“Slow Fish Caribbean: A New Project to Protect the Region’s Biodiversity.” Slow Food International. N.p., 17 Feb. 2017. Web. 13 Mar. 2017.

http://www.slowfood.com/slow-fish-caribbean-new-project-protect-regions-biodiversity/

The oceans are a resource for the whole planet and one of humanities common goods, helping to protect not just biodiversity and the climate but also serving as the primary source of food for over a billion people and a source of income for millions of families around the world. But they have also been compared to a sheriff-less wild west, where the law of the strongest prevails, and are currently under serious threat. Slow Food is battling the mechanisms of a globalized food system based on the intensive exploitation of resources in the Caribbean. The project’s primary objective is the protection of marine biodiversity and the development of models for the sustainable use of food resources in protected areas.

The ocean’s resource is a classic tragedy of the common situation used by the whole world. This has caused overfishing, destroying the biodiversity, which has made it hard to use the ocean’s ecosystem services, as the food source in this case. I believe it is very important for these organizations to bring regulation into this commons. With the population continuing to grow the way it is we will need to depend on the ocean as a food source so maintain the biodiversity of the world’s oceans in necessary to sustain us.

Arias, L. “Tree Project Improves Biodiversity of Costa Rica’s La Sabana Park.” The Tico Times | Costa Rica News | Travel | Real Estate. N.p., 07 Mar. 2017. Web. 13 Mar. 2017.

http://www.ticotimes.net/2017/03/07/tree-sabana-costa-rica

La Sabana park in San Jose Costa Rica is also home to 347 species of plants, mammals, birds, insects and mollusks. This is mostly thanks to the more than 200 species of trees and plants, all native to Costa Rica, that now populate the park. The tree-replacement stage started in 2011 to improve the park’s biodiversity by planting 5,000 trees of native species and removing non-native trees. These trees are replacing eucalyptus trees, the predominant species within the park ’s 72 hectares. While eucalyptus trees thrive in tropical climates, they fail to attract native species of birds, mammals or insects.

I find it really interesting how this replacing of invasive trees can have this large of an impact. I also find it conflicting to force in biodiversity by disrupting the ecosystem and removing trees to plant native ones I feel this move could have also resulted and further destruction of biodiversity. This article was very detailed in this tree replacement plan and it’s clear that this is a very diverse region and I believe it should be closely watched.

Bawden, Tania. “Fleurieu Wetlands Face High Extinction Risk.” InDaily. N.p., 10 Mar. 2017. Web. 13 Mar. 2017.

http://indaily.com.au/news/2017/03/13/fleurieu-wetlands-face-high-extinction-risk/

Fleurieu wetlands, a highly intricate network of biodiversity is put at risk as more of these smaller or shallower wetlands decline and makes way for more farmland, development or housing estates. These wetlands are very rich in biodiversity, so the loss of small, isolated wetlands presents the highest extinction risk. This is because wetlands can provide important refuges for all native biodiversity otherwise rare in the landscape. While the smallest wetlands are most threatened by reduced water availability in a drying climate, the loss of these smallest wetlands represents a worst-case situation for the regional biodiversity supported across all wetlands.

Fleurieu wetlands are in southern Australia and it’s interesting how these wetlands and the hunter region, which I previously wrote about, are both facing similar issues with the intrusion of habitat leaving the regions to face large scale extinction of biodiversity. It makes me question the possible growing population of Australia or perhaps a cultural increase in consumption. This article does a good job of highlighting why even the loss of the smaller wetlands poses a large impact on the entire ecosystem of Fleurieu.

Ehrlich, Paul R., and Partha S. Dasgupta. “WHY WE’RE IN THE SIXTH GREAT EXTINCTION AND WHAT IT MEANS TO HUMANITY.” N.p., 27 Feb. 2017. Web. 12 Mar. 2017.

One reason humanity should care about the destruction of biodiversity is that it leads to the deterioration of ecosystem services upon which civilization is utterly dependent. Most of these ecosystem services cannot be replaced by artificial means. The few that can will incur extraordinary costs. So It is far better to avoid destroying the services that nature provides for free, than to incur massive costs for replacements that will never be complete. In addition contemporary industrial activities, including industrial agriculture, usually have devastating impacts on local ecosystem services that are essential to the lives of poor, rural, and forest communities in developing countries. The economic benefits of those industrial works rarely filter back to the victims.

This article highlights the necessity of biodiversity to our civilization and how it affects the different people more. I like how this piece focuses a lot on the economics of biodiversity specifically how the poor rarely receive benefit, from the industrial activities that destroy their local ecosystem. I agree with the author that we can not fulfill these ecosystem services synthetically and even if it would be possible it wouldn’t be feasible so it is important to protect these services instead of finding ways to live without them.

Biodiversity offset schemes in the Hunter are adding extinction pressure to the very species they are meant to protect. The schemes allow developers to clear bushland if they buy, protect or improve bushland elsewhere. However, the Nature Conservation report: biodiversity offsetting in NSW, found the areas set aside are often poorer quality or a different type of habitat than that being destroyed. It found that offsets resulted in ‘poor’ or ‘disastrous’ outcomes for wildlife in 75 per cent of cases. This is because of the biodiversity offsets law’s vague language allowing for loopholes. New offset laws passed by Berejiklian administration were intended to close these loopholes but experts say it will open more loopholes than close existing ones.

The Hunter region is just north of Sydney and is a valley with a climate similar to that of California valley with a large amount of biodiversity. These offsets seem like a good idea to preserve the biodiversity but in practice need strict language too work. With most of the Hunter region’s habitats being destroyed the biodiversity is as well. This article clearly examined the report and explained some of the loopholes developers use to their advantage.