Conservation Begins with Citizens’ Awareness

Collectively as a species, we, humans, are going through an unprecedented time in history. While pandemics have ravaged human societies before, their psychological effects have possibly never before been so devastating, so widespread, largely owing to the absence of global digital connectivity then. However, it will not be fair to deny the good that this connectivity has brought, making access to life-saving information to tackle the pandemic easy and immediate. Much rests on accurate information dissemination at the government as well as the local community level if humanity hopes to triumph over this pandemic. In this context, one cannot help but wonder if epidemics of such zoonotic diseases can be averted or quickly contained in the first place if local communities close to the source of disease origin are made aware of the dangers of cohabiting with and wantonly destroying nature.

Local communities empowered with the right knowledge may form an invincible force opposing the depredation of ecosystems to the point of no return. As stakeholders in the management of the environment surrounding them, these communities are uniquely placed to safeguard natural resources and ensure their sustainable utilization, with implications not just in preventing zoonoses but also in ensuring the unimpeded continuation of important ecosystem services, such as pollination. For instance, several countries in the western hemisphere actively promote community participation for conservation of local pollinators, particularly bees, with significant improvements in their diversity and abundance in cultivated and wild ecosystems. In India, unfortunately, such community endeavours to protect native animals in general and wild bees in particular are severely lacking. The result is the gross ignorance of urban and rural communities when it comes to the diversity of bees in this country—to most of us, bees are just a handful of honey producing winged insects that build combs and sting us when we rob the honey, even though there happens to more than twenty thousand different species of them on the planet. Their more important role as pollinators of roughly every third bite we eat is also largely forgotten.

Ignorance, however, is not blissful when it comes to biodiversity. Just as knowledge about potential disease-carrying vectors may help us prevent the next pandemic, knowledge about our pollinators—of the honey producing and non-producing bees—could help us ensure our plates stay full in the event of a global pollinator-related catastrophe. More importantly, this knowledge needs to be in the public domain to have accelerated and extensive impact at the ground level. And, with the right dissemination technique, this knowledge could effectively turn previously unaware individuals into invested custodians of local bee fauna, or any other biodiversity for that matter.

Preparedness is half the battle won. As we continue to pillage nature, sometimes without recourse, for the survival of our own species, we must acknowledge the necessity of knowing our environment better to avoid being caught unawares by unforeseen catastrophes like the current pandemic. At individual and community levels, knowledge of our local biodiversity—of our producers and pollinators and decomposers—is fundamental to ensure we don’t lose out on any key element that may topple the very structure of the environment that houses our homes.

Reference

Bhattacharyya M, Acharya SK, Chakraborty SK. Pollinators Unknown: People’s Perception of Native Bees in an Agrarian District of West Bengal, India, and Its Implication in Conservation. Tropical Conservation Science. January 2017. doi:10.1177/1940082917725440

The Link to Dr. Bhattacharyya's lecture can be found at