C198 Biodiversity Utilisation
- Course Code:
- C198
- Unit value:
The exponential increase in the human population over the last century, coupled with careless exploitation of the Earth’s natural resources, has resulted in severe degradation and loss of biological diversity at all levels—genes, species and ecosystems. Yet, the survival of humankind is dependent on biodiversity to provide us with food, medicines, utilities, clean air and water, not to mention a sense of well-being; therefore, we need to conserve biodiversity so that it is available for our continued use.
Humans have utilised biodiversity in a myriad of ways over thousands of years. From the earliest forms of exploitation of wild resources such as hunting animals for meat or collecting seeds and berries, humankind learnt to domesticate animals and plants and became farmers, rather than hunter-gatherers. In many countries, agricultural systems developed from relatively small, subsistence-based concerns into large-scale, industrial systems that began to place greater pressure on the natural environment. However, the shift to agriculture did not halt the pressures placed on wild populations. Today, we continue to extract wild resources for a multitude of uses, both traditional and commercial. Furthermore, expanding agricultural production lands have come about at the cost of habitat destruction, and with it, the species, genetic diversity and ecosystem services upon which we rely. This paradox of dependency and over-exploitation has perhaps only been widely recognized outside of the biodiversity conservation community relatively recently—particularly because climate change is now high on the agenda and recognizing the threats that it poses has brought biodiversity into the limelight.
Nonetheless, we continue to over-exploit biodiversity and struggle to conserve it, either because we do not have the tools, resources or capacity, or because national priorities stand in the way. Because of the imperative to use biodiversity and the conservation–use conflict, sustainable use has been recognized as a fundamental way forward for biodiversity conservation; yet, this approach does not provide any easy fixes either, as you will learn in this module. The widespread degradation of wild biodiversity has gone hand in hand with a gradual erosion of the genetic diversity of our domesticated animals and plants. As advanced and fast methods of breeding to improve livestock and crops have become available, breeds and varieties have become more homogeneous to meet the demand for uniformity and with this, we have lost countless genetically valuable ‘traditional’ varieties. Yet, ironically, it is the genetically diverse plant and animal domesticates that we are becoming increasingly reliant upon because of our changing environment.
These issues and complexities are explored in this module, which is arranged in the following three parts:
Part I
After a brief introduction reviewing humankind’s use of biodiversity, we consider harvesting of wild species for subsistence, trading and commercial reasons. This raises the much broader perspective of utilising natural resources at ecosystem level, in which the provisioning, regulating, supporting and cultural roles of environmental services demonstrably link to all aspects of human well-being. The need to achieve a balance in wild harvesting leads an appraisal of the concept of sustainable use, ie exploitation without damaging either the species concerned or the environment, and to the development of conservation strategies advocated in the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).
Part II
In the second part of the module we focus on the many different development pathways that have shaped agroecosystems, and in particular the impacts, both positive and negative, that increasing management intensity has on plant and animal genetic resources. We review practices of ranching, taming, domestication and breeding of animals in agriculture in relation to implications for animal genetic diversity (as a subset of biodiversity) and the livelihoods that they support. Improvements in livestock production are gained not only through modern breeding strategies, but also by ensuring that there is the maximum possible adaptation to the local environment. The same is true for crop production, where changing vulnerability to pests and diseases, adverse growing conditions, consumer preferences and climate change are key issues. Two units consider why crops need to be adapted over time, how to make genetic resources available for breeding programmes, and how new varieties can be developed using conventional, biotechnical and participatory breeding techniques.
Part III
The final unit explores the issue of benefit sharing in the context of biodiversity use, given its present very uneven distribution in society and in the light of problems such as bioprospecting, biopiracy and private property resource management. The CBD establishes a legal framework for benefit sharing and reminds users of their obligations and with this we attempt to put forward a conceptual framework for assessing common and private property rights over biodiversity.
Objectives and learning outcomes of the course
- recall the wide range of uses of biodiversity by humankind, both wild and domesticated and explain to the person sitting next to you why we depend on biodiversity for our survival
- illustrate, with examples, how biodiversity is being negatively impacted through human exploitation and conversely, how sustainable use can benefit biodiversity
- describe the vital role of plant and animal genetic diversity for food security and the ways in which agricultural production systems have affected this diversity
- outline the different ways that livestock and crops can be improved and comment on the important differences between modern and traditional breeds and varieties, as well as the methods used to produce them
- explain the complex issues surrounding resource ownership and benefit-sharing in the context of biodiversity use.
