Biodiversity Loss and Regulation

What Are The Causes and Cascading Consequences of Biodiversity Loss and What Regulations Have Been Enacted?

At a Glimpse

Biodiversity sustains the interchangeable web of interactions within an ecosystem. When disrupted, the resilience of an ecosystem can be compromised, altering the ability to provide sufficient ecosystem services.

Biodiversity Provides:

Diverse plant species contribute to soil fertility and health, helping prevent erosion.
Natural species helps control the overpopulation of other species.
More Diverse ecosystems tend to be more resilient, as species can help ecosystems adapt.
Various species hold a role in nitrogen, phosphorus, and carbon cycles.

Why is Biodiversity Important?

Biodiversity serves as nature's backbone, offering a multitude of benefits across ecosystems. From providing medicines, though supporting food production from pollination, to aiding in climate change and water purification, diverse ecosystems provide numerous goods and services that are irreplaceable.

Causes of Biodiversity Loss

The two main drivers of biodiversity loss include climate change and the food system.

The three most studied mass extinctions have been connected to sharp changes in the climate. biodiversity loss and climate change are closely related catastrophes.

The cheaper food padrigram, as pictured to the right, drives demand leading to unsustainable farming practices, and the conversion of land. As food prices help dictate demand, cheaper food is desired, thus further driving the expansion of food production.

Protection Efforts

Is it enough?

Regulations

Regulations like the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (framework for the conservation of endangered species and their habitats), as well as the Lacey Act of 1900 (focus on preventing illegal wildlife trade), both were enacted to help prevent species loss.

Establishment of Protective Areas

The establishment of parks such as Yellowstone National Park and Yosemite National Park are areas that have been side aside in attempt to conserve the area. There are currently 423 National Parks

The Gaps:

The Endangered Species Act or ESA, and the Lacey Act could still be in the position to be taken advantage of, especially from businesses. There is quite criticism that the United States is failing to live up tp the expectation of a National Strategy, as economics are the center of decision making with many ecyostem0based decisions being costly.

State parks help drive national and global tourism, especially those with quite some popularity like Yellowstone or Yosemite, however, it can bring a "great deal of stress and natural habitats and their equilibrium. (Sergo, 2022).

Ways to Improve:

The United States (and on a global scale) needs more concrete national regulations to ensure businesses are not taking advantage of pre-established laws. Additionally, regulating farm management for more sustainable practices, as well as creating anti-exploitation national fines could help preserve species in numerous ecosystems.

Methods and Framework

Heuristics explores the idea of solving problems, or applying decision-making techniques to navigate within the complexity of a given issue. The diagram above displays how this plays out with the proposed research question.

Importance
- Laying the foundation for context of the research question.
Causes
- Identifying main primary causes of biodiversity loss to help map the interconnectedness of ecosystems and people
Regulations
- Summarizing regulations based on scope, for a quick extraction of information.
Ways to Improve
- Finding gaps to find a better solution for biodiversity loss.

Methods:

The studies appropriate for this research would include policy analysis and a ecological study as there are multiple variables at play, including abiotic and biotic factors. The environment is not being directly changed, and no variable is being manipulated, and the ecosystem is only being observed, similarly to the policy, where the study only looks at what they are and how they work.

References

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Cafaro, P., Hansson, P., & Götmark, F. (2022). Overpopulation is a major cause of biodiversity

loss and smaller human populations are necessary to preserve what is left. Biological Conservation, 272. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2022.109646

Chen, J. M. (2018). The Fragile Menagerie: Biodiversity Loss, Climate Change, and the Law. Indiana Law Journal, 93(2), 303–368.

Costante, D. M., Haines, A. M., & Leu, M. (2023). Threatened species face similar types and numbers of threats as endangered species when listed under the Endangered Species Act. Wildlife Society Bulletin, 47(2), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1002/wsb.1425

David M. Barker. (2011). Loss of Biodiversity. Essential Library.

Gerber, L. R., Schwartz, M. W., & Dreiss, L. M. (2023). The U.S. needs a National Biodiversity Strategy. Conservation Science & Practice, 5(11), 1–7.

htps://doi.org/10.1111/csp2.13028

Habibullah, M. S., Din, B. H., Tan, S.-H., & Zahid, H. (2022). Impact of climate change on biodiversity loss: global evidence. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 29(1), 1073–1086. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-15702-8

Haines-Young, R. (2009). Land use and biodiversity relationships. Land use policy, 26, S178- S186.

Linsley, P., Abdelbadie, R., & Abdelbadie, R. (2023). Biodiversity Loss: No Future for Business as Usual. Studies in Risk & Sustainable Development, 397, 1–5. https://doi.org/10.22367/srsd.2023.397.2

Osewe, E. O., Niţă, M. D., & Abrudan, I. V. (2022). Assessing the Fragmentation, Canopy Loss and Spatial Distribution of Forest Cover in Kakamega National Forest Reserve, Western Kenya. Forests (19994907), 13(12), 2127. https://doi.org/10.3390/f13122127

Raimund Bleischwitz, & Peter Hennicke. (2004). Eco-Efficiency, Regulation and Sustainable Business : Towards a Governance Structure for Sustainable Development. Edward Elgar Publishing.

Šergo, Z., Gržinić, J., & Gavranić, T. Z. (2022). A Cross-Countries Analysis of Biodiversity Loss and Tourism Demand: Evidence From Count Models. Tourism (13327461), 70(4), 642–655. https://doi.org/10.37741/t.70.4.7

Shaffer, R. (2013). Judicial Oversight in the Comparative Context: Biodiversity Protection in the United States, Australia, and Canada. Environmental Law Reporter News & Analysis, 43(2), 10169–10188.