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wildlands and the bulk of Earth’s
biodiversity protected within them are
another world from the one humanity
is throwing together pell-mell. What do
we receive from them? The stabilisation
of the global environment they provide
and their very existence are gifts to us.
We are their stewards, not their owners.
Each ecosystem — be it a pond,
meadow, coral reef, or something else
out of thousands that can be found
around the world — is a web of specialised
organisms braided and woven together.
The species, each a freely interbreeding
population of individuals, interact with a
set of the other species in the ecosystem
either strongly or weakly or not at all.
Given that in most ecosystems even
the identities of most of the species are
unknown, how are biologists to defi ne
the many processes of their interactions?
How can we predict changes in the
ecosystem if some resident species vanish
while other, previously absent species
invade? At best we have partial data,
working off hints, tweaking everything
with guesses.
What does knowledge of how nature
works tell us about conservation and the
Anthropocene? This much is clear: to save
biodiversity, it is necessary to obey the
precautionary principle in the treatment
of Earth’s natural ecosystems, and to do
so strictly. Hold fast until we, scientists
and the public alike, know much more
about them. Proceed carefully – study,
discuss, plan. Give the rest of Earth’s life
a chance. Avoid nostrums and careless
talk about quick fi xes, especially those
that threaten to harm the natural world
beyond return.
8
Today every nation-state in the world
has a Protected-Area system of some
kind. All together the reserves number
about 161,000 on land and 6,500
over marine waters. According to the
World Database on Protected Areas —
a joint project of the United Nations
Environment Programme and the
International Union for Conservation
of Nature – they occupied by 2015 a
“The vanishing remnants of Earth’s biodiversity test the reach and quality of human morality.
Species brought low by our hand, such as pangolins, now deserve our constant attention and care.”little less than 15 per cent of Earth’s
land area and 2.8 per cent of Earth’s
ocean area. The coverage is increasing
gradually. This trend is encouraging.
To have reached the existing level is a
tribute to those who have participated in
the global conservation eff ort. But is the
level enough to halt the acceleration of
species extinction? It is in fact nowhere
close to enough.
The declining world of biodiversity
cannot be saved by the piecemeal
operations in current use. It will certainly
be mostly lost if conservation continues
to be treated as a luxury item in
national budgets. The extinction rate
our behaviour is imposing, and seems
destined to continue imposing, on the
rest of life is more correctly viewed
as the equivalent of a Chicxulub-size
asteroid strike played out over several
human generations.
The only hope for the species still
living is a human eff ort commensurate
with the magnitude of the problem.
The ongoing mass extinction of species,
and with it the extinction of genes and
ecosystems, ranks with pandemics, world
war, and climate change as among the
deadliest threats that humanity has
imposed on itself. To those who feel
content to let the Anthropocene evolve
toward whatever destiny it mindlesslydrifts to, I say, please take time to
reconsider. To those who are steering the
growth of nature reserves worldwide, let
me make an earnest request: Don’t stop.
Just aim a lot higher.
Populations of species that were
dangerously small will have space to
grow. Rare and local species previously
doomed by development will escape their
fate. The unknown species will no longer
remain silent and thereby be put at
highest risk. People will have closer access
to a world that is complex and beautiful
beyond our present imagining. We will
have more time to put our own house in
order for future generations. Living Earth,
all of it, can continue to breathe. j
Sanctuary welcomes this science-
based world view from E. O. Wilson that
supports the Nature Needs Half vision
that we endorsed immediately when it
was launched in 2009 at WILD9
(9th World Wilderness Congress). We
need a new relationship with nature,
using the best science and the best
traditional knowledge, and Sanctuary
is committed to embed this reality into
India in the years to come.
This article was originally published
in the January/February 2017 edition of
Sierra Club Magazine.
© [2017] Sierra Club. All Rights Reserved.VIPUL RAMANUJEach ecosystem — be it a pond, meadow, coral reef, or something else out of thousands that can be found
around the world — is a web of specialised organisms braided and woven together. The species, each a freely
interbreeding population of individuals, interact with a set of the other species in the ecosystem either
strongly or weakly or not at all.