Question

define critical habitat and briefly describe 3 problem with critical habitat

Answer 1

Critical habitat is an area required for endangered species, which require some special management and protection, The area should have space for population growth, should have shelter, should have proper air, light , water , other nutritional and physiological requirements, There should be sights for breeding and rearing off-springs and habitats which are protected from disturbances. This also includes areas which are at present not occupied by endangered species but are required in future for its discovery.

Problems with critical habitats:-

The agencies which designates a habitat the critical habitat status should adjust their policies to include a nation-wide rule. For example NEPA (National environmental policy act of United states is a law which promotes environment rules )compliance, even if reduces overall conservation, because NEPA guarantees all members of the public the right to participate in the decision-making process, NEPA compliance prevents the agencies which designates critical habitat from maximizing their conservation efforts, and it is not justified because the critical habitat designations does not require NEPA compliance by law. NEPA's role is to create a harmony between man and environment.

Cost of developing a critical habitat is high, it affects in developing a place as a critical habitat, identification of species and mapping of the area is important in proper time, which is cost effective, suppose a species is on the verge of extinction and in absence of data the project of developing it as a critical habitat gets delayed, it may happen that the species might get extinct, if it got to wait for some years.

Suppose a builder does the dredging work in an area, and not surveyed the biodiversity, before beginning the work, than if there is an endangered species it may get extinct, so also its habitat, all this occurs due to the loopwholes in the law.

Areas are also excluded from critical habitat designations if they effects the economy or national security.

Climate change also creates a problem for critical habitat, due to the climatic change by greenhouse effect the critical habitats are lost. For eample in case of polar bears, they require the presence of sea ice throughout the year for survival, but the ice is melting in Arctic sea due to climate change, as a result there habitat is lost.