​SAVE OUR SPECIES

“Here is your country. Cherish these natural wonders, cherish the natural resources, cherish the history and romance as a sacred heritage, for your children and your children's children. Do not let selfish men or greedy interests skin your country of its beauty, its riches or its romance.” 
― Theodore Roosevelt

ECUADOR​

Since 2008, Ecuador has increased its number of endangered species by 4.71 percent. Although this does not sound like much, in a seven year time span more than 100 species were threatened by human actions. In a country that is only 109,483 square miles, more than 100 species becoming endangered is an extremely large number. In total for 2015, there were 2,312 species listed as endangered on the IUCN Red List. Ecuador is a country that is extremely rich in biodiversity and contains many unique endemic species. Due to this fact, many of its organisms have been targeted in the fishing trade, such as sea cucumbers and spiny lobster. The market for such unique organisms has exploded in international trade, which has thereby led to illegal harvesting and fishing. Although the government and national parks have attempted to enact stronger legislation, countries such as China, who sell sea cucumbers as a delicacy item, will pay large sums of money to harvesters. Therefore, people are willing to break the law to illegally harvest marine life that is under protection because the reward is far greater than the punishment. This imbalance in their economic structure has allowed this loophole to perpetuate the illegal fishing trade and in the past decade there has been much tumult over the governments role in protection of organisms within Ecuador (Espinoza, 2009). Another major biological resource that has been abused in Ecuador are the rainforests. Millions of hectares of forest have been cleared for logging and oil drilling leaving less than 15% of the original forests. Because of this fact, Ecuador is known for being the most deforested country in South America (Mongabay, 2006). Therefore, due to Ecuador’s abuse of the fishing market and land clearing they have nearly decimated the populations of species that live there.

 

Quick Stats

• 2,312 endangered species

• 41 metric tons of CO2

• Human population 15,902,916

• Forest Coverage (100 ha) Land 1990: 13817, 2000: 11680, 2005: 10688, 2010: 9698

• Forested Area Percentage- 1990: 52.9%, 2015: 50.5%

• Fertilizer Consumption (kg per hectare of arable land)- 2002: 167.62, 2013: 229.13

• NOX emissions (metric tons) 1970: 1,997.54, 2012: 5,434.62

​

​

UNITED STATES

The United States stands out in the top 5 group of countries with the most endangered species because it is more developed and economically stable than the other four countries. The United States is considered knowledgeable on the topic of conservation and endangered species and has even enacted legislation such as the Endangered Species Act of 1973 to help nurture and protect not only their own species but to monitor the import of export of species from other countries. Because of this knowledge and support financially one would expect that the United States would not be high up on the list for the number of species that it has threatened. However, the United States is the second country with the most endangered species in the world with 1,408 listed as of 2015 as documented by the IUCN Red List. The U.S. also experienced an 18.12 percent increase in the number of endangered species that were listed from 2008 to 2015.  Considering the legislation and knowledge on the topic one would assume that we would be remaining the same or decreasing the number of listed species however that has not been the case. There has been a steady rise in the number of listed species since the late 1990s when the IUCN Red List began their first data collection on the topic. Despite the fact that the United States has and increased knowledge on the topic of conservation, they have still over harvested fish and other marine organisms pushing them to the brink of extinction. On top of overharvesting the U.S. has also rerouted waterways in order to provide water to different areas of the country. These two major factors have contributed intensely to the decreased population sizes of marine organisms. Although the U.S. has knowledge that these exploitations on biological resource use can drastically affect entire ecosystems, humans still do these things because they need to supply food and water to people all over the country.

 

Quick Stats

• 1,480 endangered species

• 5,562 metric tons of CO2 in 2014

• Human population 319,448,634

• Forested Area Percentage- 1990: 33%, 2015: 33.9%

• Fertilizer Consumption (kg per hectare of arable land)- 2002:112.52 , 2013:131.91

• NOX emissions (metric tons) 1970: 310,995.10 , 2012: 288,877.99

 

MALAYSIA

In Malaysia there were 1255 species listed as endangered in 2015, with a 9.9% increase since 2008. This country is well known for logging, poaching, and hunting many of their species until the point of extinction. Due to their rapid expansion and rise in population over the past decade more animals are being killed each year for food (WWF, 2016). Another common practice in Malaysia is logging and forest burning. These practices have increased drastically in the past 50 years and beginning back in 1986 Malaysia became the leading exporter in the logging industry. The wood harvested from Malaysian forests is commonly used in wood products around the globe such as plywood, furniture and moldings. Since then Malaysia has also developed an illegal logging trade. Due to increased deforestation, regulations had become more stringent on procedures for logging companies. Because of this an illegal logging market has become a major problem in their industry. Deforestation and habitat fragmentation drive species to the point of extinction because they no longer have a home to provide them shelter and also have trouble finding food. This causes many populations of species to drop in number, which then can impact the entire food chain (Rainforest Relief, 2004). The logging industry in Malaysia right now is the most likely cause for why they are seeing such a large number of species being listed as endangered. If Malaysia could alter their logging industry and work on replanting many of the rainforests that they have cut down, then there could be potential for the species in their country to rebound to better more sustainable population sizes.

 

Quick Stats

• 1,255 endangered species

• 252 metric tons of CO2 in 2014

• Human population 29,901,997

• Forested Area Percentage- 1990: 68.1%, 2015: 67.6%

• Fertilizer Consumption (kg per hectare of arable land)- 2002: 1,177.02 , 2013: 1,726.62

• NOX emissions (metric tons) 1970: 10,095.83 , 2012: 15,310.25

​

INDONESIA

Indonesia has been facing similar problems to Malaysia and seeing as they are located very close geographically, and possess similar ecosystems, it is understandable that they are facing the same issues. Indonesia had 1,246 species listed as endangered in 2015 with a 14.6% increase in the number of species listed since 2008. The logging industry used for timber as well as the pulp and paper has decimated the rainforests in Indonesia. This has destroyed many species habitats if not entire ecosystems in the rainforests (Rainforest Action Network, 2016). Illegal logging, similar to Malaysia, has become a major problem in Indonesia. They mainly export to the EU, China and Japan, which are rapidly expanding, and in need of large volumes of timber. Despite the signing of the Indonesia-EU voluntary partnership agreement (VPA) illegal logging is still going on due to corruption within their government systems (Chatham House, 2014). Because of this fact, the number of endangered species will only continue to rise in the upcoming years until a more stable government system is put in place and well established with people who are concerned about conserving and preserving their endemic wildlife.

 

Quick Stats

• 1,246 endangered species

• 641 metric tons of CO2 in 2014

• Human population 254,454,778

• Forested Area Percentage- 1990: 65.4%, 2015: 50.2%

• Fertilizer Consumption (kg per hectare of arable land)- 2002: 123.96 , 2013: 204.59

• NOX emissions (metric tons) 1970: 51,908.88, 2012: 93,138.92

​

MEXICO

Out of the top 5 countries with the most endangered species, Mexico had the highest percent increase since 2008 at 26.1%. As of 2015 Mexico had 1131 species listed on the IUCN red list. Like the other top 4 countries, logging has threatened many of the species in Mexico due to rapid deforestation and habitat fragmentation. As previously noted, deforestation uproots organisms from their current habitats and leaves them with no shelter or food. This is a major problem because large volumes of species are decimated at a time because all organisms involved in the ecosystem will be affected. Another problem related to deforestation is a lack of reforestation in Mexico. Once a forested area is cut down there has been no attempt to replant trees and foliage to reestablish the habitat for later years. Therefore the percentage of rainforest continues to steadily decline. Hunting of rare and exotic species is another major problem in Mexico because there is a large market for it. Because of this many endangered species are captured and kept as pets or killed and stuffed for display pieces.

 

Quick Stats 

• 1,131 endangered species

• 457 metric tons of CO2 in 2014

• Human population 125,385,833

• Forested Area Percentage- 1990: 35.9%, 2015: 34%

• Fertilizer Consumption (kg per hectare of arable land)- 2002: 65.26 , 2013: 78.77

• NOX emissions (metric tons) 1970: 22,589.73 , 2012: 43,436.27