Losing biodiversity

Text and Photos By Henrylito D. Tacio
“A few decades ago, the wildlife of Philippines was notable for its abundance; now, it is notable for its variety; if present trend of destruction continues, Philippine wildlife will be notable for its absence.” — Dr. Lee Talbot, former director of Southeast Asia Project on Wildlife Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources
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“More than 11,000 species of animals and plants are known to be threatened with extinction, about a third of all coral reefs are expected to vanish in the next 30 years and about 15 million hectares of forest are being razed annually.”
That was what the weekly American magazine Time wrote in its special report dated September 2, 2002.
At that time, Harvard biologist Edward O. Wilson has just published his book, The Future of Life. He wrote of his worries that unless people on this planet change their ways, “half of all species could disappear by the end of this century.”
As early as 1993, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) sounded the alarm. “We are losing biological diversity at an unprecedented rate,” deplored the United Nations agency during the World Food Day celebration.
Biological diversity — or biodiversity for short — is made up of all species of plants and animals, their genetic material and the ecosystems of which they are a part. Species diversity refers to the variety of species within a given area.
Samuel R. Peñafiel, in an article which appeared in Canopy International, explained that there are three different levels by which biodiversity can be viewed: genetic diversity, species diversity and ecosystem diversity.
Genetic diversity pertains to the variability in genes within a species, variety, subspecies or breed. “Each organism is a repository of immense number of genetic information which can be as much as 1,000 genes in single-cell organisms to more than 400,000 in animals and flowering plants,” Peñafiel pointed out.
On the other hand, species diversity covers the variety of life-forms estimated to be 30 million species of which only about 1.4 million have so far been discovered. It is no wonder why there are new species still being discovered.
Ecosystem diversity, meanwhile, is the variety of biotic communities, habitat types and the ecological processes in the various hemispheres of the planet. Examples include grassland, forest, marine, and freshwater ecosystems.
Unfortunately, most of the biodiversity we know now are fast disappearing at nothing less than mind-boggling. “Difficult as it is to accept, mass extinction has already begun,” Dr. Wilson deplored.
The Harvard biologist estimates that, at a minimum, 50,000 invertebrates species per year — nearly 140 each day — are condemned to extinction.
“Some people will argue that if we lost a number of insects yesterday, and the sun still came up today, does it truly matter?” asked Prof. Norman Myers, authors of several books and has served as a consultant to several UN agencies.
Here’s what Time has said: “The damage being done is more than aesthetic. Many vanishing species provide humans with both food and medicine. What’s more, once you start tearing out swaths of ecosystem, you upset the existing balance in ways that harm even areas you didn’t intend to touch.”
Dr. Peter Raven, another noted American biologist, is very much concerned with the fast disappearance of the world’s biodiversity. “Of all the global problems that confront us, species extinction is the one that is moving the most rapidly and the one that will have the most serious consequences,” he contends.
Unlike other global ecological problems, Dr. Raven stressed, the crisis is completely irreversible. “Extinction is forever,” declared the Washington-based World Resources Institute.
The Philippines, with more than 7,000 islands, is considered by many respected scientists as one of the countries with the highest degree of biodiversity in the world.
The Philippines is home to about 170,000 faunal species, most of which are insects and are mostly unidentified, according to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR). Twelve thousand plant species and 960 animal species are found in the country’s forests. Of the identified animal species, over 500 are birds and 167 are mammals.
Out of the 500 known coral species in worldwide, about 488 coral species in 78 genera are found in the Philippines. There are only about 50 species of seagrasses in the world. A total of 16 species can be found in the country, and this is the second highest diversity that exists in one country; only Western Australia has more — with 17 species. At least 2,000 fish species are found in the Philippines.
Almost 100 mammal species are endemic to the Philippines. In recent years, experts have discovered more than a dozen species of mammals in the country seen nowhere else on the planet.
“The number compares with other countries like Brazil,” noted Philippine fauna specialist Dr. Laurence Heaney of the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. “But compare their sizes. For such a small area, the Philippine rockets ahead.”
Brazil has a total land area of 3,286,488 square kilometers while the Philippines has a total land area of only 115,800 square kilometers. On the other hand, Indonesia — another biodiversity-rich country, has a total land area of 741,101 square kilometers.
While its biodiversity is among the highest, the Philippines’ ecosystems are among the most threatened. In fact, the US National Cancer Institute lists the entire Philippine archipelago as among the five biogeographical areas in the world considered to be the “hottest of the hot spots,” a hot spot being an area whose high biodiversity is gravely threatened.
Although no endemic species yet in the country are reported to have been extinct, several made it to the list of rare, threatened and endangered species compiled by the Convention for International Trade of Endangered Species (CITES), of which the country is a signatory.
To name a few: tamaraw, Philippine tarsier, pangolin, Philippines palm civet, Philippine eagle, Nicobar pigeon, Koch’s pitta, falcons, Peregrine falcon, Palawan peacock pheasant, Pygmy curlew, Sander’s alocasia, pitcher plant, some species of orchids, and pitogo,
“Once these species are gone, they are gone forever, leaving behind an imbalance in ecology and beauty difficult to determine and restore,” a Filipino environmentalist observed.