Sabah Bari ’24
Biodiversity in an ecosystem is important because it maintains the structure and functioning of various organisms in the environment. Such as the supply of oxygen, water, the dependency of survival on plants and animals etc. One way to maintain biodiversity in ecosystems is reforestation. Stony Brook University researcher Patricia Wright had an ambitious plan of reforestation in Madagascar, Africa. Wright, a group of scientists, and government officials decided on a five-step solution called their Journal of Nature Sustainability to achieve their goal of repopulating endangered species, like the lemur.
Their main concern was keeping the conservation of various species intact to maintain biodiversity in the area. This concern is being addressed with their 5-step solution by reducing environmental crime, protecting areas by investing into them, figuring out how infrastructure developments can stop limiting the livelihood of biodiversity, providing tenure rights for locals in the area over possession of natural resources and recognizing the crisis in fuel wood. By tackling all five of these points, the scientists are hopeful in creating a better space for the organisms living in Madagascar. In addition to this effort, Wright is simultaneously working on increasing the lemur demographic because lemurs were impacted by the long term effects of habit disturbance of climate change and predators. Lemurs are important to the biodiversity in Madagascar. Wright’s team created a conservation for the lemurs with managing stations where the researchers would watch the lemurs from afar to keep them safe. The solutions from the Journal of Sustainability allowed for the lemurs to live in a safer environment. However, Wright’s team did notice a decline in female lemurs because of the long term adverse effects of climate change and habitat disturbance for a decade.
The collective efforts of Wright, a team of scientists, and government officials toward maintaining the biodiversity in Madagascar are making a change and can help mitigate manmade dangers to the primates. Although the five-step solution, the Journal of Nature Sustainability has been effective thus far,, habitat disturbances from predators and climate change are still problems that need to be handled to protect endangered species like the lemurs.
Work(s) cited:
[1] 10.1007/978-3-642-22514-7_4
[2] Image retrieved from:
Young Investigators Review 