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Home / Agriculture / Coffee Hotspots - An Inventory of Biodiversityby Dr. Anand Titus and Geeta N. Pereira Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 | Page 4 CONCLUSIONThe specter of an ecological crisis hangs over shade grown eco friendly coffee plantations due to global warming and diminishing biodiversity. Unpredictable climate change like flash floods and drought too is causing great distress to the coffee farming community. Already, chemical pollution, land degradation, over exploitation and depletion of natural resources is exerting a tremendous pressure on the coffee forest. It has reached a high point where it is threatening the very life support systems of the coffee mountain. It is a clear sign that if appropriate remedial measures are not forthcoming, it will result in the death knell for the biodiversity of the coffee mountains.
Our observations point out to the fact that management of our natural resources involves a MULTI SECTORAL approach. As a signatory to convention on biodiversity, India is committed to sustainability in terms of habitat restoration, conservation of bio diversity and benefit sharing. The Government needs to realize that the farming community is not only the back bone of the national economy, but most importantly each and every coffee farmer protects the earth’s precious natural resources. In a way they are guardians of nature and any price volatility would spell doom to the ecology of the coffee mountain resulting in environmental degradation. Another area of concern is that the wealth of biodiversity in developing countries is being exploited by Developed countries. Every biological species plays a stabilizing and balancing role in maintaining the ecological integrity of the planet. This fine balance has been badly affected due to human intervention. It is vital that we realize the importance of every plant and animal species and do something to protect these.
Environmental educator David Orr reports that “If today is a typical day on planet Earth, we will lose 116 square miles of rainforest, or about an acre a second. We will lose another 72 square miles to encroaching deserts, as a result of human mismanagement and overpopulation. We will lose 40 to 100 species, and no one knows whether the number is 40 or 100. Today the human population will increase by 250,000. And today we will add 2,700 tons of chlorofluorocarbons to the atmosphere and 15 million tons of carbon. Tonight the Earth will be a little hotter, its waters more acidic, and the fabric of life more thread bare. The truth is that many things on which your future health and prosperity depend are in dire jeopardy: climate stability, the resilience and productivity of natural systems, the beauty of the natural world, and biological diversity”. Biodiversity will definitely flourish in mans absence. Hence man kind has to realize that it’s his interference that is causing the entire problem. REFERENCESineedcoffee.com/by/Dr._Anand_Titus_and_Geeta_N._Pereira/ bure.unep-wcmc.org/imaps/gb2002/book/viewer.htm (maps) www.bdi.org/PublicKnowledge.htm www.unep-wcmc.org/resources/publications/biodiversityatlas/presspack/index.htm www.undp.org/gef/05/portfolio/biodiversity.html Altieri,M.A., D.L. Glaser and L.L. Schmidt.1990. Diversification of Agro ecosystems for Insect Pest Regulation: Experiments with Collards. In S.R. Gliessman ( Ed. Agro ecology: Researching the Ecological Basis for sustainable Agriculture. Springer-Verlag, New York. Ando, A., Comm. J., Polasky, S and A., Solow. 1998. Species distribution, lands values and efficient conservation. Science: 279 : 2060-2061. Atlas, R.M. and R. Bartha. 1993. Microbial Ecology: Fundamentals and application. Third edition. Benjamin/Cummings Pub. Co. New York. Brock. T. D. 1979. Biology of Microorganisms. Third Edition. Englewood Cliffs. Prentice-Hall. Brookfield, H and C. Padoch. 1994. Appreciating biodiversity: A look at the dynamism and diversity of indigenous farming practices. Environment, 36 : 6-11. Chapman. J.L. & M.J. Reiss.1997. Ecology. Principles and applications. Cambridge University Press. Chaterjee. S. 1995. Global Hot Spots of biodiversity. Current Science, 68, 12 : 1178-11 79. Cox, C.B. & Moore, P.D. 1985. Biogeography : An Ecological and Evolutionary Approach .fourth edition. Blackwell Scientific Press, Oxford. David Orr i. 1990. Annals of Earth, Vol. VIII, No. 2, 1990. 10 Shanks Pond Road, Falmouth, MA 02540 Gabriel Melchias.2001.Biodiversity and Conservation. Oxford & IBH Publishing Co. Pvt. Ltd. New Delhi. GOI.1994. Conservation of Biological Diversity in India. An Appraisal . Ministry of Environment and Forests. Johnson. C., Knowles, R. and Colchester, M. 1989.Rainforests : Land use options for Amazonia, Oxford University Press & WWF, U.K. in association with survival International. 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Phyto-diversity, Monitoring and Conservation strategies of rare, endemic, endangered and Medicinal Plant species of Seshachalam hill range of South Eastern Ghats.In (Eds) Ramamurthi Paul. E.A. and Clark. F. E. 1996. Soil Microbiology and Biochemistry. Academic Press. Ramamurthi Rallapalli & Geetha Bali. 2002. BIODIVERSITY (Monitoring, Management, Conservation & Enhancement). A P H Publishing Corporation. New Delhi. Rallapalli & Geetha Bali. 2002. BIODIVERSITY (Monitoring, Management, Conservation & Enhancement). A P H Publishing Corporation. New Delhi. The Food & Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. 1998. The State of the world’s plant genetic resources for food and agriculture. FAO. Rome. World Resource Institute, 1992. World Resources. 1992-93. Oxford University Press... New York. Scott Wallace. 2007. Last of the Amazon. National Geographic, Jan. 2007. Soule, M.E. (Ed) 1986. Conservation Biology: The science of Scarcity and Diversity. Sinauer Associates Inc. Pub., Massachusetts. Uma shaanker, R and Ganeshaiah.K.N. 1998. Contours of conservation-A National agenda for mapping bio diversity. Current science, 75: 292-298. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTWe wish to give special recognition to Dr. C.G. Kushalappa, (Associate Professor. Dept. of Forestry Biology & Wildlife, College of Forestry, Coorg , University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore) who gave his time most generously in preparing the tables listed in the article. Dr. Kushalappa not only loves teaching, but also promotes the sustainable use of natural resources and practices bio dynamic farming. We are grateful for the help and encouragement given to us by Rahul Kodikal { Kamala Nivas, Nagabana Road, Marnami Katte, Mangalore 575 001 } He readily contributed valuable slides pertaining to Western Ghats bio diversity. Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 | Page 4 Tags: india biodiversity |
