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We are not Alone
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We are not alone - Sharing the planet with other species.
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Human beings are relative newcomers to the planet. Other animals and plants were here for a very long time before we arrived. Human history however is littered with the extinction of many other species and the assault continues to the present day with some 34,000 plants and 5,200 animal species facing extinction worldwide. This represents one fifth of all species in the world and has prompted the United Nations to declare 2010 as the International Year of Biodiversity.
These losses cannot be reversed – when a species is extinct it is gone forever. Many bird species that were common in Ireland in the past are included in that list – such as the grey partridge, yellowhammer, corncrake, hen harrier, barn owl and the corn bunting.
Ireland can ill afford to lose any species as our island status left us with a relatively small number of species compared to our European neighbours. There are just 35 mammal species on land in Ireland, 28 freshwater fish species, 24 species of whale and dolphin in Irish seawaters and approximately 200 different types of bird. The number of invertebrates (without a backbone) exceed 16,000.
On the plant side we do somewhat better with approximately 2,000 vascular plant species (ferns, clubmosses, flowering plants and conifers), over 800 bryophytes (mosses, liverworts and hornworths), 1,600 types of algae, about 1,000 different types of lichens and over 3,500 different species of fungi in the country. The mosses and liverworths flourish in the mild damp climate and lichens grow in abundance here because of our clean, unpolluted air. Unusual combinations of flowers are found in the limestone cracks of the Burren with Mediterranean flowers growing alongside those from much colder climates further north.
For a better understanding of Ireland’s flora and fauna and the role of geology, boglands, agriculture and hedgerows see the comprehensive article by Michael Viney on the Library Council’s website here.
Ireland is committed through the EU to ‘halt the decline in biodiversity by 2010’ and to ‘restore habitats and natural systems’. The Heritage Council, established in the mid 90s, has a wide brief to protect the heritage of Ireland and that includes, among other things, flora, fauna and wildlife habitats (see http://www.heritagecouncil.ie/).
One of its initiatives was the creation of a National Biodiversity Data Centre in Waterford as a Centre of Research Excellence on Ireland’s flora and fauna.
There are now over one million records in its on-line database that is available, to access click here.
The annual economic value of biodiversity to Ireland was conservatively estimated at €2.6 billion in 2008 in a report to the Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government. This significant amount of money shows that we need to protect species and habitats for economic reasons as well as for their intrinsic value.
As the report points out, loss of biodiversity is our loss. The incentive to protect biodiversity does not simply arise from a benevolence towards the natural world. Rather, a high level of biodiversity also ensures that we are supplied with the ‘ecosystem services’ that are essential to the sustainability of our standard of living and to our survival. The full report is available for download on the website of Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government. |
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