poppy gave us a pain reliever called morphine.
2. The white willow tree helped us develop aspirin.
3. Our knowledge about spoiled sweet clover gave rise to a powerful anticoagulant called warfarin.
4. Bioprospecting has yielded multiple drugs approved by the FDA to treat various forms of cancer
including vincristine and vinblastine isolated from the Madagascar periwinkle Catharanthus
roseus.

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 Bioprospecting
• Process of Bioprospecting
• Process generally consists of four
phases:
o Phase 1: on-site collection of samples;
o Phase 2: isolation, charactisation and
culture of specific compounds;
o Phase 3: screening for potential uses,
such as pharmaceutical or other uses;
and,
o Phase 4: product development and
commercialization, including
patenting, trials, sales and marketing.

Need /Importance of Bioprospecting

The underlying aim of bio prospecting is to find new resources and products from nature that can
be used by humans.
Improving human health, through both medicine and better nutrition are key focal areas.
It plays a dominant role in discovering leads for drug development, since existing/known
compounds for developing drugs for human use are limited.

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 Biopiracy
Biopiracy
Introduction:
Developed countries are exploiting developing countries’ genetic resources
and indigenous communities’ traditional knowledge in the name of patent on
inventions derived from those genetic resource and traditional knowledge.
This leads to the biopiracy where after exploiting the genetic resources and
traditional knowledge the patentee does not give any authorization or
compensation to the country from where it had exploited the genetic resource
and indigenous communities’ traditional knowledge.

• Definition of biopiracy:
• It can be defined as (unauthorized or uncompensated) appropriation and
commercial exploitation of genetic resources in Developing Countries and/or
traditional knowledge of indigenous communities by corporations, mostly
from Developed Countries, which seek then “monopoly control”, usually
patents, over these resources or inventions derived from these resources.

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 Biopiracy

How does it happens?

An inventor, claims their ‘intellectual property rights’ over a particular product,
usually by taking patent that protects their product by allowing the inventor to
prevent other people from making, using or selling the product without
permission.
The inventor applies for a patent from the governments of the territories over
which he wants to assert his rights to prevent others from using his invention, to
apply for an international patent that will apply in as many countries as the
inventor chooses. This is all perfectly legal.
The problem arises when the product is based on plants whose unique
properties are the result of years of breeding by farmers whose investment and
work is unacknowledged and unrewarded – stolen, in effect. In these cases the
patent holders have failed to obtain the farmer’s permission.

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 Biopiracy
Criticisms of biopiracy:
Biopiracy is said to be unfair, unethical and a threat to the existence of
indigenous cultures.
It is also claimed that indigenous communities are bared from using or
exporting their biological resources and traditional knowledge that they have
developed. Ultimately traditional knowledge would become extinct.
The companies that take genetic resources from indigenous communities and
develop products (e.g. drugs) based on those resources and traditional
knowledge, however, could own patents enabling the company to sell the
invention back to its “true inventors”.

Examples of biopiracy:
Neem
Turmeric
Basmati rice

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 Biopiracy
Neem:
• Botanical name is Azadirachta indica.
• Neem act as anti bacterial, anti parasitic, anti fungal, anti protozoal and anti viral thus helps in
protection from all the microorganisms, which are always ready to invade in our body causing
serious ailments.
• The neem tree is indigenous to the Indian subcontinent and parts of South and Southeast Asia.
• In 1994 the multinational corporation W.R. Grace and the US Department of Agriculture was
granted a patent by the EPO “covering a (special) method for controlling fungi on plants by
the aid of a hydrophobic extracted neem oil” that is diluted with a certain percentage of water.
• A member of the European Parliament of the Green Party joined by the Research Foundation
for Science, Technology, and Natural Resource Policy from India and the International
Federation of Organic Agriculture Movement (IFOAM) based in Germany filed an opposition
to this patent.
• The opponents claimed “that the fungicidal effect of hydrophobic extracts of neem seeds was
known and used for centuries on a broad scale in India” both in traditional medicine to fight
human skin fungi and in agriculture to protect crops. The opponents also claimed that the
invention lacked the two major patentability requirements “novelty” and “inventive step.
• The EPO withdrew the patent grant in 2000, finding it lacked novelty.

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 Biopiracy

Effects and Control

Biopiracy may or may not harm biodiversity, but it certainly hurt
the chances of sharing in a fair and equitable sharing of the
benefits of using natural products.
At the community level, to document the traditional knowledge
of plant products has many benefits. This may include
traditional consumer protection against false claims about the so-
called 'new' products, processes and uses.
Secondly, we need new laws to provide adequate protection in
the traditional resource use by people with few resources.
There are international organizations that are working in this
direction, such as the World Intellectual Property Organization
of the UN.
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