Animals and plants are increasingly
being ‘translocated’ from their native areas to survive effects of climate
change, poaching and habitat loss, says top conservationist
Wednesday 20 April 201613.37 BST
Last modified on Wednesday 20
April 201614.46 BST
More than 1,000 species have had
to be relocated because of climate change, poaching and humans taking their
habitat, according to a top conservationist.
Dr Axel Moehrenschlager said
cases of “translocation”, such as India’s plan torelocate tigers to
Cambodia or South Africa’s scheme to airlift rhinos
to Australia, have increased
exponentially in recent decades and will become more common due to
human pressures driving species closer to extinction.
Translocation is the practice of
intentionally moving plants and animals from one area and releasing them in
another to improve their survival chances and combat biodiversity loss.
It is usually considered a “last
resort” method, but conservationists
warn that intensive and sometimes controversial forms of intervention
may now be needed.
“Species are under increasing
threat around the world, but the science is maturing about how to bring them
back,” said Moehrenschlager, director of conservation and science at the
Calgary zoo and chair of the International Union for Conservation of
Nature (IUCN) reintroduction specialist group.
“This is not a new tool - it’s
gone on for more than 100 years - but it’s definitely escalating in terms of
frequency and geographical spread, not just for an individual species but for
entire ecosystems.”
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment
You only need to enter your comment once! Comments will appear once they have been moderated. This is so as to stop the would-be comedian who has been spamming the comments here with inane and often offensive remarks. You know who you are!