Earth Equity News

A Call for Protecting World's Spectacular Migrations. By David S. Wilcove and Martin Wikelski, PLoS Biology, July 29, 2008. "Around the world, many of the most spectacular migrations have either disappeared due to human activities or are in steep decline... The causes of all these declines vary depending on the species and the locale, but in general, the threats to migrants fall into four nonexclusive categories: habitat destruction, the creation of obstacles and barriers such as dams and fences, overexploitation, and climate change. Most of the migrants are in little immediate danger of extinction; rather, they are becoming less and less common... Given the panoply of environmental problems we now face, is the fading glory of migration really a significant issue? We would argue that it is. Protecting the abundance of migrants is the key to protecting the ecological importance of migration. As the number of migrants declines, so too do many of the most important ecological properties and services associated with them... The challenges -- scientific, economic, and social -- associated with protecting migratory species are enormous. But so too are the payoffs. We can preserve phenomena that have awed and sustained us since the dawn of humanity. We can protect ecological processes that are integral to many of the planet's ecosystems. And we can solve scientific puzzles that have baffled natural historians for millennia. If we are successful, it will be because governments and individuals have learned to act proactively and cooperatively to address environmental problems, and because we have created an international network of protected areas that is capable of sustaining much of the planet's natural diversity." David S. Wilcove and Martin Wikelski are in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University.