| Kippreport.com

Environmental short-sightedness can be costly

October 24, 2010 11:39 by Reuters

In another case, according to the National Geographic, a simple reintroduction of predator wolves to their original habitat brought about significant change in the growth of natural resources. The US Fish and Wildlife Services in the mid-nineties airlifted wolves from Canada in an experiment to repopulate Yellowstone National Park. The reintroduction triggered positive changes. With the numbers of wolves reduced in the park in the thirties, Elks activities of over-browsing the streamside trees and shrubs increased. With the wolves back, they now avoid the streams, allowing aquatic species to thrive with rivers getting broader and the vegetation shade allowing for birds and smaller animals to return. There are new groves of Aspen trees that were rarely allowed to reach full height. Now they have reached 10 to 15 feet tall and the streamside vegetation that prevented erosion has now stabilized the riverbanks. From this single new predatory force on the landscape, a rebalancing effect ripples all the way to the microbes in the soil, according to the article.
What it boils down to in the end is that the relationship between humans and nature needs to be watched continuously to maintain the order that our world has. Otherwise humans will have to endure the chaos of nature. Biodiversity supports the functioning of ecosystem, and these ecosystem services are essential for human well-being. Its continued loss, therefore, has major implications for current and future human well-being.
- Arab News

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Tags: cost of damaging environment, delicate balance, economics green, economics nature, environment and green, environmental economics, green, natural balance, nature balance, un environment program, un environment report, un report