26,000 More Species Threatened---IUCN Sept 2018 Report
By Dr. Michael A. Bengwayan
As the world threatening
nears an increase of 1-1.5 degrees C global warming by year 2030, the number of
the earth’s lifeforms threatened with extinction has increased, the world’s
global watchdog of flora and fauna International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) said in its September 2018
report.
IUCN bared in its latest Red List that an
additional 26,000 species are
threatened with extinction today, out of the 27% of all assessed species
worldwide.
Of the number, 41 percent are amphibians, 5 percent
mammals, 34 percent conifers, 13 percent birds,
31 percent sharks and manta rays, 33 percent corals, and 27 percent
selected crustaceans.
The IUCN Red List is the most
comprehensive, objective global approach for evaluating the extinction risk of
plant and animal species that started in the 1950s as a card index of species
that were considered to be threatened with extinction. Over time, the Red Data
Books grew and transformed into the Red List to include more species. The ethos
of the program also shifted to incorporate the status of all species, not
limiting it to only those threatened with extinction.
Today, The IUCN Red List, regarded as
the most influential source of information for species conservation in the
world, holds conservation information
for over 93,500 species of plants, animal and fungi, with a mission to increase
the list to 160,000 species by 2020.
There
are thirty five biodiversity hotspots in the world where these threatened life
species are located. These areas compose 2.3 percent of the Earth’s surface but
have more than half of the world’s endemic plant species.
These
are in the California Floristic province, Madrean Pine Oak Woodlands,
Mesoamerica of North and Central America; Caribbean Islands; Atlantic Forest,
Cerrado, Chilean Winter Rainfall
Valdivian Forest, Tumbes Choco Magdalena, and Tropical Andes in South America;
Mediterranean Basin in Europe; Cape Floristc Region, Coastal Forests of Eastern Africa, Eastern Afromontane, Guinean Forests of West
Africa, Horn of Africa, Madagascar and Indian Ocean Islands, Maputuland Pondoland Albany, Succulent Karoo
in Africa; Mountains of Central Asia; Eastern Himalaya Nepal India, Indo-Burma
India and Myanmar, Western Ghats and Sri Lanka in South Asia; East Melanesian
Islands, Philippines, New Zealand, New Caledonia, Polynesia-Micronesia, Eastern
Australian Temperate Forests, Southwest Australia, Sundaland and Nicobar
Islands of India, Wallacea all in South East Asia and Asia Pacific; Japan,
Mountains of Southwest China in East Asia; Caucasus and Irano-Anatolian in East
Asia.
These
are considered hotspots because they are biogeographic regions with significant
reservoir of biodiversity but
threatened with destruction. The
purpose of biodiversity hotspots is not simply to identify regions that are of
high biodiversity value, but to prioritize conservation spending.
The worst threat endangering biodiversity in the said global hotspots is internal-- citizen-initiated, aggressive, relentless, unethical to a point, God-less --destruction of habitat. As if the future does not matter.
Man has begun to
overuse or misuse most of these natural ecosystems. Due to this ‘unsustainable’
resource-use, once productive forests and grasslands have been turned into
deserts and wasteland have increased all over the world. Mangroves have been
cleared for fuelwood and prawn farming, which has led to a decrease in the
habitat essential for breeding of marine fish.
Wetlands have been
drained to increase agricultural land. These changes have grave economic
implications in the longer term. The current destruction of the remaining large
areas of wilderness habitats, especially in the super diverse tropical forests
and coral reefs, is the most important threat worldwide to biodiversity.
Scientists have estimated that human activities are likely to eliminate
approximately 10 million species by the year 2050.
There are about
1.8 million species of plants and animals, both large and microscopic, known to
science in the world at present. The number of species however is likely to be
greater by a factor of at least 10. Plants and insects as well as other forms
of life not known to science are continually being identified in the worlds’
‘hotspots’ of diversity.
Unfortunately at the present rate of
extinction about 25% of the worlds’ species will undergo extinction fairly
rapidly. This may occur at the rate of 10 to 20 thousand species per year, a
thousand to ten thousand times faster than the expected natural rate! Human
actions could well exterminate 25% of the world’s species within the next
twenty or thirty years.
Much of this mega
extinction spasm is related to human population growth, industrialization and
changes in land-use patterns. A major part of these extinctions will occur in
‘biorich’ areas such as tropical forests, wetlands, and coral reefs. The loss
of wild habitats due to rapid human population growth and short term economic
development are major contributors to the rapid global destruction of biodiversity.
Philippines, 18th Most Endangered
Biodiversity Hotspot
The Philippines, the world’s second largest
archipelago, is one of the few nations that is, in its entirety, both a hotspot
and a megadiversity country, placing it among the top priority hotspots for
global conservation.
But its unique biodiversity is threatened. Having the highest rates of discovery in the world with sixteen new species of mammals discovered in the last ten years, such endemism however may be lost faster than discovered.
Threatened are 9,250 vascular plant species which includes gingers, begonias, gesneriads, orchids, pandans, palms, and dipterocarps. Some150 species of palms are included in the hotspot list and 70 percent of the 1,000 species of orchids found in the country.
Among its over
530 bird species, 35 percent or over 60 are threatened. These are found in
seven Endemic Bird Area hotspots: Mindoro, Luzon, Negros and Panay, Cebu,
Mindanao and the Eastern Visayas, the Sulu archipelago, and Palawan.
The
best-known endangered bird species is
the Philippine eagle (Pithecophaga jefferyi, CR), the second-largest
eagle in the world. The Philippine eagle breeds only in primary lowland rain
forest. Habitat destruction has extirpated the eagle everywhere except on the
islands of Luzon, Mindanao and Samar, where the only large tracts of lowland
rain forest remain. Today, the total population is estimated at less than 700
individuals. Captive breeding programs have been largely unsuccessful; habitat
protection is the eagle’s only hope for survival.
The other threatened endemic species are the Negros bleeding art (Gallicolumba keayi, CR), Visayan wrinkled hornbill (Aceros waldeni, CR), Scarlet-collared flowerpecker (Dicaeum retrocinctum, VU), Cebu flowerpecker (Dicaeum quadricolor, CR), and Philippine cockatoo (Cacatua haematuropygia, CR).
With regards mammals, the tamaraw (Bubalus mindorensis, CR), a dwarf water buffalo that lives only on Mindoro Island is the most threatened. A century ago the population numbered 10,000 individuals; today only a few hundred animals exist in the wild.
Other
mammals are endangered, like the Visayan
and Philippine warty pigs (Sus cebifrons, CR and S. philippensis,
VU); the Calamianes hog-deer (Axis calamaniensis, EN) and the Visayan
spotted deer (Rusa alfredi, EN), which has been reduced to a population
of a few hundred on the islands of Negros, Masbate and Panay; and the
golden-capped fruit bat (Acerodon jubatus, EN), which, as the world’s largest
bat, has a wingspan up to 1.7 meters.
In the reptilian world, the freshwater crocodile (Crocodylus mindorensis, CR) is considered the most threatened crocodilian in the world. Other unique and threatened reptiles include Gray’s monitor (Varanus olivaceus, VU), the Philippine pond turtle (Heosemys leytensis, CR) and a newly discovered monitor lizard, Varanus mabitang, only the second monitor species known in the world to specialize on a fruit diet.
Among all amphibians, 22 are considered threatened including the Philippine flat-headed frog (Barbourula busuangensis, VU), one of the world’s most primitive frog species.
With regards freshwater fishes, most threatene is Sardinella tawilis, a freshwater sardine found only in Taal Lake. Sadly, Lake Lanao, in Mindanao, seems likely to have become the site of one of the hotspots worst extinction catastrophes, with nearly all of the lakes endemic fish species now almost certainly extinct.
Man’s Destruction of Forests All but
Decimated Most of RP’s Biodiversity
Forests, the
Philippines’ leading natural habitat of the country’s biodiversity, are rapidly
disappearing. By 2040, there may be no virgin forests, many forestry experts
predict. Non-believers scoff at this, saying it is an exaggeration. But the
figures cannot be wrong. The effects of deforestation are not figments of
imagination.
The rate of
deforestation in the country is among the highest in the world. The worst
deforestation happened during the period of 1990 to 1999 where 750,000 acres of
virgin forest were lost. Today, only 1.75 million acres remain of the nation's
virgin forests.
The loss is incredible, the rate of deforestation in that decade was almost 75,000 acres a year. It also came at a time when logging ban was imposed in some selected sites in the country.
As a result, flooding, soil erosion and degradation pegged at 100,000 tons of soil yearly, loss of species diversity and genetic material, loss of human lives and properties and aesthetic and recreational loss were at their worst.
Much of the blame is on the government that, over the years, have passed laws favorable to logging concessions and implemented forest protection poorly. Government negligence has prompted the devastation of the forests. Today, much of the remaining forests are still being invaded by commercial loggers.
Philippine
forestry laws passed since 1930 have failed to provide adequate security
provisions for virgin and secondary growth forests, thus the forests had
virtually no protection at all. For instance, there is only one forest guard
for every 7,500 acres.
But even
then, many official policies and strategies from the very start were faulty.
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