As the year 2018 is starting, it is of interest to ask how much progress has been achieved by countries with hotspots on the land (of which the Philippines is one of them) to address the problem of deforestation and extinction of biodiversity in tropical rainforests.
For the Philippines, a report on the improvement of our terrestrial environment for the year 2017 is expected from concerned government agencies.
In 2003, Dr. Edward O. Wilson, professor emeritus at Harvard University, published his acclaimed book, The Future of Life
“Of 25 hotspots on the land — places with the most species at risk of extinction –15 are covered primarily by tropical rainforests. These threatened ecosystems include the moist tropical woodlands of Brazil’s Atlantic coast, southern Mexico with Central America, the tropical Andes, the Greater Antilles, West Africa, Madagascar, the Western Ghats of India, Indo-Burma, Indonesia, the Philippines, and New Caledonia. Together with the remaining terrestrial hotspots, covered mostly by savanna and coastal sagebrush, they take up only 1.4 percent of the world’s land surface. Yet, astonishingly, they are the exclusive homes of 44 percent of the world’s plant species, and more than a third of all species of birds, mammals, reptiles, and amphibians. Almost all are also under heavy assault. The rainforests of the West Indies, Brazil’s Atlantic coast, Madagascar, and the Philippines, for example, retain less than 10 percent of their original cover.
Large numbers of species have already been lost forever from the forest hotspots. Many more are endangered. In a nightmare scenario, battalions of loggers armed with bulldozers and chainsaws could wipe out these habitats off the face of Earth in a few months — and with them a large part of the world’s biodiversity. On the flip side, it is heartening in compensating degree to realize that by protecting this tiny fraction of the planet’s land area, millions of species can be saved for posterity.”
The tropical rainforest is the most complex of all forest ecosystems, and is home to a large biodiversity, many of which render many services to mankind, or are unique to the country. Rainforests help fight climate change. Rainforests stabilize the environment and help prevent disasters like flooding and storm surges. Rainforests facilitate ecotourism.
The endemic and native biodiversity in tropical rainforests have become well adaptive to tropical sub-climates and other forest conditions through their evolution during the past geologic times.
Introduction of alien species should, therefore, be discouraged as they disrupt the ecological relationships existing among endemic or native species, and could result in making the latter species rare or extinct. This is the argument against the introduction of alien species into our natural ecosystems.
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Author’s email: [email protected]
