The New Nation - Internet Edition

The importance of biodiversity

Taieba Ahmad Ireen

Biological diversity or biodiversity refers to the variety of life forms: the different plants, animals and microorganisms, the genes they contain, and the ecosystems they form. This living wealth is the product of hundreds of millions of years of evolutionary history. The process of evolution means that the pool of living diversity is dynamic: it increases when new genetic variation is produced, a new species is created or a novel ecosystem formed; it decreases when the genetic variation within a species decreases, a species becomes extinct or an ecosystem complex is lost. The concept emphasizes the interrelated nature of the living world and its processes.

Biological diversity is usually considered at three different levels: genetic diversity, species diversity and ecosystem diversity.

Genetic diversity refers to the variety of genetic information contained in all of the individual plants, animals and microorganisms. Genetic diversity occurs within and between populations of species as well as between species. Species diversity refers to the variety of living species.

Ecosystem diversity relates to the variety of habitats, biotic communities, and ecological processes, as well as the tremendous diversity present within ecosystems in terms of habitat differences and the variety of ecological processes.

At the ecosystem level, biodiversity provides the conditions and drives the processes that sustain the global economy - and our very survival as a species. The benefits and services provided by ecosystems include:

The activities of microbial and animal species - including bacteria, algae, fungi, mites, millipedes and worms - condition soils, break down organic matter, and release essential nutrients to plants. These processes play a key role in the cycling of such crucial elements as nitrogen, carbon and phosphorous between the living and non-living parts of the biosphere.

Plant species purify the air and regulate the composition of the atmosphere, recycling vital oxygen and filtering harmful particles resulting from industrial activities.

Wetland ecosystems (swamps, marshes, etc.) absorb and recycle essential nutrients, treat sewage, and cleanse wastes. In estuaries, molluscs remove nutrients from the water, helping to prevent nutrient over-enrichment and its attendant problems, such as eutrophication arising from fertilizer run-off. Trees and forest soils purify water as it flows through forest ecosystems. In preventing soils from being washed away, forests also prevent the harmful siltation of rivers and reservoirs that may arise from erosion and landslides.

Around 99 per cent of potential crop pests are controlled by a variety of other organisms, including insects, birds and fungi. These natural pesticides are in many ways superior to their artificial equivalents, since pests can often develop resistance to chemical controls.

Some 130 billion metric tons of organic waste is processed every year by earth's decomposing organisms. Many industrial wastes, including detergents, oils, acids and paper, are also detoxified and decomposed by the activities of living things. In soils, the end product of these processes - a range of simple inorganic chemicals - is returned to plants as nutrients. Higher (vascular) plants can themselves serve to remove harmful substances from groundwater.

Many flowering plants rely on the activities of various animal species - bees, butterflies, bats, birds, etc. - to help them reproduce through the transportation of pollen. More than one-third of humanity's food crops depend on this process of natural pollination. Many animal species have evolved to perform an additional function in plant reproduction through the dispersal of seeds.

Plant tissues and other organic materials within land and ocean ecosystems act as repositories of carbon, helping to slow the build-up of atmospheric carbon dioxide, and thus contributing to climate stabilization.

Ecosystems also exert direct influences on regional and local weather patterns. Moisture released into the atmosphere by rainforests, for example, causes regular rainstorms, limiting water loss from the region and helping to control the surface temperature. In cold climates, meanwhile, forests act as insulators and as windbreaks, helping to mitigate the impacts of freezing temperatures.

Forests and grasslands protect landscapes against erosion, nutrient loss, and landslides through the binding action of roots. Ecosystems bordering regularly flooding rivers (floodplain forests and wetlands) help to absorb excess water and thus reduce the damage caused by floods. Certain coastal ecosystems (salt marshes, mangrove forests, etc.) prevent the erosion of coastlines.

Biodiversity provides the vast majority of our foodstuffs. The annual world fish catch, for example (averaging 100 million metric tons), represents humanity's most important source of wild animal protein, with over 20 per cent of the population in Africa and Asia dependent on fish as their primary source of protein. Terrestrial animals, meanwhile, supply an array of food products: eggs, milk, meat, etc. Wild biodiversity provides a wide variety of important foodstuffs, including fruits, game meats, nuts, mushrooms, honey, spices and flavorings.

These wild foods are especially important when agricultural supplies fail. Indeed, wild biodiversity guards against the failure of even the most advanced agricultural systems. For example, the productivity of many of the developed world's agricultural crops is maintained through the regular assimilation of new genes from wild relatives of these crops. These wild genes offer resistance to the pests and diseases that pose an ever-evolving threat to harvests.

The World Health Organization estimates that 80 per cent of people in the developing world rely on traditional medicines derived mainly from plants. In Southeast Asia, for example, traditional healers use some 6,500 different plant species to treat malaria, stomach ulcers, syphilis, and other diseases.

Biodiversity is also critical to the 'formal' health sector of the developed world. A recent survey showed that of the top 150 prescription drugs used in the United States, 118 are based on natural sources. Of these, 74 per cent are derived from plants. Microbes and animal species have also contributed a range of medicines, including Penicillin (derived from the fungus Pencillium notatum) and several drugs - including anesthetics- derived from the skin secretions of tree-frog species.

The medicinal importance of biodiversity is particularly impressive considering that only a tiny fraction of earth's species have been thoroughly investigated for medicinal properties. The investigative process is continually turning up new pharmaceuticals of great promise. A recent study of cone snails, for example, has identified a painkiller that is up to a thousand times more effective than morphine, but without morphine's addictive properties. Needless to say, the above services are all essential to the functioning of the global economy. Yet biodiversity also has great importance as a direct source of incomes and economic development. One example is 'bioprospecting' (the search for previously unknown biotic products of specific utility, such as natural pesticides, anti-fungal toxins and 'oil-eating' enzymes). Such discoveries join an impressive list of 'miscellaneous' goods provided by biodiversity, including many of our most important building materials, fibres, fuels, waxes, resins, aromatics, dyes and gums. Even in its wholly untapped state, biodiversity does great service to economies through 'ecotourism'. People taking nature-related holidays contribute at least $500 billion per year to the national incomes of the countries they visit. Florida's coral reefs, for example, earn around $1.6 billion per year through tourism alone.

It's no mystery why people are prepared to spend so much to get close to nature. Human beings instinctively derive aesthetic and spiritual satisfaction from biodiversity. Recent studies have begun to confirm what has always been known: our emotional wellbeing is enhanced by the proximity of natural beauty. The umbilical bond between humanity and biodiversity is reflected in the art, religions and traditions of diverse human cultures: a spiritual heritage that will be lost for all time if its basis - nature itself - continues to be destroyed.

(Taieba Ahmad Ireen is from the Dept. of Environmental Science and Resource Management Mawlana Bhashani Science and Technology University Santosh, Tangail.)

Rat management for rural communities

Dr. S. R Belmain, Rokeya Begum Shafali

Rats and mice have played a central role in human life for thousands of years and have adapted well to environments significantly altered by humans. Rodents have two major impacts on people's livelihoods. The first is the substantial pre- and post-harvest losses they cause to agriculture. The second is as carriers of debilitating diseases that can affect people and livestock. Despite the major economic impacts of rodents, they remain poorly managed in many situations through a failure to appreciate the range and scale of damage, to understand the population ecology of specific rodent species and appropriate management strategies, and ultimately to assess the costs and benefits of rodent pests and of their sustainable management.

Recently Department for International Development (DFID) of United Kingdom awarded a project titled Rat Management for Rural Communities in Bangladesh to AID-COMILLA and its coalition partners for a period of 03 years starting July 2008 and will be implemented at Comilla, Bogra, Satkhira, Netrokona and Kushtia District with a target to train 20,000 rural house holds on Ecologically Based Rodent Management.

The primary delivery channel for project activities related to the delivery of ecologically-based rodent management (EBRM) is through a coalition of partners, which includes government departments, research institutions, commercial manufacturers, company marketing organisations and NGOs. The project intends to work with 20,000 participants in 100 villages in three different regions of Bangladesh. Through the coalition, three project results are planned at the village level: 1) building farmer capacities to innovate, 2) training Resource Farmers and 3) forming groups capable of effectively supporting the interests of resource poor households. The role of the coalition partners are as follows:

Renewable Natural Resources Research Strategy (RNRRS) knowledge (R8424, R8184) was generated in Bangladesh to address the problems with pest rodents experienced by people living in rural agricultural communities. Previous research showed that 5-10% of stored grain was lost to rodents over each 3-month storage period (each household losing ˜200kg/yr). Contamination with urine and faeces was also severe (200 > 1,500 droppings per kg). In common with most of Asia, Bangladesh farmers routinely plant 2 rows of rice for the rats for every 8 rows sown (pre-harvest losses ranging from 5-17%). Farmer damage assessments highlighted some of the more overlooked impacts of rodents, namely physical damage to houses, personal possessions, roads and fields. This damage requires extensive repair time to houses and fields, and significant financial expenditure when clothes, blankets, fishing nets, baskets, utensils, etc. are damaged. Ecologically-Based Rodent Management (EBRM) strategies were shown to reduce the impact of rodents by 60-80% for different measurable indicators. This was established through comparing intervention villages with non-intervention villages. Similarly, farmer assessments showed Ecologically-Based Rodent Management (EBRM) strategies were roughly the same cost (financial and time) as former practice, but with a much higher benefit (rat population reduced by >75%). Furthermore, Renewable Natural Resources Research Strategy (RNRRS) actions trialled a training and dissemination system for delivering the knowledge required by rural communities to more effectively manage their rodent pest problems. Training materials in Bengali (video and manuals) were produced to assist knowledge extension.

Our initiative is to build on this Renewable Natural Resources Research Strategy (RNRRS) investment through a programme that links together a consortium of NGOs, commercial companies and the DAE to deliver training and demonstration to a large number of farmers based in the Southeast, Southwest and Northern regions of Bangladesh. This proposed new investment will particularly add value to the existing initiatives of the DAE to manage rodent pests and increase commercial involvement in the delivery of ecologically sustainable rodent management methods targeting agricultural communities. The DAE recognises that rodents are a serious constraint for all farmers and organises an annual national rodent campaign to do something about it. However, it is accepted that this existing initiative is an inadequate response to the rodent problem and that much more needs to be done. The technology of Ecologically-Based Rodent Management Ecologically-Based Rodent Management (EBRM) is knowledge intensive and requires a degree of community-coordinated action to be most cost-beneficial. It is widely considered that disseminating such knowledge is best achieved through a combination of hands-on training and demonstration with a mixture of "classroom" education and practical observation (as trialled in R8424, R8441, R8190 and R7372). This hands-on training is particularly important in the context of rodents where indigenous management strategies are usually ad-hoc, uncoordinated and often unsuccessful, which can lead to apathy and an inability to experience what life can be like in the absence of rodents. The evidence gathered through the Renewable Natural Resources Research Strategy (RNRRS) suggests that communities' attitudes can permanently change through the adoption and implementation of EBRM leading to many quantifiable improvements in people's livelihoods.

Our project starts out by increasing the capacity of institutions in Bangladesh to deliver Ecologically-Based Rodent Management (EBRM) knowledge to end users. These institutions go on to provide formal and hands-on training to communities through an iterative cycle of training, demonstration, feedback and lesson learning to empower communities in rodent management actions. Although 100% of community members will recognise rodents to be a major problem, few successfully engage with the problem through a lack of appropriate knowledge and tools. Encouraging organised action at the community level will be necessary for Ecologically-Based Rodent Management (EBRM) to work most effectively and, hence, the project will strengthen social cohesion, necessarily involving all social groups in its implementation with all social groups benefiting from fewer rodents pest impacts on their lives. In parallel, the project will produce a 'new-design' rat trap that is more effective and durable than current available technology in Bangladesh. This new trap will be commercially distributed and marketed through existing marketing chains as well as through novel Public-Private partnership schemes whereby intensive trap use is encouraged at the community level as the primary means of rodent control (as opposed to the traditional use of acute poisons).

We expect to increase demand for intensive trapping by demonstrating its efficacy to rural communities and, thus, promote community level buy-in through the purchase of traps by communities. Education and communication activities will aim to increase public and institutional awareness of the health problems caused by rats and how environmental management and hygiene measures can contribute to the overall objective of reducing the impact of rats on people's lives. Increased local awareness and demand will be channelled to encourage policy changes and funding priorities within local government (targeting political representatives at the Union and Upazilla level). We expect our proposed initiative can reach 20,000 farmers across 100 village communities to train them in Ecologically-Based Rodent Management (EBRM), while at the same time strengthening the capacity of the consortium institutions to continue to deliver Ecologically-Based Rodent Management (EBRM) after the project completes.

The initiative is not commodity-specific as rodents will attack nearly all crops grown as well as causing significant damage to health (people and domestic animals) and infrastructure (buildings, farm fields, roads, personal possessions). Rodents can attack commodities along the value chain (pre-harvest, post-harvest, processing, marketing) so their holistic management can have positive effects across value chains. Rodent damage to vegetables can be particularly problematic by causing partial damage to maturing fruits that blemishes or reduces shelf life, leading to lower financial returns. Successful implementation of Ecologically-Based Rodent Management (EBRM) will certainly lead to increased yields of all staple crops and other crops grown, which should fuel diversification into more higher-value crops to supply an increasingly urbanised environment and more sophisticated markets.

This means the proposed project has wide relevance to a number of Renewable Natural Resources Research Strategy (RNRRS) investments such as improving animal health and production (reduced leptospirosis and endoparasite loads), improved quality/sanitation of street foods (reduced faecal and urine contamination of stored food both before and after processing), and maternal/child health programmes. As Ecologically-Based Rodent Management (EBRM) is socially inclusive, working best when all social groups work together within a community, the initiative can help strengthen social cohesion and act as a springboard for other social issues.

We expect people to benefit by the end of the project through improved yields as well as improved human health and increased human productivity (i.e. less debilitating disease, more and better food). We also expect these benefits will continue to accrue after the project has completed through policy changes (which lead to resource mobilisation), improved institutional capacity to deliver Ecologically-Based Rodent Management (EBRM) and the development of new delivery strategies (i.e. public-private partnerships) that can provide the knowledge and tools to communities through revolving fund and credit programmes operated by NGOs together with trap manufacturers/distributors.

(Dr. S. R Belmain is an applied Ecologist, Natural Resources Institute (NRI), University of Greenwich United Kingdom. Rokeya Begum Shafali is the executive director Aid-Comilla)

Scheme just to thrust pesticides on farmers

Ravleen Kaur

As a part of a centrally-sponsored scheme non-recommended pesticides were being distributed to farmers in Rajasthan. Farmers were being forced to buy unnecessary pesticides as a part of the subsidy package under the National Horticulture Mission (NHM). These chemicals have not been approved for use in the crops that were being cultivated in the area.

Pesticides like endosulfan, monocrotophos and malathion were distributed in areas where crops like coriander and fenugreek were grown. According to the information available on the website of Central Insecticides Board and Registration Committee, the apex pesticide regulatory body, on July 7, 2008, none of these chemicals has been recommended for both the crops.

Six litres of a pesticide along with 40 kg of urea per hectare came with a 75 per cent subsidy under this scheme, which is part of the National Horticulture Mission (NHM).

Seeds too were given to the farmer. The farmer was free to buy whatever pesticide he chose from village cooperative stores by paying only 25 per cent of the cost. He was to receive a bill for his payment. The scheme allows for subsidy on inputs to support cultivation over a maximum of four hectares.

NHM was launched in 2005 across the country to double India's horticultural production and take it to 300 million tonnes by 2012. There are several schemes under the programme, which are designed to enhance output. Each state horticultural mission introduces government scheme according to the land-and-climate profile of each district. This particular scheme was introduced in 17 of Rajasthan's 32 districts, mostly in the eastern part. The preferred horticultural crop choice of farmers here were spices, herbs and flowers.

Even though the choice of seeds and pesticides was the farmer's under this scheme, rules were disregarded. The end result was an agriculture input subsidy scam in the state. While farmers, who availed of this scheme, chose the seed for crops grown conventionally in his area, he was at a loss when it came to the array of pesticides now presented to him. It thus became easy for vested interests to influence his choice of the chemicals.

This is clearly in violation of procedure stipulated by the government. Specific pesticides can only be distributed to farmers by the government if there is a report of an epidemic or disease outbreak in the crops in that area. Use of pesticides other than those recommended by the agriculture department is illegal. "No permits were issued by the agricultural officer regarding any outbreak," says Ranjeet Singh Gathala, the then state horticulture secretary. It is not clear who recommended the package of pesticides and fertilizer for this scheme. "A farmer will buy anything when made to believe that it will increase production. So when they were giving us all these products at just 25 per cent of the rate, who would have refused," said Bhawarlal Gujjar, sarpanch of Baluheda panchayat of Kota district.

More than 50 farmers in Baluheda bought pesticides, seeds and fertilizers for coriander and fenugreek cultivation at subsidized rates under the scheme in 2006. But these ostensible beneficiaries of the centrally funded scheme suffered heavy losses last year as the seeds were of very poor quality and the pesticides unnecessary.

Premchand Devishankar normally grew more than 18 quintal of the spice, coriander, on his one hectare piece of land in a season.

But last year, with the subsidized seeds and pesticides, he could only get a 5-quintal yield on the same patch. What was worse, the rate he got in the market was half. Overuse of chemicals and poor seed quality had led to poor harvest. This year, when he knew better, Devishankar paid market rates for seeds. He got a good yield in terms of both quality and quantity. He sold his yield at Rs 6,000 a quintal this year, which is double the rate he got last year.

Devishankar also saved on pesticides this year. He used only a single spray of pesticides to control laungiya rog, which is common in the area. A single spray of pesticides is all farmers here need for their horticultural yield. Clearly, there was no need for the mega dose of pesticides that was supplied to them under the subsidized scheme. Even then they could not control laungiya rog last year, sarpanch Bhawarlal Gujjar told Down To Earth . The 20-odd farmers in Baluheda who took subsidy for fenugreek cultivation also had low quality yield and thus reduced rates for the spice, he added.

Jayanti Shankar, another Baluheda farmer, showed Down to Earth tins of endosulfan, triadimefon and malathion that were lying unused. "After a while, we realized that these were of no use. This year, we had a bumper crop without spraying any of these," he said.

Baluheda was not the only place in Rajasthan where reports of irregularities were pouring in from. In March 2007, Gathala received many complaints from farmers all over the state, especially from Chomu and Bilwa areas of Jaipur district. He studied them carefully and found a massive scam was going on in the form of fudged bills, vouchers and also otherwise. Certain cooperative societies were favoured with sums as high as Rs 21 lakh of the Rs 1 crore central allocation per year. Others village cooperatives were ignored. Nurseries supplying saplings were also part of the scam, he found. There were also complaints regarding low quality seeds and pesticides apart from no actual distribution even though the documents with the Horticulture Department showed bills signed by farmers.

Baluheda farmers told Down To Earth they too were not given bills for whatever they bought from the cooperative store. "When the NHM people put up an exhibition here, they said that we will have to pay only Rs 1700 for all inputs plus about Rs 200 as insurance for the crop. The amount went up to Rs 2200 when we actually got the seeds in November-December 2006. They never gave us any bills which we got to know are mandatory when the scandal was exposed. They just made us sign a blank receipt which they took with them," said Madan Mohan, a victim of the scam in Baluheda. All farmers here also say that they never got any insurance money for the crop gone bad. "Who knows what amount they have put on those bills in our name?" asks Madan Mohan.

Secretary Gathala wrote a letter to all district collectors, also chairpersons of district NHM societies, to get a social audit of the scheme done for the two previous years. "I also sent a letter to heads of all co-operative societies in the 17 districts asking them to take disciplinary action or lodge FIRs in cases where forged signature of farmers were used to get funds and the benefits never went to them," said Gathala. Subsequently, in March 2007, he wrote to the chief secretary of Rajasthan referring to a farmers' organization accusing the agricultural minister, Prabhu Lal Saini, of chauth vasuli (extortion). "No disciplinary action has been taken against the concerned official in the minister's constituency where farmers were supplied wrong saplings," the letter stated. Nor has any social audit taken place so far.

In May this year, Gathala came out openly against the state agriculture minister. "On what basis the dealers who supplied pesticide to all 17 districts under NHM were selected and what is their reputation in the agriculture department's records will be revealed if the audit is conducted. The influence of pesticide dealers on corrupt officials will be amply clear with the audit. The minister says that there has been no problem, so why are they so scared of conducting the audit?" asks Gathala.

The fallout of Gathala's actions has been the institution of two simultaneous inquiries: one to identify the minister's role in the scam and another to verify if Gathala's coming out in the open was against the conduct rule or not. Gathala was rewarded with two transfers, the final one being to the category of 'awaiting posting order'. Two months later he retired, on June 30 this year.

The inquiry into the scam does not at all touch the irregularities that took place. "Till now, we haven't found a single proof. My job is only to find out about the minister's involvement and we have called for all documents from the department to find out if there is any such thing. However, all irregularities are at a very low level. Certainly, a minister can never be involved in corruption at such low level corruption," said Harishankar Bhavda, vice-president of Economic Policy and Reform Council. Bhavda has been investigating Saini's role in the scam.

The farmers and Gathala know the truth will never emerge till an audit is done. Yet another bureaucrat who tries to correct the system is victimized. The farmers of Baluheda have only one lament: "It is the government's money, let it do what it wants with it. Why does it have to play with our lives?" Cynicism runs deep in Baluheda while pesticide companies register profits at its cost.

(CSE/Down To Earth Feature Service)