How are botinical gardern and zoological park useful in conserving biodiversity?
Answers
Conservation is the protection, preservation, management, or restoration of wildlife and natural resources such as forests and water in an area so that the abundance and distribution of species and communities provide for continued existence and normal ecological functioning, including adaptation and extinction.
Biodiversity conservation is necessary because of the following reasons:
Many commercially important products are obtained by nature such as food, fibre, wood, and countless industrial products.
Certain activities and products cannot be accomplished without the help of nature such as production of oxygen and pollination.
Intangible benefits such as aesthetic pleasure are derived from nature.
Conserving the species we share our planet with and passing the rich legacy of biodiversity to our future generations is our ethical duty.
Biodiversity can be conserved by:
In-situ conservation - In order to conserve biodiversity better, some of the world’s biodiversity hotspots (with high degree of biodiversity and endemism) have been identified and are protected. In India, biosphere reserves, wildlife sanctuaries, and national parks are built for this purpose.
Ex-situ conservation - The threatened species of plants and animals are taken out of their habitats and are kept in special settings as in zoological parks, botanical gardens, and wildlife parks.
Nowadays, the gametes of endangered species can be preserved viable by methods such as cryopreservation and can be fertilized in-vitro followed by propagation through tissue culture methods. Similarly, seeds can be preserved in seed banks.
A new organism found can be studied while comparing it with living plants and animals living in protected areas like Botanical gardens, Zoological parks, etc.
Whereas zoological parks also contribute in conserving biodiversity by (i) Providing natural environment and open space to animals, i.e., wild life species.