ABSTRACT
Virtually every decision people make can have an influence on biodiversity, either positive or negative. Loss of biodiversity at the hands of people will continue and may even accelerate, with increasing pressures from population expansion and faster pace of economic development. Therefore, there is need to manage these bio resources more effectively and adopt national and regional polices in consonance with tenets of Convention on Biological Diversity. Although it is by no means, clear whether poverty, with its pressures to survive, or affluence, with its pressures to consume, ultimately leads to greater loss of biodiversity, it is obvious that the rural poor cannot conserve their biological resources if this is in conflict with their immediate survival needs. However, biodiversity is most likely to prosper in areas with the least human interference, such as Protected Areas. Tropical islands can provide a preview of the environmental situation that is likely to becomemore prevalent on the world’s continents in the future. These islands typically have high population densities, exhibit highly fragmented landscapes, and have already experienced significant extinction events. Humans have endeavoured rather successfully, to acquire their growing biomass needs from intensifying the productivity of a small number of domesticated species through plantations and aquaculture. These replace large tracts of diverse natural ecosystems with species-poor systems supported by high levels of technological inputs; they also promote extensive use of pesticides resulting in more widespread negative impacts on biodiversity. While bio productivity can be enhanced through managed plantations to meet our biomass requirement, it is imperative to maintain biodiversity rich areas as Protected Areas. In order to integrate production objectives without sacrificing environmental concerns, Foresters in pluralistic setting, must be highly innovative and able to build consensus (Balaji, 1997). In this regard, countries across the globe recently adopted Aichi targets in Nagoya, Japan.
