Essay on Land and Wildlife Conservation

Land management is essential to preserving the ecosystem and all of the resources that come from it. Sources like food, shelter, and economic development are part of the land and must be managed for future generations to come. Land management reduces air and water pollution, and soil quality, and preserves wildlife habitats. Land management provides environmental, economic, and social opportunities for future generations. Land use is critical for agriculture which provides food for the world. Proper land management is important to maintain as it enhances productivity and preserves all species in the ecosystem. Some of the challenges that are presented with land management are human intervention, land degradation, and social injustice. There are many approaches to address these concerns and biodiversity conservation offers the best solution to land management.

As mentioned, biodiversity conservation is favored by biologists and that is because it embodies a variety of species that are living on the land. The diversity of this land management offers more to an already complex ecosystem than the opportunity to save endangered species. 'Biodiversity includes allelic diversity within populations, structural differences between populations, diversity of species, and diversity at higher levels of phylogenetic and ecological organization (e.g., ecosystems) (Sahotra Sarkar 1996). Other methods of land management tend to focus on large species and overlook the biodiversity of smaller organisms, when in fact they are just as vital to the land as the larger ones. Every species in the ecosystem carries an important role in the cohesion of the land, and using other methods besides biodiversity conservation, puts stress on the environment and the species that reside in them. Other methods will only focus on the more ‘popular’ species or those that are labeled endangered without no to the rest of the ecosystem.

Unlike other lands, biodiversity conservation doesn't conflict with social interests and does the opposite by including local people. 'Because of the political problems caused by the creation of national parks and reserves, social ecologists (i.e., those who see ecological health as a social justice issue) have routinely criticized the creation of national parks and reserves, especially when these are created by decree of distant national governments acting in concert with international agencies and ignoring local needs'. Biodiversity conservation is inclusive of the indigenous people of the land and continues to be the preferred method for land management so long as humans are living on the land. This method supersedes all others because it is a requirement for good human health and productive livelihoods. People that live on these lands depend on biodiversity conservation every day and land management such as wilderness preservation, national parks, and similar projects directly affect the locals. Indigenous people are not in conflict with biodiversity conservation because it allows them to reap the benefits of the land just as any other species does. ‘Humans are sometimes admitted as being part of a wilderness, especially if they are members of indigenous groups already resident in that wilderness’ (Sahotra Sarkar 1996). There is a misconception about words like ‘nature’ and what it includes, but the reality is that humans are part of the ecosystem and that is where biodiversity conservation solves this dilemma.

Land-use change is arguably the most pervasive socioeconomic force driving changes and degradation of ecosystems. Deforestation, urban development, agriculture, and other human activities have substantially altered the Earth's landscape. Such disturbance of the land affects important ecosystem processes and services, which can have wide-ranging and long-term consequences.

Farmland provides open space and valuable habitat for many wildlife species. However, intensive agriculture has potentially severe ecosystem consequences. For example, it has long been recognized that agricultural land use and practices can cause water pollution and the effect is influenced by government policies. Runoff from agricultural lands is a leading source of water pollution both in inland and coastal waters. Conversions of wetlands to crop production and irrigation water diversions have brought many wildlife species to the verge of extinction.

Forests provide many ecosystem services. They support biodiversity, provide critical habitat for wildlife, remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, intercept precipitation, slow down surface runoff, and reduce soil erosion and flooding. These important ecosystem services will be reduced or destroyed when forests are converted to agriculture or urban development. For example, deforestation, along with urban sprawl, agriculture, and other human activities, has substantially altered and fragmented the Earth's vegetative cover. Such disturbance can change the global atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide, the principal heat-trapping gas, as well as affect local, regional, and global climate by changing the energy balance on Earth's surface.

Urban development has been linked to many environmental problems, including air pollution, water pollution, and loss of wildlife habitat. Urban runoff often contains nutrients, sediment, and toxic contaminants, and can cause not only water pollution but also a large variation in streamflow and temperatures. Habitat destruction, fragmentation, and alteration associated with urban development have been identified as the leading causes of biodiversity decline and species extinctions (Czech, Krausman, and Devers 2000; Soul 1991). Urban development and intensive agriculture in coastal areas and further inland are major threats to the health, productivity, and biodiversity of the marine environment throughout the world.

On the other hand, biodiversity conservation does have minor conflicts that some attention. There are no studies that support this land management which raises many questions as to how long resources will be available. 'Wilderness and biodiversity advocates generally agree that current patterns of natural resource use, if accompanied by current rates of population increase, cannot be sustained in the long run. Overconsumption arises from excessive per capita consumption in most industrialized countries and high population densities in many developing countries (Cohen 1995). Regardless of the lack of data, there is an opportunity for biologists to work together and provide the necessary information through research. Biodiversity conservation makes it possible to collect data and make any necessary adjustments to preserve the land. Wilderness preservation and other land management methods are protected by lawmakers and policies that would not allow for this to be possible.

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Wildlife areas are decreasing due to the overconsumption of resources. Such an instance of wilderness, which is on the way to extinction, is Yaak Valley, northwestern Montana. The importance of preserving Yaak lies in the fact that it is a site for artists, ecological habitats, aesthetic beauty, and natural fragrance. The tanagers, ravens' calls, and different elements of biodiversity produce an ecologically rich site. The significance of land management, therefore, lies in protecting extinct natural preserves like Yaak. The protection of Yaak is required to control floods, as the bushes, trees, shrubs, pebbles, and rocks provide resistance at the time of the huge flood occurrence. 'The Yaak is significant as when giant floods come washing through, they scrub all rock'. Therefore, it is high time to protect those conservative natural preserves with suitable land management tools.

Most biologists have prioritized the conservation of biodiversity over the preservation of wilderness. The cause behind this priority is that wilderness preservation leads to the preservation of only wildlife species. However, biodiversity conservation keeps balance in the entire globe by balancing between human establishment and the existence of all kinds of wildlife species, including the endangered ones. The land management strategies are thus meant for the conservation of the species and ensuring a land such that the wildlife species live safely. Species conservation, in the long run, will only be beneficial for both the species as well as humans thus conserving the overall ecosystem.

On the planet Earth, there is a limited space upon which life may settle. This is one of many factors that is regarded by scientists as a factor in the carrying capacity of a habit, specifically the Earth. This world has much land that is available for human settlement. However, because of the exponential rate at which the human population has gone, and because of the excessive needs of some people who live excessively, we have quickly reached the point at which the Earth will no longer be able to support humans. However, regardless of this shortage of land in the United States of America, there is an excess of land that remains unsettled completely by man. This land is referred to often as the frontier and remains for the most part empty in comparison to the remainder of the country. However, with all of this land in the country, it is necessary to manage it and ensure that it remains kept and watched over.

This idea of land management is known mostly in the United States. It is not known to many other places in the world mostly because most other places do not have any land that can be managed. However, in the United States, we have excess lands that have been designated as public lands. These lands are preserved and kept as natural as possible for the sake of nature and its processes. Some of these land designations are national parks, nature preserves, and other national and state preservations. These lands are managed by both federal and state agencies and programs that are to the benefit and continuation of natural lands, and unlike other countries, these places do not interfere with the habitats and lives of people.

Human encroachment leads to the destruction of habitat, where the life of wildlife species get endangered. Even people are also involved in the obliteration of nonrenewable properties for short period returns. 'Human encroachment can, although it need not also deplete biodiversity, for instance, by destroying biotically fragile habitats .' Overconsumption appears as a major issue of such encroachment activities, as it increases the danger to the species. As a result of which, biodiversity conservation also gets weakened.

Again, there are causes for concerns with biodiversity conservation like as human encroachment or intervention. There are claims that any human intervention is detrimental to the land, but that is not necessarily true all the time. ‘Wilderness as a category of positive concern' as opposed to wastelands to be tamed and used efficiently by humans is of recent and highly localized vintage. As Nash (1973) put it: ’Friends of wilderness should remember that in terms of the entire history of man's relationships to nature, they are riding the crest of a very, very recent wave' (Oelschlaeger 1991). Indigenous groups have lived on some of these lands for generations and have caused little to no harm to the land. What is destructive to the land is invasive technology like motor vehicles that travel through these ecosystems like the roads created for national parks. Biodiversity conservation is not implicated in these same methods as wilderness preservation that create these parks.

In brief, many paths lead to the same road of preserving the ecosystem, but biodiversity conversation provides the best solution. Land management like wilderness preservation and many others conflicts too much with social interests and justice, whereas biodiversity conservation does not. When governments and their lawmakers begin to incorporate themselves into programs or methods that create national parks, they do not consider the locals who have already lived on the land for generations. Biodiversity conservation is inclusive, all of the land, plants, and animals are collectively part of the ecosystem with no exceptions. Human interventions like national parks for tourism are not acceptable and not part of the natural order of the ecosystem. There are many benefactors behind these parks and although they are in the business to preserve them, they are moved by economic incentives, whereas biodiversity conservation allows for nature to roam free. The restoration ecology is a suitable land management technique for restoring the

Damaged ecosystems with human intervention. The process is effective and beneficial, as it links humans with ecosystems. The fair relationship that the restoration ecology approach brings between humans and the environment also appears helpful in the future management of biodiversity. Again, as restoration ecology is implemented through human intervention, it has the risk of getting wrongly implemented due to a lack of knowledge about nature management among humans.