“Sika deer walking in the streets of japan”, “Brawling monkeys running the streets of Thailand” and “Nature reclaiming the world” are popular headlines that flash across our screens every day. Due to the current Covid-19 outbreak, as most of the population is confined to their homes, the usually suppressed wildlife has returned to dwell in the once human-dominated areas in the world. This brings us to the question,
Were we humans really giving the flora and fauna enough space? Or were we confining them to small ‘reserves’ and claiming the majority of the land just to appease our conscience? Are we humans doing an actual good job at wildlife conservation as we tell ourselves or is it another blissful lie that we have been murmuring to ourselves just so we could sleep at night?
In a nutshell, wildlife conservation is the practice of protecting flora and fauna in their natural habitat with the intention of not letting them go extinct. The need for conservation of wildlife arose with the industrialization and the spreading of human settlements exponentially which as a result started to impose upon the natural habitats of animals and in some cases managed to wipe whole species off the planet, never to be seen again. Additionally, in the past, poaching and hunting for leisure have contributed immensely for species of wild animals to go completely extinct or fall into the categories of endangered and dangerously endangered. All these factors in the past contributed to the rise of the concept of wildlife conservation, which, even today remains a hot topic among the various animal lovers and environmentalist groups as flora and fauna in the world keep getting exploited illegally in the name of monetary gain by humans of no heart or far sight.
There are many factors that affect wildlife conservation and has continuously made it a fight for people trying to work on improving and caring for wildlife in the world. In fact, according to most, wildlife conservation is considered an uphill battle due to many different actions of humans and their disastrous consequences. Namely, the actions being; poaching, overexploitation, environmental pollution, global warming, destruction of natural habitats, and animal trafficking. The consequences of most of these inconsiderate actions of humans are; animals dying off due to food sources disappearing, animals being killed due to destructive human actions, changing weather patterns and climate wiping off generations of creatures from famines, animal species being critically endangered and animal’s species forced to being extinct. The situation induced by humans is so bad that some sources suggest that as much as three hundred and twenty-two species of animals have gone extinct due to human actions in the past five hundred years alone. As such, the factors affecting these animals and other wildlife at the present have to be brought to life and the remedies that we as humans can give should be explored.
Presently, one of the main factors affecting wildlife is the high amount of plastic waste which is a widespread concern to environmentalists across the world. As well as the land, plastic waste in the ocean has had a massive effect on marine life and the marine biological ecosystems. On the land, plastic landfills are constantly invading into the space of natural habitats of animals and more and more animals die every day of blocked digestive tracts due to them consuming plastic waste material from these dumps created on natural habitats. In the sea, it is a whole different kind of destruction. Plastic waste in the ocean comes up to about eight million tons every year which is eighty percent of all marine debris according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature. This enormous amount of plastic waste that is dumped to the ocean through careless means like illegal dumping of waste or diverting drains to the sea usually end up being ingested by the wide assortment of marine life that encounters the waste. The effects of this pollution on the marine life is very evident as social media has hundreds of posts portraying plastic straws getting stuck on sea turtles, plastic bags being ingested and clogging up digestive systems killing them and also multiple whales washing up dead on shores worldwide with huge amounts of plastic in their stomachs which caused them to die of starvation. These bad effects come back to humans as well, with plastic waste finding its way back to the food table in the bellies of fish. This poses a threat to the average human who partakes these ‘poisonous’ seafood.
What can be done to control this massive damage and to curb more damage done to the ecosystems of the seas any further? There are a number of different ways that the world is trying to reduce the plastic ways in the ocean. At present, the most popular course of action on reducing ocean plastic is to recycle them to create products that can be reused by humans. Popular companies like Adidas and Patagonia are partnering up with ocean plastic recycling companies to create a selection of products from footwear to sunglasses to day to day wear. There are things that we as citizens can do as well. Reducing the use of single-use plastics, recycling plastics properly, and even spreading the word about the organizations actively working on these issues could go a long way in the conservation of wildlife from the threats posed by plastic waste dumping around the world.
As such, it is of vital importance that we as well informed global citizens keep in touch with the news from among the world of the steps that are taken in the path towards effective wildlife conservation. Another important aspect of the fight for wildlife conservation that we as responsible citizens should look out for is the actions that we can take for the welfare of the flora and fauna of the world and the preserving of these vitals elements of the environment for the benefit of our generation and the generations to come. Always remember, as a wise person once said, ‘we are always more powerful than we think ourselves to be’ and also the smallest of steps to a global revolution always find their seeds in the mind of one person with a great dream.
Rtr. Hiru Ihalakorala
Editor
Editor