Republic of the Philippines

PALAWAN STATE UNIVERSITY

PSU-PCAT
Cuyo, Palawan

ED 11: ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION

CHAPTER 3: ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES: THREATS TO BIODIVERSITY

INSTRUCTOR: JASON L. TORIO, LPT, MAEM

The Earth will not continue to offer its harvest, except with faithful stewardship. We cannot
say we love the land and then take steps to destroy it for the sake of future generations. ~ John
Paul II

THREATS TO BIODIVERSITY
Our environment is constantly changing, and we cannot deny that fact. However, as it
transforms, so does the need to become increasingly aware of the problems that surround it.

With a massive influx of natural disasters, warming and cooling periods, different weather
patterns, and much more, people need to be aware of the environmental problems our planet faces
today.

“Environmental issues are defined as problems with the planet’s systems (air, water, soil,
etc.) that have developed as a result of human interference or mistreatment of the planet.”

1. Natural Calamities
➢ Natural hazards include forest fires, earthquakes, volcanic activity, tsunamis and hurricanes.
Natural hazards generally decrease biodiversity. They can either
kill organisms directly or destroy their habitats so that they are no
longer able to live in the area where the hazard occurred.
For example, forest fires result in the loss of habitats for bird and
insect species.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zxvqtfr/revision/3
Overflight images in the Amacro region (Amazonas, Acre and
Rondônia states), in an area of around 8,000 hectares of
deforestation – the largest in 2022 – that has been burning

for days. © Nilmar Lage /

➢ Floods, heatwaves, droughts, and wildfires – a changing climate is bringing with it ever more
Greenpeace
frequent and destructive so-called “natural” disasters, often impacting the most vulnerable
areas and communities of the world.
Amidst these rising impacts, the role of nature is too often framed as “creating” such events.
Yet, as both science and traditional knowledge attest, nature is not only our best defense against
climate-related hazards, it is also a bountiful source of benefits and advantages for reducing
and managing risks – but only if we repay it with nature-positive actions.
https://news.mongabay.com/2023/01/in-wake-of-natural-disasters-not-reducing-biodiversity-loss-is-a-big-missed-opportunity-commentary/

2. Habitat loss, degradation, and fragmentation

➢ Habitat loss, degradation, and fragmentation are viewed as the largest cause of biodiversity loss
and the primary factor resulting in species being listed as threatened or endangered.
• Habitat loss occurs when natural habitats are converted to human uses such as cropland,
urban areas, and infrastructure development (e.g. roads, dams, powerlines). For example, in
Nebraska, 98 percent of the tallgrass prairie and 35 percent of wetlands have been lost,
primarily due to conversion to cropland.
• Habitats are degraded when their condition declines due to factors such as pollution,
invasive species, and over-utilization of natural resources. Examples include prairies being
invaded by woody species such as eastern red cedar and streams being degraded by runoff
of sediments and chemicals from adjacent cropland. Habitats can also be degraded when
natural process they depend on, such as fire or flooding, are altered by human activity.

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 • Habitat fragmentation occurs when large blocks of habitat are cut into smaller pieces by
development such as roads or housing. The remaining blocks of habitat may be too small to
sustain populations of a number of species and the fragmentation often results in barriers
to species movement.
Nebraska Game and Parks Commission
2200 N. 33rd St., Lincoln, NE 68503
402-471-0641

Typical habitat fragmentation process

1. A large area of habitat – e.g. a woodland – is split in half by the construction of a road.
2. For species unable to cross the road, the original area of habitat has now been split into
two separate blocks.
3. Over time, more roads are built, and some of the woodland is cleared and the land used
for agriculture, then urban development.
4. As the new land uses don’t provide suitable habitat for some woodland species, the total
area of habitat available to those species decreases.
5. Further development takes place, and the remaining areas of native woodland are now
isolated from one another by different land uses.
6. The original woodland habitat is now much smaller and highly fragmented, with the
remaining patches of habitat perhaps far apart.
7. Plant and animal species now find it difficult, if not impossible, to move between the
remaining patches.
https://www.nature.scot/professional-advice/land-and-sea-management/managing-land/habitat-networks/habitat-
fragmentation#:~:text=Typical%20habitat%20fragmentation%20process,split%20into%20two%20separate%20blocks.

3. Over Exploitation
➢ Overexploitation, or alternatively, overharvesting, can lead to the destruction of the resource
that is being exploited (Rongxing Guo, in Cross-Border Resource Management (Fourth Edition),
2021).
➢ This includes targeted hunting, gathering, or fishing for a particular species as well as incidental
harvesting such as bycatch in ocean fisheries. The megafauna extinction example earlier was
an example of overharvesting causing biodiversity loss.
➢ Ocean fisheries have been particularly vulnerable to overharvesting during the post-WWII period
because of technological developments like refrigeration, sonar, larger
nets, and onboard processing. The cod fishery in the Northwestern Atlantic
Ocean was an important commercial fishery for hundreds of years, but
only a few decades of intense ha rvesting using these new technologies in
the late twentieth century led to a population collapse. The population
declined by over 90%, and fishing for the species was closed in both
Canada and the United States. The loss of a top predator like cod, along
with reductions of other top predator fish populations like haddock and
flounder, has led to an explosion in prey fish populations like herring,
capelin and shrimp. Cod populations have not recovered, despite fishing
pressures ceasing, and this observation has made researchers speculate
that the ecosystem may now be in an alternative stable state that will
prevent the recovery of cod populations any time in the near future.
https://www.e-education.psu.edu/geog30/node/394

Examples of Overexploitation:

• Fish and other aquatic species: As fishing gear and boats have improved, the fishing
industry has become very efficient at harvesting fish and shellfish. The industrialization of
the fishing industry and the increasing global demand for seafood have people taking more
fish from oceans, lakes and rivers than is sustainable. Prized fish, such as swordfish, cod
and tuna, have undergone dramatic declines. In the Great Lakes, overfishing has caused
whitefish, walleye, and sturgeon populations to decline. Beyond their role in the food

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 supply, freshwater and marine fish are also trapped for the aquarium trade and fished for
sport.
• Birds: Certain species of birds are collected or hunted for sport, food, and the cage-bird pet
trade (parrots and songbirds are prized as pets). Millions of birds are traded internationally
each year. Close to 30 percent of globally threatened birds are affected by overexploitation,
particularly parrots, pigeons, and pheasants. The Carolina parakeet was once the only
species of parrot in the U.S., but it was hunted to extinction early in the last century for
food, to protect crops and for its feathers (which adorned ladies’ hats).
• Mammals: People have always hunted mammal species—for fur, food, sport, and for their
horns or antlers. Mammals are also trapped for the pet trade, zoos, and biomedical
research. Today illegal hunting still threatens many species, especially large mammals such
as tigers, rhinoceros, bears, and primates, whose body parts are highly valued in some parts
of the world for traditional medicine.
• Amphibians: Members of the amphibian class are collected and shipped all over the world
for the pet trade, medicine, education (frogs are dissected in many biology classes), scientific
research, and for food (frog legs are a delicacy in many parts of the world). The California
red-legged frog, now a federally protected endangered species, was over hunted for food and
its numbers seriously depleted during the Gold Rush in the area around San Francisco.
• Reptiles: Wanted for their skins or shells, their eggs, meat, and for the pet trade, reptiles
are harvested and traded around the world. Overharvesting of the Kemp’s ridley sea turtle’s
eggs nearly led to its extinction, and today it is still an endangered species. In the U.S., box
turtles are being collected at unsustainable levels for the overseas pet trade. Some reptile
skins—such as crocodile, python, and monitor lizard—are highly prized as exotic leathers.
• Invertebrates: At least 75 percent of all known animal species are invertebrates. Insects,
oysters, octopus, crayfish, sea stars, scorpions, crabs, and sponges are all kinds of this
animal class. Today many invertebrates—particularly marine invertebrates—are at risk
from overharvesting. Chesapeake Bay oysters, once an important part of the Bay economy,
are now in decline. Horseshoe crabs, whose eggs provide food for migratory birds, fish and
other organisms, are being harvested as bait for eel and whelk fishing. Octopus are suffering
declines worldwide due to heavy fishing pressure. Shells and corals are collected for
ornaments and jewelry.
• Plants: The Earth's plants are vital to our survival and are the foundation of most
ecosystems. People harvest plants for food, medicine, building materials, and raw materials
to make other products. But we are taking too many plants from the wild. Some plants,
such as orchids, are so prized by collectors that they are now endangered and legally
protected from poaching by international law. Some medicinal plants, such as American
ginseng, have also been so enthusiastically collected that it is now very hard to find them
in the wild. A number of tree species that are prized for their wood, such as mahogany, are
under threat because of overharvesting.
https://www.nwf.org/Educational-Resources/Wildlife-Guide/Threats-to-Wildlife/Overexploitation

4. Extractive Industries
➢ Destructive resource use often results from extractive industries such as mining, logging and
fishing, on commercial and small scales, and from the road building necessary to develop
them. Although these activities are regulated by the government, implementation of regulatory
safeguards is inconsistent and hampered by limited resources.
Areas abandoned by commercial logging and mining concessions attract many small (and
illegal) loggers and miners whose activities are generally more destructive. Where there are
commercial logging and mining activities, there is migration of people seeking related
employment, opening up areas for settlements and bringing workers and families to previously
uninhabited areas.

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 Hunting, poaching and flora collection follow human migration into upland areas,
aggravating the threat to wildlife. Moreover, logged-over areas are often converted to kaingin
(swidden) cultivation, clearing them of remaining vegetation.
https://www.cepf.net/our-work/biodiversity-hotspots/philippines/threats#:~:text=Hunting%2C%20poaching%20and%20flora%20collection,clearing%20them%20of%20remaining%20vegetation.

5. Introduction to Exotic Species, Predators, and Pest Control

➢ Exotic species are those that have been intentionally or unintentionally introduced by humans
into an ecosystem in which they did not evolve. Such introductions probably occur frequently
as natural phenomena. For example, Kudzu (Pueraria lobata), which is native to Japan, was
introduced in the United States in 1876. It was later planted for soil conservation.
Problematically, it grows too well in the southeastern United States: up to one foot each day. It
is now a pest species, covering over seven million acres in the southeastern United States. If
an introduced species is able to survive in its new habitat, that introduction is now reflected in
the observed range of the species. Human transportation of people and goods, including the
intentional transport of organisms for trade, has dramatically increased the introduction of
species into new ecosystems, sometimes at distances that are well beyond the capacity of the
species to ever travel itself and outside the range of the species’ natural predators.
Most exotic species introductions probably fail because of the low
number of individuals introduced or poor adaptation to the ecosystem
they enter. Some species, however, possess preadaptations that can
make them especially successful in a new ecosystem. These exotic
species often undergo dramatic population increases in their new
habitat, resetting the ecological conditions in the new environment,
while threatening the spe cies that exist there. For this reason, exotic
species, also called invasive species, can threaten other species through competition for
resources, predation, or disease.
Example: The brown tree snake, Boiga irregularis, is an exotic species that has caused
numerous extinctions on the island of Guam since its accidental introduction in 1950.

➢ Loss of predators can trigger changes to an ecosystem whereby the elimination of one species
leads to a chain reaction that reshapes a whole habitat. Understanding the consequences of
predator biodiversity loss is thus crucial to predicting how ecosystems will respond to the loss
of biodiversity in the real world.
It found that the loss of major predators in forest ecosystems has allowed game animal
populations to greatly increase, crippling the growth of young trees and reducing biodiversity.
This also contributes to deforestation and results in less carbon sequestration, a potential
concern with climate change.
http://hdl.handle.net/1957/28411

➢ Pest control, a process that maintains nuisance organisms below economic thresholds, is a
complex ecological process often mediated by biodiversity. Agricultural intensification results
in widespread losses of biodiversity, with important implications for pest control.
Stacy M. Philpott, in Encyclopedia of Biodiversity (Second Edition), 2013
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/social-sciences/pest-control

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