Why we do what we do. Accelerating Species Extinctions.

Some estimates put the number of species on planet earth as low as 1,500,000.  A National Academy of Science paper from 2000, conservatively estimated that there may be somewhere in the region of 7,000,000 species.  In 1980, one scientific research trip in Panama of just 19 trees, found that 80% of the 1200 beetle species found were unknown to science.  In fact, scientists have a clearer idea of how many stars there are in the galaxy then how many species there are on Earth.

The natural background extinction rate is estimated to be about 1 species per 10,000,000 per year.  Until recently human impact was thought to be 100 times more than this background rate, it turns out that it is greater than a 1000 times and could be as high as 10,000 times this rate!  For example, for the 10,000 species of bird on the planet you would expect a natural extinction rate of 1 species per 1000 years.  In fact, in the past 600 years there have been 140 bird species extinctions...

But who cares, extinctions happen all the time, why does it matter?  Well that’s a very good question and it’s to do with the role biodiversity plays in ecosystem function.  There are a number of services that our ecosystem carries out for us.  These include nutrient and water recycling, soil formation and retention, resistance against invasive species, plant pollination, climate regulation, pest and pollution control. 

This biodiversity is under attack, constantly from humans.  We attempt to dominate the natural world instead of act as ethical and thoughtful stewards.  Maybe if we thought more about our great grandkids and not our own selfish needs we would make better decisions, but that is for another discussion!  The threats to biodiversity are primarily habitat destruction and degradation, overexploitation (including extraction, hunting, and fishing), pollution, disease and climate change... and my list certainly isn’t exhaustive!

If we choose just one of these, habitat destruction, it’s not hard to see that we certainly all play a big part destroying ecosystems.  We dredge water courses, drain wetlands, plant monocultures of crops with poor farming practices, cut grasses, destroy hedgerows and needlessly cut down healthy trees.  We have inadvertently (ignorantly?) created small islands of biodiversity, forcing all manner of species, plants, insects, birds, mammals and reptiles to survive in smaller and smaller enclaves making them more susceptible to extinction.

What do we try and do at La Fieffe?  We let the wild ones in!  My father obsesses over grass, cut grass, lawns... he makes all manner of argument about how it prevents slugs and snails getting near our food and prevents ticks and other nasties from getting my little girls... BUT we’ll take them, the lot.  The stingers, the biters, the slimy, the prickly, the ugly and the smelly, IF they improve the overall biodiversity in our small holding “island”, which they will, as long as we continue to mimic nature (through Permaculture design techniques) and not fight her. 

The interconnected nature of an ecosystem is immense.  Those creatures that are unpopular with some gardeners are food to something else, and do actually carry out a function in the bigger system, removing rotting vegetation, in the case of slugs.  If they start eating your delicates, perhaps you should be thinking about providing a sacrificial foodstuff, which could have a secondary beneficial effect (i.e. companion plant?) instead of choosing the industrial farming approach of sterilising the land with insecticides and fungicides.

We often comment about the diversity of what we see around us.  The fact that our 15-acres supports a couple of breeding pairs of buzzard or the diversity of fungi we see in a small patch of woodland is astounding, or the discovery of something beautiful like an elephant hawk moth... all are a sign of a healthy ecosystem.   But we do not rest on our laurels.  The ecosystem needs our attention.  We carry out small acts of kindness to help our non-human friends along, it’s the least we can do after years of neglect and destruction.