Biodiversity Challenges
The following article on biodiversity was authored by Dr. Horacio de la Cueva, a Steering Committee member of the Punta Banda Conservation Alliance. Horacio obtained his PhD at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada 1991. Since then he has worked at Científica y de Educación Superior de Ensenada (CICESE), where he is a Full Researcher at the Biología de la Conservación department. He teaches advanced Statistics, Philosophy of Biological Sciences, and Ecology and Evolution courses. While not specifically about the Punta Banda Peninsula, the article underscores the importance of protecting native plants and wildlife on the peninsular.
Biodiversity is not a list of species of a given area; nor is it how many of each species are present; nor is it something we can measure regarding the state of the environment, its fragility, or its resilience.
Who is responsible for biodiversity in Mexico? NOM-059-SEMARNAT, the by-law that deals with endangered species in Mexico—and which is currently under review— defines biodiversity incompletely. For NOM-059, biodiversity is the "variability of living organisms from any source, including, but not limited to, terrestrial, marine, and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part; it includes diversity within each species, between species, and within ecosystems." This definition is narrower than that of its author, E.O. Wilson: the variety of life forms on Earth, from genes to species to ecosystems, and the valuable functions they perform. The Comisión Nacional de Biodiversidad (National commission for the study and use of biodiversity, CONABIO)—whose mission is Mexican biodiversity—adopts E.O. Wilson's definition, which includes genetic variability, from the genetic material itself to the landscapes and the planet.
To understand, study, defend, and protect biodiversity, we should understand that there are local, regional, and continental biodiversities that make up the planet's biodiversity. We can set arbitrary geographic and political limits on biodiversity, as CONABIO did. That arbitrary political line, our landscape heterogeneity, and its biodiversity make us one of the megadiverse countries. Do we generate well-being and quality of life from our biodiversity?
What amazes me about biodiversity is that it is the consequence of the evolution of species. That evolution gave rise to interactions between species that have modified the planet.
Along with the species and the landscapes and ecosystems in which they live, there is a set of "ecosystem services" on which we completely depend. No questions. We should be aware that these "services" are not just here for us. They are products of the processes and interactions of biodiversity that we use to live. We could also consider them gifts of nature, but they come at a cost. They transform nature and are transformed by it. These services, goods, or gifts are natural products whose production we must safeguard for their own good and ours. These products include the oxygen and food that plants provide to other organisms, the water purified during its infiltration into the soil, fisheries, climate regulation, textiles, medicines, the decomposition of dead organisms, and the beauty of the landscape that surrounds us. We cannot live without these natural products, but nature can continue its course without us.
Biodiversity cannot be easily measured, nor can it be compared. Biodiversity in one part of the planet is neither better, nor greater, nor more important than in another. Local biodiversity is both a product and a cause of where it is found. The diversity, number, extent, and distribution of species varies from place to place, a product of their history and location. Although we cannot compare biodiversity, we have taken care to conserve places that stand out for having a large number of species. We associate this large number of species with humid and tropical sites, but the Sonoran Desert, tropical reefs, submarine hydrothermal vents, and the steppe are also rich in species, genetic diversity, and life processes.
Our challenge in the face of biodiversity—of which we are an undeniable part—is to conserve it or, where appropriate, restore it. Every organism, every species, and every biological process interacts with and modifies its environment. Given our capabilities, our environmental modification is significant, obvious, and often irreversible. The most obvious modification is urban and agricultural development. The prediction that we will lose a million species in the near future, and climate change, are the most obvious consequences.
It is neither necessary nor useful to radically change our lifestyles and revert to primitive societies where infectious diseases cut short our lives. But we must create and follow patterns of use and consumption of nature and human products that maintain biodiversity. To impoverish and destroy biodiversity is to destroy ourselves.
