Dr Edward Wilson, former professor of biology at Harvard University, has said that the “quenching of life’s exuberance will be more consequential to humanity than all present day warming, ozone depletion and pollution combined.”
Many will rightly ask: How much of the web of life is now facing extinction? When we look at the extent and rate of extinction it is obvious that the web of life is being torn up and discarded at an extraordinary rate and the consequences for humankind will be horrendous.
A study by The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) conducted in 2010 estimates that one in five mammals, one in four plants, one in three amphibians and one in eight birds are in danger of being pushed over the precipice of extinction. David Roberts, from the Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology at the University of Kent, one of the co-authors of the study said that “if we take the number of species that are known to be threatened, and add to that those that are yet to be discovered, we can estimate that between 27% and 33% of all flowering plants will be threatened with extinction.” The paper makes the point that these are conservative projections and do not take account of the number of species which will become extinct because of global warming.
Flowering plants are a vital part of the human food chain. David Roberts points out that “Plants are the basis of much of life on Earth, with virtually all other species depending on them. If you get rid of those you get rid of a lot of the things above them.”
IUCN believes that of the estimated 634 primate species in the world, 48% are now facing extinction. The mountain gorilla is critically endangered with only 720 left in the wild in the Congo, Rwanda and Uganda. Poachers have devastated their numbers. However, the major threat to the gorillas is the continuing destruction of forests mainly to make charcoal for people to cook their meals.
Orangutans, like other great apes, are close relatives of humans. They live only in Indonesia and Malaysia. They are almost totally arboreal, living in the trees, travelling through the trees and eating fruit from the trees. At one time there were hundreds of thousands of orangutans living in the wild. However the destruction of their habitat by illegal loggers and the clearance of the tropical forests to make way for palm oil plantations, has decimated their numbers. Even the estimated 2,500 found in Gunung Palung National Park in Indonesia are under threat from poachers. Many people now fear that orangutans in the wild could be extinct within 10 to 15 years.
Other primates are also on the brink of extinction. There are only between 50 and 70 golden headed langurs on the island of Ca Ba in north-eastern Vietnam. On the island of Madagascar there are fewer than 100 northern sportive lemurs and less that 110 eastern black crested gibbons in north-eastern Vietnam. It is not a coincidence that primates on the Island of Madagascar are hugely endangered. After the coup in March 2009, Madagascar’s world-renowned national parks were infiltrated by illegal loggers. Tens of thousands of hectares have been impacted and the resulting instability has caused a boom in lemur bushmeat hunting, where these rare animals are killed and then sold as meat in restaurants. All of Madagascar’s primates on the list are lemurs.
Religious leaders can play an important role in stemming the tide of extinction. In Malaysia, Muslim preachers have been recruited by the World Wide Fund for Nature to help raise awareness and thus help protect some of the world’s most endangered species. After a successful campaign in 1999, when more than 400 mosques in the state of Terengganu in preached sermons at the Friday prayers focusing on turtle conservation issues, WWF decided to extend the project to support efforts to tackle poaching. The WWF ran workshops for local imams, explaining the importance of wildlife protection. The seminars highlighted the many passages in the Koran which deal with the responsibility of humans in protecting the environment – God’s creation.
~ Fr Sean McDonagh SSC
