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Biodiversity in Goa
1.0 Introduction
The term biodiversity is used to describe the huge variety of life on this planet. An astonishing 1.8 million different species have been identified and named by tribals, peasants and scientists. Yet we still do not really know how many diverse species there are in the world.
We know that there are about 8,600 species of birds, 4,000 species of mammals and 32,000 species of flowering plants because these organisms are relatively well studied. However, there is still uncertainty about other organisms such as insects (where estimates vary from eight million to a hundred million), fungi (where 70,000 have been identified but 1.6 million are thought to exist) and little-studied organisms such as bacteria, nematode worms and mites. There are at least eight million species on our planet, and probably a lot more, so those who identify, name and classif y organisms still have a lot of work to do. One of the greatest challenges for the new millenium is to increase our knowledge of the organisms with which we share this planet.
There are three aspects of biodiversity:
The variety of habitats (environments) in which living organisms live The number of species The variation within each species 1.1 Why preserve biodiversity?
This diversity holds together life on Earth. The green plants on land and microscopic plants in the oceans produce the oxygen we breathe. Global climate change would be far worse if it were not for the role of forests and oceans in absorbing much of the carbon dioxide we are putting into the atmosphere. Mangrove forests hold tropical coastlines together. Each individual species depends upon others for its existence and the links between different species hold life together. If one species is removed then the others that depend upon it will also either die or be seriously affected.
Some species are particularly important because without them their whole ecosystem will collapse. For example, forest trees and ocean plankton, which control our climate, are often little valued by people, but their role in controlling our environment is the single most important aspect of biodiversity. A second reason for protecting biodiversity is because human beings are dependent upon it. We depend on biodiversity for our food, medicines, shelter, for many industrial products such as wood and rubber, cosmetics and many other products. As we lose species, we are also losing potential new medicines and foods that may be needed to continue human life on Earth. For example, over half of our medicines come originally from plants, and new ones are still being discovered. A recent example is the anti-cancer drug, taxol, from the bark of the Pacific yew tree.
A third reason for preserving biodiversity is ethical. Is it right for people to destroy so much of Nature’s creation? Fourthly, we should preserve biodiversity purely for beauty and enjoyment. It would be a dull world without the flowers and songbirds around us, or the whales in the sea or the magnificent animals in the sanctuaries and national parks.
be to examine these issues in a non-anthropocentric fashion and see them as well from below. The SAP should never degenerate into a pure academic exercise. It should fairly reflect the views of all actors and it should discuss the all-important political realities. It should frankly address issues relating to equitable access to biodiversity.
1.6 Methodology
An attempt was made to make the process of preparation of the Goa SAP as democratic and participatory as possible. Also, specific thrust was given to not keeping work on the project confined to the professional academic and research community, but to generate material from within the communities themselves. In fact, some of the sub-reports have been prepared either in Konkani, or in Marathi, and are based on active contributions from the communities themselves. The fairly large amount of material already available in English was also used during the work.