IT WAS World Wildlife Day two days ago, March 3. The yearly observance is a call for people to take part in biodiversity conservation efforts. Specifically, how can local communities help curb illegal wildlife trade?
The importance of wildlife cannot be underestimated as this equates to human survival. Our most basic needs are provided by and taken from wildlife resources. The clothes we wear may have been manufactured using cotton, hemp or other plant fibers. For the Visayans, we have the famous piña cloth and hablon which is made from the combination of banana fiber, piña, locally grown silk threads, cotton, rayon and other indigenous materials.
Our food are sourced out from animals and plants while the materials we use to build houses may include wood or soil compositions for concrete structures.
Most of the effective medicines we have are processed from plants. Organic medicinal products are mostly patronized due to their effective health boost.
But wildlife is more than just plants and animals. It includes even the microscopic parasites, such as the nematodes. Nematodes are microscopic roundworms usually found in the gardens. These beneficial parasites serve as vital component in compost which creates valuable, nutritious soil. This, in turn, helps the soil to produce more crops that are then made available in grocery stores. There is also the symbiotic fungi we call Mycorrhyza which enhance plant growth even under environmental stresses such as water and nutrient stresses, presence of toxic heavy metals, soil structure problems and often biotic factors. Then there are the phytoplanktons which are microscopic algae suspended in surface waters of seas and lakes where there is sufficient light for photosynthesis to take place. They are responsible for eliminating carbon from our atmosphere and contribute to dissolved oxygen levels of water.
We cannot underestimate the value of wildlife in our everyday living. It means everything for our own existence depends on it. Thus, environmental conservation and protection of wildlife habitats especially with endemic animals and indigenous species is very important. Factors that affect wildlife habitat destruction include deforestation, natural disasters and animal migration, to mention a few.
But the most pressing concern on wildlife existence is the illegal trading of it. Notably, areas in Western Visayas that are vulnerable to illegal wildlife trade are the last frontier of our natural set asides. These protected areas include the Northern Negros Natural Park and Mount Kanla-on Natural Park, both in Negros Occidental; Bulabog-Putian National Park in Dingle, Iloilo; Northwest Panay Peninsula Natural Park in Antique which harbor the remaining wildlife resources in the region.
When all ecosystems are in balance, human life is also in balance. When it is disrupted or disturbed, it also affects us in many ways and is especially detrimental to our health.
