CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION TO
NATURE
CONSERVATION
ASSOC. PROF. TS. DR. NOR HASLINA HASHIM
065, Right Wings, Level 4, Block A
FACULTY OF ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY
Quiz:
 Briefly answer the following questions:

 Natural environment
1. What is natural environment?
2. Provide 3 examples of natural environment

 Built environment
1. What is built environment?
2. Provide 3 examples of built environment
WHAT DO YOU SEE IN THIS PICTURE?
WHAT DO YOU SEE IN THIS PICTURE?
WHAT DO YOU SEE IN THIS PICTURE?
WHAT DO YOU SEE IN THIS PICTURE?
WHICH IS WHICH?
 Natural environment:
 Refers to the non-human-made surroundings and conditions in which all living and non-living
things exist on Earth.

 The common concept of natural environment consists of two components:

i. Ecological units that operate as natural systems without massive human intervention
(e.g. soil, vegetation)
ii. Universal natural resources and physical phenomena that lack clear-cut boundaries (e.g.
air, water, energy)

 Biotic (living things) and abiotic (non-living things).

Natural environment:
 An important distinction in natural resources is their “renewability”:
✓ Renewable resources
 If properly managed, these resources can provide inputs to economic system
indefinitely
 E.g. forests, fish, water, wildlife

✓ Non-renewable resources
 A finite stock exists.
 Society must conserve or find substitutes
 E.g. coal, oil, gas
BUILT environment:
 Refers to the human-made surroundings that provide the setting for human activity, ranging
in scale from buildings and parks to neighborhoods and cities. It often include their
supporting structure, such as water supply or energy networks.

 It is a human-made space in which people live, work and recreate on a day-to-day basis.

 Examples of built environment: buildings, urban spaces, roads, schools, etc.

DIRECT AND
INDIRECT EFFECTS
OF THE BUILT
ENVIRONMENT
NATURAL VS. BUILT ENVIRONMENT – THE LINK

Existing at
same time –
temporal
issue

Occupy
same
space –
spatial
issue
Increasing need
for built
environment due
to increasing
human population
and modernization
IMPACT OF HUMAN ACTIVITIES TO THE NATURAL
ENVIRONMENT:
LOSS OF
BIODIVERSITY
Over
Deforestatio
population
n

HUMAN ACTIVITIES
Over
exploitation
Open
burning

ENVIRONMENTAL
PROBLEMS
IMPACT OF HUMAN ACTIVITIES TO THE NATURAL
ENVIRONMENT:
Groundwater Soil and land Global
Greenhouse pollution pollution warming
effect
Rise of sea
Noise level
pollution ENVIRONMENTAL
PROBLEMS Acid rain
Air pollution
Waste
disposal
Loss of
habitat
Ozone Water Global
depletion pollution dimming
CONSERVATION
 Definition: Care and protection of earth’s natural resources (e.g. air, minerals, plants, soil,
water and wildlife) so they can persist for future generations.

 Objectives of conservation (The World Conservation Strategy):

i. To maintain essential ecological processes and life support system;
ii. To preserve genetic diversity; and
iii. To ensure the sustainable utilization of species and ecosystems

 Difference between conservation and preservation:

i. Conservation: seeks the sustainable use of nature by humans, for activities such as
hunting, logging or mining
ii. Preservation: protecting nature from human use
Importance of conservation
1. Species have an inherent right to exist

2. Future generations of human should be able to enjoy all species

3. Preserve potential medicines and other products that might benefit humans

4. Preserve genetic variations in populations

5. Preserve food webs and community structure

6. Preserve ecosystem services: nutrient recycling, waste decomposition, water purification.

1. SPECIES HAVE AN INHERET RIGHT TO EXIST
 Some species cannot survive outside of their own natural habitat without human intervention
such as zoos and aquariums.

 Thus, the destruction of their natural habitat poses a real threat to their survival.

WESTERN BLACK RHINOCEROUS

• Officially declared extinct in 2011

• Cause: poaches killing them for their horn,
which are highly prized on the black market
and used in traditional Chinese medicine
1. SPECIES HAVE AN INHERET RIGHT TO EXIST

BAIJI WHITE DOLPHIN

• Also called Chinese River Dolphin

• Only found in Yangtze River in China
• Believed to extinct in 2002
• Cause: industrialization: the river was used
for fishing, transportation and hydroelectricity
2. FUTURE GENERATIONS OF HUMAN SHOULD BE
ABLE TO ENJOY ALL SPECIES
 Natural world provides a source of beauty, wonder and artistic inspirations, as well as
providing environment for us to explore and appreciate.

“We must consider our planet

to be a loan from our children
rather than being a gift from
our ancestors”

G.H. Brundland,
Former Prime Minister of
Norway
3. PRESERVE POTENTIAL MEDICINES AND OTHER
PRODUCTS THAT MIGHT BENEFIT HUMANS
 Preventing the emergence of new diseases
– Having wild habitats for animals serve as a barrier to prevent emerging infectious
diseases from jumping from animals to humans
– E.g. Ebola outbreak (believed to spread to humans from bats)
– COVID-19

 Production of medicines that human rely upon

- A lot of medicines that we used as humans are also
derived from chemicals that are produced by
animals or plants.
- By protecting the nature, we also protect the
lifesaving drugs we rely upon Medicinal plants that are believed to
contain anti-cancer compounds
4. PRESERVE GENETIC VARIATIONS IN
POPULATIONS
 Genetic variation in populations ensure that some individuals will have the genetic makeup
to survive unpredictable events, thus preserving the populations.
 To ensure disease resistance

Devil Facial Tumor Disease

Population of Tasmanian Devils

5 (a). PRESERVE FOOD WEBS
 The loss of any species from a food web disrupts the entire web.
 Preserving as many species in the web as possible ensures that every species will have
another food resource to fall back on if one food resource suffers a population decline.

Food web

Food chain
5(b). PRESERVE community structure

 All species in a community are interconnected – not only in food webs, but also in resource
partitioning and filling available niches
 Certain species play a profound roles in the community. The loss of these species might
significantly alter the habitat, causing other species to also suffer extinction.
 Preserving multiple populations across an ecosystem ensures replacement if one population is
extirpated

Sugar maple tree

Grizzly bear
6. PRESERVE ECOSYSTEM SERVICES: NUTRIENT
RECYCLNG, WASTE DECOMPOSITION, WATER
PURIFICATION
 Ecosystem services depend on proper ecosystem functioning

 Ecosystem functioning depends on biodiversity in the ecosystem

 Therefore, ecosystem services depend on biodiversity in the ecosystem
Sustainability in environment
 Sustainable: allowing something to continue for a period of time

 Environmental sustainability: ability of earth’s various systems including human cultural

systems and economic to survive and adapt to changing environmental conditions.

 Sustainable development: seeks to meet the needs and aspirations of the present without
compromising the ability to meet those of the future.
Sustainability in environment
 According to Miller (2006), there are 5 steps to achieve sustainability in the built
environment:
i. Understand the components and importance of natural capitals. (Natural capital can be
defined as the world’s stocks of natural assets which include geology, soil, air, water and
all living thing)
ii. Recognise that many human activities degrade natural capital by using normally renewable
resources faster than nature can renew them
iii. Search for solutions to environmental problems
iv. In trying to solve the environmental problem, there is a need to make trade-offs or
compromises
v. To consider individuals, as each individual matters.
1. Nature runs on renewable solar 2. Nature recycles nutrient and wastes. There
energy is little waste in nature

How people can simulate: rely mostly in How people can simulate: prevent and reduce
renewable solar energy pollution and recycle and reuse resources

PRINCIPLES OF
SUSTAINABILITY IN
NATURE

3. Nature uses biodiversity to maintain 4. Nature controls a species population

itself and adapt to new size and resource use by interactions
environmental conditions with its environment and other species

How people can simulate: preserve How people can simulate: reduce human
biodiversity by protecting ecosystem birth and wasteful resource use to prevent
services and habitats and preventing environmental overload and depletion and
premature extinction degradation of resources
are Malaysians living sustainably?
Examples of energy consumption per capita countries around the world
(World Resource Centre, 2003)
Country: Amount of energy used per capita
Angola 807W
Argentina 2,097W
Australia 7,622W
Bangladesh 214W
Canada 11,055W
Malaysia 3,087W
Vietnam 718W

** Energy intensity (used per person) in Malaysia is higher than the global average.
- Malaysia emission per capita is 6.7 tonne CO2 per person (world average 4.3)
- Emission intensity in Malaysia is 1.3 tonne of CO2 per US$1,000 GDP (world average
0.73)
You as a steward

WHAT CAN BE
DONE?