Biodiversity

Eco Salmon Project at St John Ogilvie - this is a powerpoint with photos and may take a few minutes to load)
New Resources Bright New Scotland - School Grounds and Biodiversity

What is biodiversity?

Across the world, most people view the land, air and seas and the living things that inhabit them as resources that should be made use of and/or 'tamed'. It is only recently that more people have begun to value and celebrate 'wilderness' for its own sake.

Biodiversity - or 'biological diversity' is the amazing variety of all living things on our planet - from plankton, wildflowers and insects to mammals, reptiles, trees and birds. It also applies to the habitats in which these living things are to be found - oceans, woodlands, meadows and wetlands, as well as man-made places such as fields, parks and canals. Even so-called ‘wasteland’ can be a rich source of biodiversity.

Why is biodiversity so important?

Biodiversity is essential because it impacts on all of our lives, both directly and indirectly.

All species, including humans, require a range of basic resources to keep them alive and healthy. Humans need oxygen to breathe, water to drink, food to eat and shelter from the weather. The living things on our planet provide many of these things for us, so their conservation is vital if we are to survive.

Preserving Planet Earth's biodiversity is also essential because:
• no-one knows just what other benefits may be lost when species become extinct or what impact this will have on other species or habitats.
• healthy natural ecosystems help control flooding, drought and soil erosion.
• the quality of our lives is greatly enriched by the natural environment
• all species have as much moral right to exist as humans.

Human life itself depends on the relationships between all living creatures and their environment, yet a lot of human activity is having a negative impact on biodiversity across the world. In the UK, the growth of urban development, intensive farming methods, the introduction of non-native species, transport and pollution has lead to huge habitat and species decline and in some cases, extinction. The need to restore this 'balance of nature' has never been so urgent.

What can schools do?

Raise awareness throughout the school

Biodiversity has connections with all the different environmental strands that, drawn together, characterise a healthy and caring Eco School. An Eco School can care for biodiversity in several ways:

• By showing positive attitudes and values for the health and well-being of local habitats, plants and animals, as well as humans.
• By encouraging the use of the outdoors to teach and learn about biodiversity.
• By making choices that affect the use of natural resources.
• By aiming to reduce its global footprint on habitats and species, both locally and globally.

Link biodiversity work to the curriculum

School grounds provide an ideal opportunity to introduce children to the natural environment and biodiversity. They offer a fantastic facility for outdoor education that can complement classroom-based activities. Nature areas within a school's grounds can add greatly to this.

In addition to curricular links, biodiversity work can also offer pupils the opportunity to assist with the provision of reliable, quality data on habitats and species that is crucial to national and local biodiversity action planning.
Use our Resources and Links section to find out more.

Biodiversity - Eco Schools Objectives and Learning Outcomes

Objectives

• Raise awareness amongst teachers and pupils of the term 'biodiversity' and the level of understanding of its scope (we accept that the term 'biodiversity' may not be used explicitly with all learners).
• Communicate the benefits and values associated with biodiversity.
• Communicate the scientific and technical concepts and skills relating to biodiversity.
• Raise the number of local, outdoor experiences involving direct contact with nature and those working to care for it.
• Demonstrate the benefits of integrating biodiversity outcomes into an Eco Schools' strategy - how it will affect the quality of life of the whole school, and tie in with its other strands eg School Grounds, Health & Well-Being.
• Encourage schools to make choices that improve the biodiversity value of their local surroundings, and that use natural resources in more sustainable ways.
• Encourage schools to make national/international links with other schools to explore the local and global aspects of biodiversity issues and the perspectives of others.


Learning Outcomes

Through work on biodiversity, pupils should be enabled to:

• Describe carrying out an outdoor site survey/audit, and planning/completing associated practical, local outdoor investigations.
• Describe the importance of biodiversity in their local area and what can be done to improve it.
• Describe the scope of biodiversity in connection with wider/global issues of sustainable development – e.g. health, consumerism, climate change, genetic modification technology, and the introduction of exotic species.
• Develop enquiry skills and know where to find out more.
• Develop critical thinking and communication skills.
• Make choices and decisions that affect their lives (either as individuals or as part of a wider group) and do something long-term for biodiversity - locally or globally.

School Grounds & Biodiversity - Background Information

New Resources Bright New Scotland - School Grounds and Biodiversity

Our planet is home to a countless number of different plants and animals. It has been estimated that there are anywhere between 10 million and 50 million species present on earth – and so far scientists have only managed to classify around 1.5 million of them! Biodiversity is a term used to describe this huge variety of plant and animal life and the genes that make up each individual, but it also encompasses the critical inter-relationships, or ecosystems, formed between them. In these intricate webs of interdependence, the existence of each species directly affects many others. For example, plants provide food and, in return, insects, birds and animals help to pollinate the plants or to spread their seeds.

It is perhaps easy for those of us living in “developed” countries to forget how dependent we are on other species. All our food comes from other living things, as does much of our clothing and all of the paper and wood we use. Even the coal, oil and gas we extract from deep within the earth, and the plastics and other synthetics we make from them, come from the remains of organisms which died millions of years ago. Additionally, many of the medicines in use today are based on plant products and new ones are being discovered all the time. For example, chemicals found in Madagascar's rosy periwinkle are effective in the treatment of children with leukemia or Hodgkin’s disease, while the bark of the Pacific yew has also recently been shown to contain an important cancer-fighting substance.

Yet sadly, the destructive effects of man’s activities on other species are all too often ignored. We have all heard of the difficulties facing endangered species such as the giant panda, yet there are many more species of animals and plants which are in imminent danger of extinction. A United Nations report in 2002 estimated that 25% of all the world’s mammals would become extinct within 30 years. Many scientists believe that the earth is threatened with a “mass extinction” which would see the loss of many thousands of species of plants and animals.

The reasons for these threats to biodiversity are many and complex, but without doubt mankind’s actions play a large part. The major problem is the loss of habitat. For example, when trees in a forest are cut down, many other plants and animals who lived in that environment will also be lost. The draining of swamps to provide agricultural land and the construction of dams which flood large areas of land also destroy habitats.

Pollution and over-exploitation also have a bearing. When a river is polluted by industrial or chemical waste, many living things are poisoned – and those further up the food chain are also affected. Species can be hunted close to extinction, whether for food or for other products such as ivory, or various animal extracts used in some traditional medicines – the serious depletion of fish stocks in the North Sea is an example of the consequences of over-exploitation. Additionally, introduction of non-native species into a stable eco-system can upset the balance and can even destroy other species, by competition, predation, or by disease.

If the issues surrounding loss of biodiversity are complex, the solutions are even more problematic. It is relatively easy to say that new housing developments must pay more heed to environmental concerns; to say that plants and animals should not be deliberately introduced to new environments. It is somewhat more difficult however to tell a poor farmer in the developing world to stop cutting down areas of rainforest to make room for cash crops or cattle grazing which would enable him to buy food for his family, or to tell the poacher who exists by selling ivory to wealthy foreigners that he must find another means of subsistence. It is equally difficult for the industrialised countries of the developed world to persuade governments in the developing world that they should refrain from destroying their natural environment to make space for industrial developments. Indeed, such developments often involve Western investment and are therefore encouraged despite the environmental cost.

These issues are far too big and complex to be tackled within a school environmental programme! However, there are small steps we can take to protect our own little corners of the earth.

Case Studies

St. John's PS

Rainforest Project-contributing to Global Biodiversity addressing 8th Eco topic - Biodiversity

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Revised: November 28, 2008.

since 10th August 2007