BIO DIVERSITY

concept
• Bio diversity is the variety of life and its numerous processes
on earth. or the variations observed in all life forms plants,
animals, living in different habitates, geographic areas and
environments is biodiversity.
• The term biodiversity was proposed by Norse and Mac Manus
in 1980. W.G.Rosen (1985) used this term to include all
variations at all levels.
• Biodiversity can also be defined as species richness and even
ness in a given area.
 Conventions on Biodiversity- Earth
Summit
• In Rio de-janeiro, Brazil , the first convention of biological diversity
popularly known as earth summit was held in 1992.
• About 152 countries including india participated in this convention.
• All countries realized the need for common responsibility and agreed to
– Protect the biological wealth of nations.
– Utilization of Genetic Diversity at optimal levels.
– Protection of bio diversity at all levels.
– In situ and ex situ preservation of genetic diversity.
– Giving legality and supervision of decisions taken at the summit.
– Need for research and training in protection and conservation of biodiversity.
• In short the outcome of the convention is to
– Protect biodiversity at all levels
– Minimal use of biodiversity in developmental programmes
– Due share to all nations in the products of diversity
 Other conventions and legal
framework
• In 1973 “ convention of international trade in endangered
species” ( CITES) has taken legally valid directions and
decisions regarding protection and preservation of
biological diversity which was accepted by more than 120
countries including india.
• In 1992 “intellectual property rights (IPR) act” has come
into force to protect IPR and provide commercial and trade
rights to the wealth of a nation.
• India according to its needs enacted
– Environmental protection act 1986
– Wild life protection act 1992
– Forest conservation act 1980 to protect and preserve
biodiversity.
 Types of biological diversity
• The diversity based on community variation is of 3
types.
– Alpha diversity (local diversity) : the diversity of organisms
living in specified habitat or community competing with
each other for the same resources and influence each
other.
– Represented in terms of number of species in a given area
and this diversity increases with the number of individuals.
– In climax communities alpha diversity decreases as one or
two species dominate in numbers.
– Alpha diversity indicates species richness in an ecosystem.
 Beta diversity
• Refers to the degree to which changes occur in
communities along with environmental changes.
• Due to changes at community level the species composition
also changes.
• Ex: beta diversity is high if species composition of moss
community changes at different altitudes of mountain
slope.
• If same species occupy the whole mountain it indicates low
biodiversity also called as turnover biodiversity as the
species changes when ever habitat or community changes.
• Beta diversity is expressed by measuring “similarity index”
of different areas.
 Gamma diversity
• Gamma diversity is overall diversity within a large region
such as state or country.
• Defined as the rate which additional species are
encountered in a given habitat in different areas or
localities.
• Includes both alpha and beta diversities that is it is a
diversity at species, community and habitat level.
• The relationship between these 3 different diverisities is
expressed as
• G = A+ B+Q where A= avg. of all alpha diversities
B= avg. of all beta diversities
Q= Total Number of Habitats and communities
 Bio diversity in tropics
• Biodiversity operates at 2 different levels.
• Firstly, different organisms contribute to biodiversity
• And secondly, are not uniformly distributed all over the
earth.
• The present understanding is that biodiversity is rich in
tropics compared to polar regions.
• Although tropical evergreen forest occupy only 7% land
mass, yet they have more than 50 % life forms of the
world .
• Unlike plants of temperate regions plants in tropics grow
widely and do not carve nich for themselves.
•
 Reasons for greater biodiversity in
tropics
• Tropical area recieves more solar energy over the year. Thus
productivity increases leading to support for wider range of species.
• Warm temperatures and high humidity create favourble
environmetal conditions.
• The tropics have had more stable climate than temperate area over
geological times.
• There has been more time for tropical communites to evolve as
they are older than temperate ones.
• In tropics greater pressure from pests, parasites and diseases does
not allow any single species to dominate.
• Thus many species co exist.
• Higher rates of cross breeding among co existing species leads to
higher levels of genetic variabilty.
 Global biodiversity
• More than 30 million life forms are present on the
globe as per a rough estimate. Out of this only 1.4
million organisms are identified and studied. 70 % are
invertebrates and in animals in about 34 phyla nearly
33 phyla are living in oceans.
• Among tropics also only in 12 tropical countries dense
tropical vegetation is found. This countries are often
called as nations of mega diversity which include
– brazil , columbia, equador, peru, mexico , zaire,
medagascar, india, china , malaysia and australia
 Indias mega diversity
• India has rich and varied heritage of biodiversity. Due to different
temperature zones and wide varieties of habitates such as tropical
rain forests, temperate forests, sub temperate alpine forest, coastal
mangrove and wet lands.
• India occupies only 2% of the world land yet 7% of worlds plant
species and 6.5 % of animal species are present in india.
• India has 10 bio geo graphic regions , 16 agro climatic zones, 25
biotic provinces, 426 biomass areas.
• Out of worlds total biodiversity 12% is contributed by india alone.
India has 47000 plant species and 81000 animal species.
• Western ghats and eastern himalayas are hot spots for biodiversity.
• Western ghats have more that 60 % of plant and animal species
mentioned above. About 29 % of flowering plants , 53 % of fresh
water fishes, 60 % of amphibians, 36 % of reptiles and 10% of
mammels are endemic to india.
Levels of bio diversity
 Levels of Biodiversity
• Biodiversity covers a wide range of concepts
and can be examined at various levels, which
include
– Genetic diversity
– Species Diversity
– Ecosystem diversity
•
Genetic Diversity
Assessed at fine levels of organization and includes variations at gene level within
species.
• The diversity in genetic make up of a species is termed as Genetic Diversity.
• The species having large number of varieties, strains or races are considered as rich and
more diverse in its genetic organization
• Ex: Crotalaria verrucosa, Tephrosia, purpurea have flowers occurring in different
colours.
• in genetic diversity differences arise between genetic material possessed by all
organisms and is passed onto successive generations
• New genetic variations arises because of
– Gene and chromosome mutations in an individual
– By recombination of genetic material during cell division preceding sexual reproduction
– Chromosome number and structure
– Alterations in nucleotide sequence and genes
• Because of the genetic variations the magnitude of global biodiversity is beyond
calculation.
• With the present knowledge of bio technology desired genetic features can be
incorporated into an organism, thus genetic diversity can be altered.
 Species Diversity
• Species are the basic and most important units in modern
systems for classifying the living organisms.
• The richness of species in an ecosystem is calleed as ‘species
biodiversity’ also defined as number and variety of species
found in a given area.
• Biodiversity is influenced by origin of species and extinction
of species and is understanded in (03) different ways
– Species richness
– Species evenness
– Species dominance
 Species Richness
• Primarly refers to number of different kinds of
individual organisms found at a particular
place.
• Helps in understanding variations in species
both geographically and seasonally.
 Species evenness
• Refers to even distribution of different species
in terms of number diversity in a given area of
study.
 Species dominance
• In a community species may be rare, common
or abundant.
• If a particular habitat has different variety of
species represented in abundance then it is
referred as species abundance.
 Ecosystem diversity
• Ecosystems represent parts of highly variable and changing
factors.
• The diversity of an ecosystem is generally assessed in terms of
global or continental distribution.
• The studies include niches, richness of a species, nutritional
status, energy changes, biochemical cycles etc.
• A system having the species present in nearly equal
abundance is considered as more diverse than having
extreams of high and low abundance.
• The size and distribution of several communities and their
interaction in a given land area is sometimes referred to as
land scape diversity.
• The study of species diversity and genetic diversity is very
important for human welfare.
 Threats to biodiversity
• Extinction , elimination of species and their replacement by others is a
normal processes in nature and the rate of extinction in undistributed
ecosystems is very slow and estimated to be about one species per
decade.
• The causes of extinction are broadly grouped into 4 categories.
– population explosion
– Environmental factors
– Natural and catastrophic reasons
– Human interfarence
 Population explosion
Random variation in population rates i.e. birth and death rates can cause
species in low abundance to become extinct.
Ex: Blue whales swim over vast areas of oceans to find a mate. If they fail to
get a mate the birth rate could be dangerously low and lead to extinction.
Ex: in the last half century countries like india and china human population
increased many folds leading to destruction of forests, lands and animals
and is the main reason for extinction of many species.
 Environmental factors
• The variations in physical and biological environment
including predator, prey, symbiotic or competitor species may
adversly effect the biodiversity.
• Ex: extensive use of pesticides and insecticides reduce bird
population which feed on fishes and insects thus leading to
imbalance in the system.
• If the species is rare and isolated any environmental variation
can lead to extinction. Thus environmental factors pose a
threat to diversity.
 Natural and catastrophic reasons
• A natural catastroph is a sudden change in the
environment not as a result of human action.
• Ex: forest fires, storms, floods,tsunamies, earth
quakes etc
• Such a natural catastrophic events cause
depletion of ground water table leading to
desertification ,deforestation in turn leading to
extinction of local life forms and alteration of
biodiversity.
 Human interference
• Human interference gradually causing extinction of biodiversity
over a long time.
• Excessive use of natural resources by human is the premier cause
of large scale destruction of biodiversity .
• Important areas of human interference
– Habitat loss and degradation
– Habitat fragmentation
– Hunting and poaching
– Introduction of exotic and alien species
– Diseases
– Shifting cultivation
– Pollution
• Habitat loss and degradation :Results from expansion of human population and
activities . The ever expanding human population cause destruction in natural
ecosystems to meet food , space and shelter requirement. According to
international institute , more than 50% of wild life has been destroyed in 50 tropical
countries. Ex: kolleru lake in AP, chilka lake orissa and pichhavaram mangroves are
best examples for depletion of biodiversity due to human interference.
• Habitat fragmentation: it is the process where a large continuous area of habitat is
reduced in area and divided into 2 or more fragments. It may take place due to
development of roads, rail, canals in an original habitat. the fragments was found
are isolated from one another by highly modified and degraded landscapes. And
also leading to isolated groups of species .these isolated small scattered
populations are vulnarable to inbreeding dipression leading possibly to extinction .
• Ex: reduction of tiger population in nallamala forest and elephents in madhumali
forests
• Hunting and poaching: poaching is another threat that has
emerged as one of the primary reasons for decline in number of
species. Ex: wild life is sold in the form of live specimens for meat
– peacocks and birds, for fur- sheep, for skin- snakes and
crocodiles, ivory and horns- elephents and rhinos, lions, deers,
tigers for pleasure hunting, whales for oil, ridley turtles for shells
and medicines.
• Introduction of alien and exotic species : organisms introduced
into habitates where they are not native are turned into exotics.
They can be thought as biological pollutants and considered as
most damaging agents of habitat alteration. Free from parasites,
pathogens , predators from competition that normally keep their
numbers in check exotics like lantana camara, parthenium
hysterophorous, eichhorina often exibit explosive populatiion
growth that crowds out native species. Thus the aggressive alien
invasive species is significant threat to local forms and biodiversity.
• Diseases: the incidence of disease in wild species may increase due to
human activities. The diseases increase further when animals are kept in
captivity in zoos and sancturies due to stress caused to them.
• Shifting cultivation : tribals living in forest prepare small areas of land for
cultivation by cutting forest trees for their lively hood . Since the scientific
methods are not followed after 4 or 5 crops the yeilds are reduced
substantially hence the tribals move to new fertile areas and follow the
same practice . Thus resulting in deforestration , soil erosion and
destruction of biodiversity. Ex: podu in AP, jhum in N E states.
• Pollution: environmental pollution is the most subttle form of habitat
degradation. Most common causes for pollution are pesticides, industrial
effluents and emissions from automobile s which have disatrous effects
on local population. Ex: mysterioius wide spread deaths of seals across
atlantic ocean is linked to DDT and lead. Oil spill in oceans cause large
scale death of fishes and sea guls .
 Value of biodiversity
• A variety of biological sources directly
contribute to human welfare by providing
food, medicines, drugs and shelter and also
indirectly by many ecological services such as
air purification, soil formation, nutrient
recycling and climate control etc.
Value of Biodiversity
 Food products
• Plants which provide food exemplify the most important value of
biodiversity. Originally plants were consumed directly in wild state.
• Presently about 200 species of angiosperms have been domesticated for
the needs of food production. Only 3 crops i.e. wheat, rice and maize are
of major international economic importance. Similarly 10 species of
animals and birds give 95% of food to humans.
• There is scope for identification and assessment of food values for vast
species although only few plants contribute globally to food production.
 timber
• Wood is one of the few commodities used and
traded world wide. It is one of the atmost
economically important commodity. And
contributes to the GDP of many tropical
developing countries.
• For timber trade tropical forests are being
degraded through excessive harvesting and
inadequate management.
 Medicinal value
• Plants and animals provide us with many
useful drugs and medicines.
• There are still numerous organisms that may
produce useful medical compounds which are
yet to be identified and tested.
 Indirect utility - Genetic value
• Biological diversity is a valueble genetic resource . Most of the
hybrid varieties have been developed by incorporating useful
genes from different species. Such breeding and bio
technological application have unlimited scope for developing
better strains.
Genes Wild species Transformed into Function
Powdery mildew Water melons , Musk melons grown Disease resistance
resistant genes plants in UP in USA
Red rot disease Grass variety from Sugar cane plants in Disease resistance
resistant genes indonesia India
Bt genes against boll Genes from bacillus Cotton plants Pest control
worms thuringenesis
 Eco tourism
• Biodiversity is an important quality of landscape beauty.
• It adds to quality of life providing most beautiful and
appealing aspects to our existence.
• Ex: eco tourism trips in godavari river in papikondalu , munnar
tekkali wild life trips in kerala, girnar trip in gujarat . Baniyan
tree in pillalamarri is an example of ecotourism.
 Ecological balance
• Wild species often provide valuable and unrecognised service
in maintaining ecological balance in nature.
• Ex: frogs feed on insects of their body weight everyday.
Decrease in frog population directly indicates increased crop
damage due to pests. Thus frogs help in maintaining
ecological balance.
• Similarly bats, birds and insects are important source of cross
pollination . Disappearence and reduction in number of these
organisams will have profound effect on crop yeilds and
biodiversity. Such important species are called “ key stone
species”
 Other indirect ecological services
• Diverse communities of plants, animals and microorganisms
provide indispensible ecological service to the nature. Which
includes
– Solar energy absorption
– Fixation of CO2 during photosynthesis
– Purification of atomospheric air and water resources
– Management of bio geo chemical and hydrological cycles
– Recycling of soil nutrients
– Prevention of soil erosion
– Regulating global local temperatures and climate .
Hot spots in India
 endemism
• any taxonomic unit or taxon which occurs in a restricted area
usually isolated by natural geographic or temporal barriers is
known as endemic taxon and the phenomenon is referred as
endemism.
• The word endemism is derived from greek en within demos
population .
• The area may be large continental or small geographic and is
applied at global area levels.
• Profound influence on local life forms is observed due to other
organisms.
• Endemism can be at family, genera or species level.
•
 Types of endemism
• Endemic families are the ones which grow only in particular
province of a country or continent. Ex: cerciphyllaceae
represented by 2 species in china, davidiaceae in asia ,
arachiaceae by 3 species in south africa.
• Endemic genera: are found in a particular region or country
isolated from other areas. Thus south africa has 500 endemic
genera which constitutes 30 % of total genera in that region.
India has 33% endemic genera.
• Endemic species: are restricted to a particular region. In india
nearly 12760 plant species 2053 animal species are endemic.
 Nature of endemism
• A taxon that had wide distribution in past may now be restricted
in occurrence to region due to climatic or geographical changes.
• The endemic taxon found in some isolated areas are perhaps the
remnents of their ancient stock of relatives.
• Some times new endemic taxa may develop in different ecological
niches through speciation from active genetic stocks.
• The nature of endemism is defined by understanding
– Biogeography of the country
– Centers of speciation
– Area extension
– Extent of variation
– Adaptive evolution of species
 Categories of endemism
• Divided into 3 categories
– Neo endemism : it is a condition in which closely related species of one
area may develop and grow in another isolated area. this may be due to
mutations , chromosomal rearrangement, polyploidy and variation in
new environment having different climatic and edaphic stress.
– Paleo endemism : it is a condition where the species represent
remnents of older species occur in geologically old masses. They are
taxonomically isolates, have no closely related species, show the
presence of similar life forms in islands and top of mountains, have low
levels of polyploids, show fossil evidence and represent major
disjunction in distribution.
– Holo endemism: it is a phase which represents endemic species lying
between origin spread and loss due to extinction. The holo endemics
may have few advanced or derived characters.
 Classification of endemics
• On cytological basis endemics are classified into 4 types
– Paleo – endemics : these are taxonomically isolated and show no
variation and occur in isolated areas.
– Schizo – endemics: are produced as a result of gradual speciation.
They have common origin but occur in isolated different ecological
niches.
– Apo- endemics: are polyploid endemics. They are of hybrid origin and
arise from widely distributed diploid species.
– Patro – endemics : are parent or starting endemics. Which are in
diploid state. These in later stages produce polyploid endemics living
in isolated habitates.
• Pseudo- endemism: these are not endemics in true sense.
This type of classification is due to false reporting of a taxon
as endemic and as a result of improper survey.
 Expression of endemism
• Is expressed as percentage or absolute
number of endemics in an area.
• The percentage approach has powerful
imagery as it emphasizes on generality of
endemism in biota regardless of total number
of endemics. The actual counts approach
become significant when total richness of
species and endemism are high.
 Distribution of endemic centres
• The endemics are confined to certain geographical areas of
earth called as endemic centres.
• The centres are related to latitudes and altitudes.
• The degree of endemism increases with decreasing latitudes.
As one moves from poles to equator.
• Plant endemism increases in areas with higher rain fall and
increase in altitudes.
• Endemism in same latitudes in various geographically isolated
area such as hot springs, caves etc support disproportionately
high number of endemics refer to as humped diversity.
 Endemism and conservation of
biodiversity
• The endemic taxa exhibit rich biodiversity and must be protected.
They act as sensitive indicators to anthropogenic disturbences.
• Certain charismatic endemic organisms called as flag ship species
have considerable ecotourism value. Ex: kiwi of New Zealand , lion
of Gir forest, Nepenthis Khasiana of Asom attract lot of tourists.
• The endemic taxa once disappears cannot be replaced.
• They are highly sensitive to exotic invasives and suceptible to
adverse effects of biological control programms.
• Special management procedures must be evolved to protect and
pressure the endemic taxa to maintain richness of biodiversity.
Centres of endemism in india
 Hot spots in india
• The areas that are extreamly rich in biodiversity have high level of
endemism and are under constant threat of species extinctions and
habitat destruction are called hot spots of biodiversity.
• The identification and study of hotspots are of great importance in
preserving and protecting the local species and the rich biodiversity of
those localized habitates.
• The concept of hot spots was first proposed by Norman Mayers in
1988. criteria for declaring an area as hot spot.
– Atleast 0.5 % species which are identified as endemic must be present in that
habitat.
– At least 1500 local species must be present.
– Nearly 70% of natural habitat must have undergone large scale changes.
• World wide 25 hotspots are identified.
 Hotspots of india
• India with 2.4% of total land area in the world contributes to
global diversity and is one of the 12 mega diversity nations of
the world.
• The vegetation of india is mainly concentrated in 3 major
centres.
– Himalayas
– Western ghats
– Andaman and Nicobar Islands
• Out of worlds 8 most important hotspots 2 are present in india.
– North Estern Himalayas
– Western Ghats
 North Eastern Himalayas
• Covers about 2 million sq km of tropical asia east of indian sub
continent and includes combodia, vieatnam, thailand, mayanmar,
bhutan, nepal, eatren india and southern china.
• In india it starts from sikkim and extends upto NEFA.
• In this hot spot area originally broad leaved forests were found
earlier and has worlds highest diversity of fresh water turtle
species ,13500 plant species out of which 7000 species are
endemic to this region.
• About 2185 terrestrial vertebrates are found and 525 of them are
endemic to the region. The records indicate 106 threatened
species , 20 endangered and 1 extinct species.
• Nepenthis is considered as flag species of this region.
 Western Ghats
• Are present along the western coast of southindia. They strech from khandala in north
towards kanya kumari at southern tip of indian peninsula covering an area of 1600 km and
traversing through states of maharashtra, karnataka, goa, kerala and tamilnadu and
extends into srilanka too.
• The western slopes of western ghats receive heavy rainfall while eastern slopes are drier.
• Asian elephents, indian tigers and long tailed monkeys are flagship species among animals
of this region.
• In western ghats 4 types of ever green, deciduous and mangrove forests are found.
• Tropical wet evergreen forest with broad leaved forests called as sholas are specific to this
region.
• The important areas of this region include malabar area, vynad, silent vally, agasthamalai,
palani, shevroy hills and gopala swamy hills.
• The flora and fauna of western ghats is one of the most threatened and endangered hot
spot area due to human interference.
• IUCN has requested indian govt to preserve and protect this most important bio diversity
region of the world.
Agro biodiversity
 Introduction
• The evolution of man from his hunting days to the present day civilized agricultural society is a
long journey.
• Man has been living on this earth since two million years and most of the time he lived as hunter
gatherer.
• Ancient food gathering in the course of time started exploiting a wide range of plants where ever
found by cultivating them.
• Man started cultivating crop plants and their wild types too, wherever they are available and
domesticated them in due course of time.
• The agricultural biodiversity is strong evolutionary divergent line from biodiversity.
• Agro biodiversity is defined as all life phones which directly or indirectly are related to agriculture.
• Most of the food products, to the extent of nearly 85% are obtained only from 20 different plants
out of the vast diversity. Hence, it is realized by all nations that agro-biodiversity has a lot of
potential and plays a key role in national economy.
• Crop plants classified into two types
– Wild type
– Cultivated varieties
• Modern varieties – out come of Technological & Scientific advancement
• and traditional varieties (known as land races) – Product of breeding and selection
carried out by farmer for Generations and represent high level of genetic diversity
 Agro-biodiversity & its value
• Agricultural biodiversity is the basis in agricultural food chain. This agricultural
biodiversity safe guarded by farmers, livestock breeders, tribes, and local people.
In traditional farming system, the agro-biodiversity has its own values and is useful
in many ways. Namely:
– It is associated with farmers time tested local knowledge about resources and
management.
– Rich in diversified plant and animal species.
– Wide diversity in ‘niches’ local environment can be utilized fully.
– Reuse of biomass and organic residus.
– Different ecosystem functions such as pests, weeds are of use in developing
disease resistance varieties.
– Locally available resources can be used to maximum advantage and optimum
levels.
• In the light of above, two (2) contrasting dimensions of agro-biodiversity may
clearly emerge, that is (1) In traditional agro system, if equilibrium is maintained in
the cultivated crop plants, it automatically leads to great agro-biodiversity. (2) If
available agro-biodiversity is used properly in cultivation of crop, it leads to
cultivation of new diversified crops.
 Vavilov Centres of crop plants
• Alphonse de condolle a french scientist has published a work called Prodromous
Systematis Naturalis Regin Vegetabilis and NI vavilov a russian scientist has
published his work ‘origin of cultivated plants’ in 1886, giving details about various
aspects of cultivated plants such as their geographical distribution, their wild
relatives names and variations patterns.

• A vavilov centre is a region of the world first indicated by Dr Nikolai Ivanovich

Vavilov to be an original centre for domistication of plants.
• In the theory developed on the centres of originated cultivated plants it is
mentioned that plants were not domesticated in the world at random but there are
regions where the domesitcation started and are belived to be the center of origion
of domesticated plants.
• Until today vavilov centers are regions where a high diversity of crop plants, wild
relatives can be found representing natural relatives of domesticated crop plants.
 Centres of Crop Plants
• The origin of crop plants and their history reveals that the evolution of crop plants is a
gradual and slow process, rather than a sudden and rapid one. That is the reason why, some
of the cultivated plants differ very little from their original wild types. In fact, the history of
crop plants reveals that the evolution of man and crop plants went hand (Harlon, 1975).
• Vavilov is of the opinion that, centres of origin of a crop plant refers to the place where it
first originated. He developed a theory on the centres of origin of cultivated crop plants
based on certain criteria like, location where it’s closely related forms exist, where individuals
are in maximum number, where greatest genetic diversity is noticed (Vavilo-1951)
• From his extensive studies, Vavilov proposed Eight (8) major centres of origin for the
cultivated plants of world. They are
– Chinese centre
– Indian Centre,
– Central Asiatic Centre
– Near Eastern Centre
– Mediterranean Centre
– Abyssinian Centre
– South Mexican and central
– American Centre
– South American centre (Table 19.1)
 Distinctive features of agrobiodiversity

• Actively managed by male and female farmers concepts such as local

knowledge and culture are integral part of agro biodiversity management.
• Many economically important agricultural systems are based on alien crop
or life stock species which creates a high degree of interdependence
between countries for genetic resources for food.
• Diversity within species is as important as diversity between species.
• Because of degree of human management conservation of agro
biodiversity in production systems is inherently linked to sustainable use –
preservation through establishment of protected areas become less
relavent.
• In industrial type agricultural systems much crop diversity is now held ex-
situ in gene banks or breeders materials rather than on farms.
 Role of agro biodiversity
• Increase productivity, food security and economic returns.
• reduce the pressure of agriculture on fragile areas, forests and endangered
species.
• Making farming systems more stable robust and sustainable.
• Contribute to healthy pest and disease management.
• Conserve soil and increase natural soil fertility and health.
• Contribute to sustainable intensification.
• Diversify products and income opportunities.
• Reduce or spread risks to individuals and nations.
• Help maximise effective use of resources and environment.
• Reduce dependency on external inputs.
• Improve human nutritiion and provide sources of medicines and vitamines
and conserve ecosystem structure and stability of species diversity.
Principles Of Conservation
 Role of Organisations in the
conservation of biodiversity
• IUCN - international union for conservation of nature and natural resouces.
• IUCN helps the world find pragmatic solutions to most pressing environment and
development challenges.
• Supports scientific research manages field projects all over the world and brings
govt. NGO’S , UN agencies, compenies and local communities together to develop
and implement policy loss and best practice.
• IUCN is the worlds oldest and largest global environmental network and union of
democratic countries with more than 1000 govt., NGO member organisations and
almost 11000 volunteer scientists more 160 countries.
• The IUCN headquarters are located in Gland near Geneva Switzerland.
• IUCN s vision and mission :
• Vision is value and conservation of nature.
• Mission is to influence, encourage and assist societies throughout the world to
conserve the integrity and diversity of nature and to ensure that anu use of
natural resources is equitable and ecologically sustainable.
• This mission is achieved by knowledge, action , influence and empowerment.
 UNEP (united nations environment programme)
• Provides leadership and encourage partnership in caring for the environment by
inspiring, informing and enabling nations and people to improve their quality of
life without compramising that of future generations.
• UNEP coordinates with UNOs environmental activities assisting developing
countries in implementing environmentally sound policies and practices.
• UNEP was founded in 1972and its headquarters are at Nairobi Kenya.
• UNEP is designated authority of UN’s system in environmental issues at global and
regional level.
• Its mandate is to coordinate development of environmental policy and bringing
emerging issues to the governments and international community for action.
• The Nairobi declaration on the role and mandate of UNEP were adapted at UNCED
in 1992.
• UNEP’ s activities cover a wide range of issues regarding atmospheric merine and
terrestrial ecosystems.
• UNEP played a significant role in developing international environmental
conditions and working on development and implementation of policy with
governments, NGO’s and regional institutions.
• UNEP is active in funding and implementing environmentally related development
projects.
• The WMO and UNEP established the intergovernmental panel on climate change
IPCC in 1988 and also GEF ( global environmental facility)
 WWF (world wild lilfe fund)
• WWF is also known as world wide fund for nature which focuses on conservation
of environment as a whole.
• The mission is to stop the degradation of the planets natural environment and
build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature.
• To achieve this members of wwf are focusing on conserving critical places and
species that are particularly important for their habitat or for the people.
• WWF is also working for reducing humanities ecological foot print.
• The main aim of WWF is Saving biodiversity by 2050. by following 2 approaches.
• 1) conserving the earths most outstanding places
• 2) conserving species that are particularly important.
 National Bureau of Plant Genetic
Resources (NBPGR)
• NBPGR has its head quarters at New Delhi and is under direct adminstrative
control of crop science division of ICAR. Its mandate is to act as nodal institute
at national level for acquisition and management of indigenous and exotic
plant genetic resources for food and agriculture and to carryout related
research and human resource development for sustainable growth of
agriculture.
• The objectives:
• To plan organize, conduct and coordinate.
• Exploration and collection of indigenous and exotic plant genetic resources.
• To undertake introduction, exchange and qurentine of plant genetic resources.
• To characterize, evaluate document and conserve crop genetic resources and
promote their use in collabaration with other national organizations.
• To develop information network on plant genetic resources.
• To conduct research, undertake teaching and training , develop guidelines and
create public awareness on plant genetic resources.
 Red Data Book
• It gives list of species that are considered to be at risk of extinction.
• It provides information on the population of the species concerned with an
indication of the level of threat.
• Red data book list of species whos continued existence is threatened.
• The IUCN has catagorised the species at the risk of extinction in the red list
as follows.
– Extinct : the last remaining member of the species has died or is presumed beyond
reasonable doubt to have died. Ex: javan Tiger, thylacine, dodo, passenger pigeon,
carrbean monk seal etc
– Extinct in the wild : captive individuals survive but there is no free living natural population
. Ex : alagoas curassow, dromedary
– Critically endangered : faces an extreame high risk of extinction in the immediate future.
ex: gharial, mountain gorilla, darwins fox , javan rhino
Endangered : faces a very high risk of extinction in near future. Ex: blue whale, ethiophian
wolf, gaint panda, snow leopard, tiger, indian rhinoceros, orangutan, tasmanian devil
Voulnerable : faces high risk of extinction in the median turn.
ex: cheeta, lion, sloath bear, comodo dragon, polar bear
• Conservation dependent: are not sevearly threatened but must depend
on conservation programmes.
• Ex: spotted hyna , leopard shark, killer whale
• Near threatened : may be considered threatened in near future.
• Ex: small clawed otter, maned wolf, solitery eagle.
• Least concerned: no immediate threat to survival of species.
• Ex : nootk cypresses, wood pigeon, white tailed mungoos, house mouse.
 IUCN red list catagories
• Were first published in 1994.
• They were develop to improve objectivity and transparency in assessing
the conservation status of the species.
• The criteria for including a species in red list is as follows.
• Taxonomical scale of catagorization: The terms taxon and taxa are used
to represent species that are not fully described.
• Sub populations : if a sub population, newly described species and
undescribed species are explained in this criteria.
•
 Nature of Catagories
• Red list has defined 9 clear catagories in which every taxon in the world
excluding micro organisams can be classified
• Extinct – there is no reasonable doubt that the last individual has died.
• Extinct in the wild: the taxon is extinct in its natural habitat.
• Critically endangered, endangered, vulnarable are assigned to taxa on the
basis of quantitative criteria that are designed to reflect varying degrees of
threat of extinction.
• Near threatened category is applied to taxa that do not qualify as
threatened.
• Least concerned category is applied to taxa that do not qualify as threatened
or near threatened.
• The remaining 2 catagories donot reflect the threat status of taxa. Data
deficient category highlights taxa for which suffiecient information is lacking.
• Not evaluated catagory applies to taxa that have not yet been evaluated
againest the red list criteria.
 Principles of conservation
• Conservation :
– In situ : emphasizes on conservation work at original site of
biodiversity.
– conservation of overall diversity of genes, populations, species,
communities and the ecological processes comes under this strategy.
in india there are 448 wild life sancturies, 85 national parks and 10
biosphere reserves covering about 4.2 % total geographic area.
– Ex situ: conservation work done outside the natural habitat in the
form of botanical and zoological gardens, conservation stand seed and
seedling banks, pollen banks, germ plasam banks , tissue culture
banks, gene and DNA banks.