In-situ and Ex-situ conservation of Biodiversity - Practice Questions & MCQ

• When we conserve and protect the whole ecosystem, its biodiversity at all levels is protected - we save the entire forest to save the tiger. 
• This approach is called in situ (on site) conservation. 

Hotspots

• According to Norman Myers, hotspots are areas that are extremely rich in species, have high endemism, and are under constant threat.
• Endemism means species confined to a particular region and not found anywhere else.
• Initially 25 biodiversity hotspots were identified but subsequently nine more have been added to the list, bringing the total number of biodiversity hotspots in the world to 34.
• These hotspots are also regions of accelerated habitat loss. 
• Three of these hotspots – Western Ghats and Sri Lanka, Indo-Burma and Himalaya – cover our country’s exceptionally high biodiversity regions.
• Although all the biodiversity hotspots put together cover less than 2 percent of the earth’s land area, the number of species they collectively harbour is extremely high and strict protection of these hotspots could reduce the ongoing mass extinctions by almost 30 percent.

National Parks

• A national park is a reserve of land, usually owned by a national government. 
• It is a tract of land, which is declared public property to preserve and develop for the purpose of recreation and culture. 
• It is protected from human development activities and pollution. 
• National parks are protected areas of IUCN category II.
• The first national park in India was Hailey National Park, now known as Jim Corbett National Park, established in the year 1935.
• There are 104 existing national parks in India covering an area of 40501.13 km2, which is 1.23% of the geographical area of the country (National Wildlife Database, May, 2019).

Sacred Groves

• In many cultures, tracts of forest were set aside, and all the trees and wildlife within were venerated and given total protection. 
• Such sacred groves are found in Khasi and Jaintia Hills in Meghalaya, Aravalli Hills of Rajasthan, Western Ghat regions of Karnataka and Maharashtra and the Sarguja, Chanda and Bastar areas of Madhya Pradesh. 
• In Meghalaya, the sacred groves are the last refuges for a large number of rare and threatened plants.
   

Wildlife Sanctuary:

• Sanctuary is an area which is of adequate ecological, faunal, floral, geomorphological, natural or zoological significance. 
• The Sanctuary is declared for the purpose of protecting, propagating or developing wildlife or its environment. 
• Certain rights of people living inside the Sanctuary could be permitted. 
• Collection of forest products, cutting trees for timber are allowed provided they do not affect the animals. 
• There are 551 existing wildlife sanctuaries in India covering an area of 119775.80 km2, which is 3.64 % of the geographical area of the country (National Wildlife Database, May, 2019).

Biosphere Reserves:

• Biosphere reserves are protected areas meant for preserving genetic diversity in the various biomes. 
• The concept of biosphere reserves has been evolved by UNESCO’s Man and Biosphere programme or MAB.
• The biosphere reserve has concentric areas zoned for different use:
  • The core zone is the innermost zone devoted to preserving biodiversity with no human interference.
  • Around the core zone there is the buffer zone in which some settlement and resource use is allowed. In this area, a variety of educational programmes and research activities are carried out, such as identifica­tion of endangered species, artificial propagation of species, and application of tissue culture techniques to enable rapid multiplication of threatened species.
  • The outermost zone is the transition zone where sustainable development activities are permitted. This is an area of interaction between the biosphere reserve management and the local people. Here activities such as forestry, recreation, cropping, etc. are permitted.
• The Indian government has established 18 biosphere reserves in India.

• When there are situations where an animal or plant is endangered or threatened and needs urgent measures to save it from extinction, ex situ (off site) conservation is the desirable approach.

Botanical Gardens: 

• According to the currently available survey, Central Government and State Governments together run and manage 33 Botanical Gardens, while Universities have their own botanic gardens.
• A scheme entitled Assistance to Botanic Gardens provides one-time assistance to botanic gardens to strengthen and institute measures for ex-situ conservation of threatened and endangered species in their respective regions.

Zoological Parks:

• In India, there are 275 zoos, deer parks, safari parks, aquaria, etc. 
• A Central Zoo Authority was set up to secure better management of zoos.
• Many of these zoos have well developed captive breeding programmes.

Gene bank, pollen bank, seed bank, tissue culture & cryopreservation:

• In recent years ex situ conservation has advanced beyond keeping threatened species in enclosures. 
• Now gametes of threatened species can be preserved in viable and fertile condition for long periods using cryopreservation techniques, eggs can be fertilised in vitro, and plants can be propagated using tissue culture methods. 
• Seeds of different genetic strains of commercially important plants can be kept for long periods in seed banks.
• Seed gene banks make the easiest way to store germplasm of wild and cultivated plants at low temperature.
• In field gene banks, preservation of genetic resources is being done under normal growing conditions.
• Cryopreservation is the storage of material at ultra-low temperature (i.e., -196° C) either by very rapid cooling, as used for storing seeds, or by gradual cooling and simultaneous dehydration, as being done in tissue culture.
• In cryopreservation, the material can be stored for a considerable long period of time in compact low maintenance refrigeration units.