Need of the hour: Three 'R'

Pariva has earned her doctorate in Wildlife Sciences from the WIldlife Institute of India and has worked on the linkages between nature and human wellbeing. She belongs to Garhwal Himalayas and has been working for the past few years on ecosystem restoration, people's participation and gender aspect of conservation.

Environment has become one of the major concerns today. The rate at which, it is deteriorating has compelled us to analyse our actions and behaviour towards our ecosystem. Deforestation, Pollution, Biodiversity loss, Poor governance, Ozone layer depletion, Waste management, Ocean acidification, Climate change, Desertification, the list is never ending. We, human beings are the sole reason of bringing all these environmental problems upon us. Thus, paving the way for the various natural disasters, at times ruin our lives to a great extent and put our future at a risk.

Few weeks back on the 'World Enviornment Day' again, like every year, many celebrities, politicians, social workers, influencers even commoners were showing their grave concerns on current situation of nature. Everyone was eager to share their views (which may be their or borrowed) on the importance of nature and everything related. Social media was flooded with posts, photos (amid nature), messages, selfies of planting trees, videos, in the social networking sites regarding the same. However, it was funny, how exotic plants in decorative planters are being treated as synonyms to nature or environment.

It is really nice to see people so much concerned about their natural habitat but why all this concern only surfaces, when the Environment Day is round the corner? Why not during rest of the 364 days? Here lies the main issue.

Most of the people have failed or totally ignored, the gravity of the situation. Environment problems are so deep-rooted in our ecosystem that even if we start now, then also it will take many more decades to get uprooted. Therefore, it’s the need of the hour that we wake our senses and start thinking, taking vital and fruitful steps and decisions towards ecosystem restoration. Recently, a ray of hope has appeared in this regard.

World Environment Day 2021 has marked the beginning of a decade dedicated to restoration of ecosystems with a motto of ‘Reimagine, Recreate and Restore’. The decade between 2021-2031 will be dedicated to bringing back the degraded ecosystems to their original condition.

Due to high demand and rapid developmental activities, ecosystems (both natural and human-developed) have degraded a lot, which is affecting their ability to provide critical ecosystem services that support biodiversity and human life both. Though restoration has been practiced in old times also, there are new concepts and theories at present, such as ‘reconciliation ecology’, that surely advocates the systematic and scientific mechanisms to be used.

If one wants to understand the impact of degradation and importance of restoring ecosystem, case study from Yellowstone National Park, USA is the best example. In 1800s, new settlers in National Park and their agricultural activities changed the ecosystem, which particularly affected one predator i.e. wolf. The prey-base of the wolves was deteriorated, hence, they started preying on the livestock leading to human-wildlife conflict. In retaliation, wolves along with other predators were killed to save livestock resulting in collapse of the whole ecosystem. Since, the ecosystem could only be revived by bringing the locally extinct top predator back, the reintroduction of wolves became mandatory. This move not only revivified the Yellowstone National Park but downstream water resources as well.

One has to understand that ecosystem cannot work by proxies. Every species, does not matter how large or small, has a role to play. They are the unit of ecosystem and they need to be conserved in their natural habitats and conditions.

Restoration does not only mean plantation or cleaning. The native species has to be revived back. A study by Dr. Ninad Mungi concluded that 44% of the Indian forests are infested by Lantana spp. and are in a dire need of revival as Lantana is an invasive species and changes the ecological structure of the area by replacing the native species. Removal of Lantana has not worked and will not work in future also, as a system cannot be revived until the lost native is been brought back.

Plantation, often imprudent, in India has been used as synonym for conservation and environment till recent past, and people rarely paid any heed to species or their origin, leave aside the impact. We are still under the ‘colonial hangover’, when it comes to forest policies or restoration. Grasslands and desserts were rarely considered as natural ecosystems, and often tried to convert into forests. Even, wetlands were treated as wastelands and never got the much-needed attention of policy makers till recent past, when people realized that all the restoration efforts are in vain if wetlands are not conserved or restored. Till now, We have already lost much more than what we can restore, but the battle is still not lost.

Nobody can be denied of development but we cannot survive on modern facilities only, if nature is gone. Although, we can survive solely on nature. Our developmental activities have to be aligned with conservation goals. We have reached at a point where most of the ecosystems need restoration, which calls for investment of lot of human and economic resources. Its high time we as a society and individual start thinking and contributing towards repairing the ecosystem.