Introduction

The concept of biodiversity enables scientists to develop better plans for conservation. Conservation projects go across many areas and can include restoring small remnant ecosystems, protecting vast ecosystems, captive breeding programs and legislation regarding animal trade. Many local conservation projects focus on restoration. These habitat restoration projects are very valuable at retaining the remaining genetic diversity of local species.

In Australia, scientists have divided up the land on the continent into around 70 bioregions. They worked out what percentage of the ecosystems in each bioregion require full protection to conserve the bioregion's biodiversity. Decision makers have a much better way of knowing if enough land is being protected and where the priorities of the areas are.

Activity outline

Individuals or pairs of students decide on a conservation issue to research. They can choose an ecosystem, animal or plant that is at risk. Students should spend no more than five minutes choosing their topic. They should also decide what software package they will use for either producing a report or making a presentation. Students can be creative and use online presentation tools such as 'prezi' (https://prezi.com/) or other interactive software.

Students should include the following information (they can use them as subheadings in their report):

Description of the ecosystem/species.
Outline of the conservation issues.
Outline of the existing conservation programs that are in place (if any).
How does the issues relate to ecosystem diversity? Do ecosystems need to be protected or restored?
How does the issue relate to species diversity?
If the conservation measures are successful, how will it help ecosystem, species and genetic diversity?

Students should include a bibliography. They should highlight the three references they found most helpful and describe the expertise of the organisation responsible for the website or the written material.

Students' presentations can be assessed using the 'presentation rubric'.

Conservation and Biodiversity

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