essay about nature conservation

Essay on Conservation of Nature for Students and Children

500+ words essay on conservation of nature.

Nature has provided us numerous gifts such as air , water, land, sunlight , minerals, plants, and animals. All these gifts of nature make our earth a place worth living. Existence on Earth would not be possible without any of these. Now, while these natural resources are present on Earth in plenty. Unfortunately, the necessity of most of these has increased extremely over the centuries due to growth in the human population.

What is Conservation of Nature?

Conservation of nature means the preservation of forests, land, water bodies, and minerals, fuels, natural gases, etc. And to make sure that all these continue to be available in abundance. Thus all these natural resources make life worth living on Earth. Life would not be imaginable without air, water, sunlight as well as other natural resources present on the earth.

Thus, it is essential to conserve these resources in order to retain the environment integral. Here is a look at the types of natural resources existing on Earth and the ways to conserve these:

Types of Natural Resources:

• Renewable Resources : These are resources such as air, water, and sunlight that refill naturally.
• Non-Renewable Resources: These are resources like fossil fuels and minerals that do not restock reform very slowly.
• Biotic: These originate from living beings and organic material like plants and animals.
• Abiotic: These come from non-living things and non-organic material. These comprise air, water, and land as well as metals like iron, copper, and silver.

Natural resources are also categories such as actual resources, reserve resources, stock resources and potential resources based on their development stage.

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How to Conserve Nature and Its Resources?

Many of the natural resources are being used at a faster rate as compared to their speed of production. There is so a necessity for conservation of nature and the natural resources it offers. Here are some of the ways in which these resources can be conserved:

Reduce Water Consumption

Water is available in abundance on Earth . This is one of the reasons people do not consider much before using it. However, if we keep using it at this speed. In the future, we may not be left with as much of it. Therefore, simple things such as turn off the tap while brushing or reuse the leftover water to water the plants can help in this direction.

Reduce Usage of Electricity

Use only as much energy as you require. It is thus advised to limit the usage of electricity. Simple habits such as turning off the lights before parting your room, turn off the electric appliances after use.  Switching to energy-saving fluorescent or LED bulbs can make a change.

Restrict Usage of Paper

Paper manufacturing depends only on trees. Increasing the use of paper means encouraging deforestation . This is one of the key reasons for concern is in today’s time Always ensure you use only as much paper as necessary. Stop taking print outs and use e-copies instead to do your bit.

Use Newer Agricultural Methods

The government must aware the methods such as mixed cropping, crop rotation. Also, the government should teach the minimum use of pesticides, insecticides. Appropriate use of manures , bio-fertilizers, and organic fertilizers to the farmers.

Spread Awareness

Spreading awareness about the conservation of nature is always a necessary step. It can be achieved only when more and more people understand its importance and the ways in which they can help. Besides this, it is essential to plant more and more tress. It is necessary to contribute towards lowering air pollution. We must use shared transport and employing rainwater harvesting systems to conserve nature.

Nature comprises of everything that surrounds us. The trees, forests, rivers, rivulets, soil, air all are the part of nature. Keeping nature and its resources integral. So, it is very important for the continuation of life on earth. It would be difficult to imagine life on earth, which has a spoiled natural environment.

Therefore, taking appropriate steps to conserve nature in its untouched form. It must be a priority for the human race. Only human beings with their power and ability can save nature in its purest forms.

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• Essay On Conservation Of Nature

Essay on Conservation of Nature

500+ words essay on conservation of nature.

Nature refers to living plants, air, water, minerals, sunlight, and animals. It makes this Earth a place worth living. We can exist on this planet because of mother nature. We get plenty of natural resources from our planet Earth. But unfortunately, most of the natural resources are getting depleted because of overpopulation and misuse of these resources. If we don’t work to conserve natural resources, all these resources will not exist one day. So, we should understand its value and importance.

Define the Conservation of Nature

Natural resources on Earth include minerals, air, water, soil and wildlife. It contains genes, ecosystems, diversity of species and functions of the environment. It is impossible to exist on this planet without these natural resources. Conservation of nature means taking care of and protecting these resources for future generations.

So, we should conserve these natural resources to maintain an equal balance in our environment. Now, we will discuss the types of resources and how they can be conserved.

Types of Natural Resources

Natural resources can be classified into four categories: Renewable resources, Non-Renewable resources, Biotic and Abiotic.

Renewable Resources: Renewable resources cannot be replenished through natural processes. For example, wind, water, forests, solar energy, etc. These resources can fill by themselves at the same speed they are used. But, we should manage these resources wisely to avoid the depletion of renewable resources.

Non-Renewable Resources: Non-renewable resources are exhaustible resources, which means once they are exhausted, they will take millions of years to form, for example, fossil fuels, minerals, etc.

Biotic: Biotic natural resources come from the ecosphere, including vegetation, animals, and other substances procured from them. It also includes oil, coal and petroleum because they are decayed organic matter.

Abiotic: Abiotic natural resources are generated from non-living and non-organic materials. Examples of abiotic natural resources are land, water, and heavy materials like gold, silver, etc.

Natural resources can also be categorised as stock resources, actual resources, potential resources and reserve resources based on their stage of development.

How to Conserve Nature and Its Resources?

It is necessary to conserve natural resources because many of them are used faster than their production speed. We have discussed a few ways of preserving these resources below:

Consumption of less water: Making a habit of taking shorter showers, closing the tap while brushing our teeth, etc., will help reduce the wastage of water. Also, try to use your dishwasher and washing machine when there is enough load and shift to energy-saving applicants if possible.

Switch off the lights: Make sure to turn off the lights once you leave the room. When there is no use of appliances like air conditioners, coffee-makers, etc., switch them off as they consume electricity in small amounts. LED lights use less amount of electricity compared to standard bulbs. So, try to switch to these alternative options of light.

Usage of renewable energy: Renewable resources have been in practice for centuries. But, in recent years, global warming and climate change forced researchers and scientists to look for other ways to incorporate greenery into our everyday life. The usage of wind energy and solar panels can reduce our dependence on natural gas and reduce the depletion of natural resources.

Recycle: Recycling means reusing materials that are already used. It reduces waste, helping in reducing groundwater and air pollution. Look for a place that recycles items like plastic bottles, aluminium, etc.

Composting means converting scrap food waste into valuable materials for gardening purposes. It enriches the soil and avoids water runoff, which reduces soil erosion. By composting, the need for pesticides can also be cut down, lessening the amount of wastage and pollution produced by food.

Nature comprises everything that surrounds us. The trees, forests, rivers, brooks, soil, and air are all part of nature. Keeping nature and its resources integral is crucial for continuing life on Earth. It would be difficult to imagine life on Earth with a spoiled natural environment.

Therefore, taking appropriate steps to conserve nature must be a priority for the human race. Only human beings can save nature in its purest forms with their power and ability.

From our BYJU’S website, students can also access CBSE Essays related to different topics. It will help students to get good marks in their exams.

Frequently Asked Questions on Conservation of Nature Essay

What are some simple ways to conserve nature.

Follow: 1. Reduce, reuse and recycle 2. Plant trees on special occasions (birthdays, anniversaries etc.) 3. Avoid shopping for unnecessary items 4. Volunteer for public clean-ups 5. Educate others about environmental protection

Why is the conservation of nature important?

Humans are dependent on nature and its various resources for their survival and sustenance. Preserving wildlife and nature is important as the constant depletion of nature will only lead to exhaustion of these.

What can schools do to conserve nature?

1. Avoid plastic items in canteens 2. Reuse paper, notebooks, etc. 3. Avoid wastage in all forms, especially water

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ENCYCLOPEDIC ENTRY

Wildlife conservation.

Wildlife conservation aims to protect plant and animal species as the human population encroaches on their resources.

Biology, Ecology, Conservation, Storytelling, Photography

Asian Elephant Family

Filmmakers and photographers are essential to conservation efforts. They take the photographs, such as these Asian elephants (Elephas maximus indicus), and the films that interest others in protecting wildlife.

Photograph by Nuttaya Maneekhot

Wildlife conservation is the practice of protecting plant and animal species and their habitats . Wildlife is integral to the world’s ecosystems , providing balance and stability to nature’s processes. The goal of wildlife conservation is to ensure the survival of these species, and to educate people on living sustainably with other species. The human population has grown exponentially over the past 200 years, to more than eight billion humans as of November 2022, and it continues to rapidly grow. This means natural resources are being consumed faster than ever by the billions of people on the planet. This growth and development also endangers the habitats and existence of various types of wildlife around the world, particularly animals and plants that may be displaced for land development, or used for food or other human purposes. Other threats to wildlife include the introduction of invasive species from other parts of the world, climate change, pollution, hunting, fishing, and poaching. National and international organizations like the World Wildlife Fund, Conservation International, the Wildlife Conservation Society, the United Nations, and National Geographic, itself, work to support global animal and habitat conservation efforts on many different fronts. They work with the government to establish and protect public lands, like national parks and wildlife refuges . They help write legislation, such as the Endangered Species Act (ESA) of 1973 in the United States, to protect various species. They work with law enforcement to prosecute wildlife crimes, like wildlife trafficking and illegal hunting (poaching). They also promote biodiversity to support the growing human population while preserving existing species and habitats. National Geographic Explorers, like conservation biologists Camille Coudrat and Titus Adhola, are working to slow the extinction of global species and to protect global biodiversity and habitats. Environmental filmmakers and photographers, like Thomas P. Peschak and Joel Sartore, are essential to conservation efforts as well, documenting and bringing attention to endangered wildlife all over the world.

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Related Resources

• Understanding Conservation
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• Wildlife Guide

Wildlife conservation is the preservation and protection of animals, plants, and their habitats. By conserving wildlife, we're ensuring that future generations can enjoy our natural world and the incredible species that live within it. To help protect wildlife, it's important to understand how species interact within their ecosystems, and how they're affected by environmental and human influences.

Plants and animals have life events that seemingly occur like clockwork every year. Birds can migrate, mammals may hibernate, flowers bloom, and leaves change colors. The study of how the biological world times these natural events is called phenology. Scientists now understand that plants and animals take their cues from their local climate (long-term weather patterns). Climate is impacted by non-biological factors—temperature, precipitation, and available sunlight. Species use the predictable yearly changes in the climate to determine when they start natural events such as breeding or flowering.

Climate change is slowly increasing average annual temperatures. One of the most noticeable ways that climate change is impacting wildlife is by disrupting the timing of natural events. With warmer temperatures, flowering plants are blooming earlier in the year and migratory birds are returning from their wintering grounds earlier in the spring. Phenology is an important subject for conservationists to study because it helps us understand the patterns of specific species and overall ecosystem health. Every species has an impact on those in its food chain and community, and the timing of one species' phenological events can be very important to the survival of another species.

Food Webs and Bioaccumulation

The energy we receive from food can be traced back to the sun. As the sun shines, it radiates light energy. Plants absorb the light energy, convert it to sugars (photosynthesis), and produce energy for other wildlife. The energy from the sun moves its way through ecosystems by predators eating their prey. A food web breaks down how all the producers, consumers, and decomposers interact in an ecosystem and how energy is transferred between species.

When animals eat their prey, they consume more than just energy. They also absorb all the chemicals and nutrients inside the prey. Sometimes animals ingest pollutants that can become stored in their fat and tissues. Human-caused pollution has added heavy metals, oil, and industrial and pharmaceutical chemicals to the environment. Plants, fish, and other species absorb these toxins, and as they are eaten by predators, the toxins are then absorbed into the predators’ tissues. As the chain of predator and prey continues up the food web, the toxins become more concentrated and move higher and higher up the food web. The process that causes the concentration of a substance to increase as it moves up the food web is called bioaccumulation. The pollutants can have a disastrous effect on the food web and potentially kill species.

Natural Disturbances

A natural disturbance is any event that causes a disruption to the current state of an ecosystem. Natural disturbances are caused by forces of nature, including weather, geology, and biological fluctuations. This may include fires, floods, earthquakes, diseases, and droughts. After a disturbance impacts an ecosystem, there can be devastation, but healthy ecosystems have an amazing ability to bounce back. Some ecosystems even depend on disturbances, such as the threatened longleaf pine ecosystem. Sometimes the ecosystem will go back to its former structure, with the same plant and animal species. Other times, the disturbance will create something new by allowing new species to populate the area.

Not all disturbances are natural. Human actions have contributed to many disturbances seen in ecosystems today. While natural disturbances happen on occasion, human disturbances are putting constant pressure on ecosystems and dramatically impacting species. Human disturbances, including clear-cutting, habitat fragmentation, and pollution, are continuously affecting ecosystems. The moment the ecosystem begins adjusting to one stress, another appears. Many ecosystems that we depend on are not given enough time to adapt to the new conditions. The natural cycle of disturbances—growth, dieback, and growth—cannot properly function because too many disturbances are putting pressure on the ecosystem at once.

Corridors and Flyways

Wild animals are always on the move. They move from place to place in search of food, mates, shelter, and water. Many animals do not have to move far in order to have all their needs met, but other animals—for example migratory birds, wolves , mountain lions , or butterflies —require much more space. Currently many species with large territories, including gray wolves, are threatened because habitat loss and fragmentation have limited their available space. Roads, fences, and buildings cut off habitat and force wildlife into smaller areas. Conservationists have to take into account the different spatial needs of wildlife when designing plans to protect them. They have to think about the territory size, different habitat types, and migration routes that wildlife need.

A wildlife corridor is a tract of land that connects different wildlife habitats (such as refuges, parks, or rivers) that might otherwise be separated by human development. Wildlife corridors provide many benefits to wildlife. With corridors, animals have a better opportunity of finding the basic necessities they need—food, water, shelter, and places to raise their young. Animals that require larger territories can access new habitats and maintain a healthy territory size. Wildlife corridors also promote genetic biodiversity . When more individuals of a species are interconnected, the gene pool becomes larger and more viable. Migratory wildlife benefit from corridors because they can move safely over long distances without having to come into contact with human developments or cars. Species are more likely to survive disturbances by having more undisturbed areas.

The National Wildlife Federation, in partnership with the Santa Monica Mountains Fund, is working to create a wildlife crossing for mountain lions in California. By linking protected habitat on either side of a freeway, mountain lions and other wildlife can the access to green space they need to survive. The Liberty Canyon Wildlife Crossing, when built, will be the largest such crossing in the world, and a model for urban wildlife conservation.

Unlike mammals, birds and butterflies travel from one place to another by flying, so they face different kinds of challenges. Not only do we have to protect their winter and summer habitat, but also key rest stops that migratory wildlife use along the way. Conservationists can help threatened bird and butterfly populations by protecting habitat along major migratory flyways—pathways used by migratory birds and insects. Birds tend to take predictable routes to get from the winter feeding grounds to the summer breeding grounds and back. Flyways usually occur along coastlines, major rivers, and near mountains. The United States has four main migratory flyways.

• Pacific Flyway: Along the Pacific coast, west of the Rocky Mountains
• Central Flyway: Over the Great Plains, east of the Rocky Mountains
• Mississippi Flyway: Along the Mississippi River
• Atlantic Flyway: Along the Atlantic coast

A great way to help birds and butterflies migrate is by building a Certified Wildlife Habitat® in your backyard or balcony. Learn how to provide a critical resting place and food source to help migratory birds reach their destination.

Biodiversity

Species diversity is only one part of biodiversity. We also have to recognize the genetic diversity that exists within species, as well as the diversity of entire habitats and ecosystems.

Citizen Science

Citizen scientists can support professional researchers in a lot of ways—by submitting data, sharing experiences, or spreading valuable information.

Endangered Species

The Endangered Species Act has lists of protected plant and animal species both nationally and worldwide.

Ecosystem Services

An ecosystem service is any positive benefit that wildlife or ecosystems provide to people. The benefits can be direct or indirect—small or large.

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The new book "Peace with Nature: 50 Inspiring Essays on Nature and the Environment" was launched in Singapore

The book is published this month by World Scientific Press. It was edited by Professor Tommy Koh, Professor Lin Heng Lye and Shawn Lum.

The launch of  Peace with Nature: 50 Inspiring Essays on Nature and the Environment, took place on 4 September 2023 at the POD, National Library in Singapore. The event counted with the presence of the editors (Professor Tommy Koh, Professor Lin Heng Lye and Shawn Lum), as well as Desmond Lee (Singapore's Minister for National Development).

This book is a must-read for all who love nature and the environment. It contains 50 inspiring essays written by Singaporeans and friends who share their perspectives, expertise and experience –as scientists, lawyers, economists, engineers, bankers, government officers, and civil society– all linked by a love for nature, for the environment, and for Singapore. The essays focus on the protection and preservation of Singapore's rich biodiversity (primates, colugos, otters, butterflies, dragonflies, stick-insects, birds, coral reefs, mangroves and sea grasses); efforts to save special areas (the Lower Peirce Reservoir, Chek Jawa, Sungei Buloh, the Rail Corridor and the first marine nature reserve); the contributions of NGOs (Nature Society, Herpetological Society, Waterways Watch Society); and the efforts of scholars, the government and the private sector to ensure a clean and green City in Nature, amidst the challenges of limited space and climate change.

All royalties from the purchase of the book will be donated to the Nature Society. More details about the book can be found here: https://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/13561#t=aboutBook  

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How Can We All Help Conserve Nature?

When we speak about conserving nature, we are really talking about taking care of our future, because nature provides essential resources for our survival and enjoyment. We asked an international group of scientists working on different environmental issues worldwide to identify important practical actions that we can all do to help conserve nature. We obtained nearly 100 responses and grouped them into three main categories: (1) Actions to reduce our ecological footprint; (2) Actions to conserve nature; and (3) Actions that help us connect with nature. We briefly explain actions that can be performed daily to reduce our impact on nature, and provide some useful links for further reading.

Protecting Nature to Ensure Our Future

We often forget how much humans depend on nature . Even city-dwellers living in modern skyscrapers need air to breathe, water to drink, and food to eat, all of which are provided by nature. True, you can buy bottled water and ready-to-eat meals in supermarkets, but they were not produced there. Some fruits and vegetables, for example, only grow in tropical countries and cross the globe in refrigerated ship containers, to arrive just ripe to your local supermarket. All drinking water ultimately comes from a natural source, since we still do not have the technology to manufacture large amounts of water in the laboratory [ 1 ]. The same applies to the air we breathe, which is purified and oxygenated by plants [ 2 ]. So, when we speak about preserving nature, we are really also talking about preserving ourselves.

Whereas nature encompasses the natural environment as a whole, the term biodiversity [ 3 ] is used to refer to all living organisms. Biodiversity is ultimately responsible for the services we receive from nature, which are also called Ecosystem Services [ 4 ] or Nature's Contribution to People [ 5 ]. For example, forests containing many different bee species provide pollination services to nearby crop fields. In places where natural forests have been cut down, beekeepers must bring in artificial beehives to guarantee that enough pollinators visit crop flowers to produce fruit [ 6 ]. Other wild organisms, like wasps and birds, act as pest-control agents for agricultural crops, reducing the population of pests that damage those crops, and resulting in higher crop yields.

You are probably thinking that you already knew about this, and that there is not much you can do to preserve air, water, or fruit trees. But even if you live in a big city, far away from oxygen-producing forests, natural water springs, or crop fields, your daily actions can have a strong impact on these natural resources. Spilling a single drop of cooking oil while cleaning the dishes contaminates a million drops of water. Traveling in a vehicle powered by fossil fuels contributes to air pollution and global climate change [ 7 ]. Buying certain processed food ingredients, like palm oil, can contribute to massive deforestation in the tropics, as farmers clear land to grow these crops for money. All these impacts together make up what is called our ecological footprint on nature [ 8 ], which is a measure to quantify our daily life's impact on nature.

We will now share with you some important practical actions that we can all do to help conserve nature, to preserve our own well-being, and to guarantee that natural resources are available for future generations.

What Actions Can We Take to Help Conserve Nature?

We asked an international group of scientists, working on various environmental issues, to provide ideas on what young people can do to help conserve nature. We obtained nearly 100 responses and then organized all of the ideas by grouping them into three main categories: (1) Actions to reduce our ecological footprint ( Figure 1 ); (2) Actions to conserve nature ( Figure 2 ); and (3) Actions to connect with nature ( Figure 3 ). Below we explain each.

• Figure 1 - Word cloud showing the key actions that can be taken to reduce our ecological footprint.

• Figure 2 - Word cloud showing the key actions that can be taken to conserve nature.

• Figure 3 - Word cloud showing the key actions that can be taken to connect with nature.

Reduce our ecological footprint: Reducing our ecological footprint means placing less demand on nature (read here about the 3Rs—reduce, reuse and recycle; and get some ideas here on how you can help nature). Here are some ways that you can do this:

• Recycle your rubbish and participate in or help organize recycling campaigns.
• Avoid littering and participate in or help organize litter clean-ups ( here you can link to a website for volunteering or starting your own beach clean-up).
• Use less plastic by, for example, carrying a reusable water bottle, saying no to disposable straws and cutlery, avoiding plastic toys, and bringing your own shopping bags (for further ideas on a plastic-free life take a look here ).
• Swap toys, movies, and books instead of buying new ones.
• Donate, recycle, and repair electronic devices (see how here ).
• Use less water when brushing teeth, taking a shower, or washing the dishes.
• Use less electricity by turning off lights and electronic devices when not in use, using energy-saving light bulbs, and hanging clothes to dry.
• Use public transport, share a journey with friends (e.g., car-sharing), cycle, or walk when possible.
• Use less paper by not printing unnecessary things and reading e-books.
• Turn down the air conditioning when it is hot and use fans if you are still hot-they use much less power.
• Turn down the heat when it is cold and use sweaters, blankets, and socks to keep warm.
• Do not waste food and try to buy food that is grown locally and in season.
• Eat more non-meat proteins (like beans), less dairy, more vegetables, and more organic food when possible.
• Buy products that do not cause damage to the environment and that have certified labels (such as Rainforest Alliance and Animal Welfare ).
• Refuse to buy what you do not need, because every item you do not buy reduces the demand for the production of that item. For example, if everyone stopped buying plastic bags, super markets would stop selling them.

Conserve nature: Conserving nature means to protect, preserve and restore biodiversity. Here are some ways that you can do this:

• Try to prevent your pets from killing/harming wildlife (for some specific advice to help your local birds, see this ).
• Do not touch or take home wild animals or plants (see some advice here ).
• Plant native wildflowers, fruit trees, and pollinator-friendly plants in your garden or yard (for some related gardening tips, check out this ).
• Make compost to improve soil quality and to help insects (check out a guide to composting here ).
• Build and place bat houses, bird houses, and “bee hotels” in your garden, school grounds, and local green spaces ( here you can learn how make and manage a Bee hotel).
• Do not buy/keep wild pets at home (such as parrots, song birds, wild cats, or reptiles), in order to avoid supporting illegal trafficking of animals ( here you can find more info about illegal wildlife trade).
• Be aware of wild animals crossing the road and respect their paths ( here is some further information about the importance of wildlife crossings).

Connect with nature: Connecting with nature means setting aside time to interact with the natural environment. Here are some ways that you can do this:

• Play outside and spend more time in nature (read this link to find out why this is so important).
• Organize trips to explore the national parks/nature reserves close to you.
• Join conservation programs or eco-clubs (see how here ).
• Participate in nature-focused citizen science initiatives (learn more about citizen science here and see actual projects you can join here and here ).
• Use books or apps to identify the plants and animals around you (check out a cool app here ).
• Play games to learn more about nature (check out some fun examples here and here ).
• Use websites, blogs or social media to help raise awareness on the importance of conserving nature and share all these ideas).

Understanding the importance of nature and biodiversity for our own well-being can really help us to help nature. In this article, we have provided some practical ideas that we can all try to reduce our ecological footprint, conserve nature, and connect with nature. We encourage you to put these ideas into practice and share these actions with your family and friends.

Nature : ↑ The term that encompasses living organisms and the forces responsible for the physical world, such as the weather, mountains, oceans, and landscapes.

Biodiversity : ↑ The word biodiversity means the variety of all living organisms on Earth, and includes different levels of organization—from genes, species, and communities through to entire ecosystems.

Ecosystem Services : ↑ The many benefits that people get from natural ecosystems. These services can be broken down into provisioning (e.g., food and wood), supporting (e.g., soil formation and nutrient cycling), regulating (e.g., clean air and water purification), and cultural (e.g., recreation and eco-tourism).

Climate Change : ↑ Change in global or regional climate patterns, most due to increased levels of greenhouse gases produced by the burning of fossil fuels. Greenhouse gases, like carbon dioxide, act like a blanket, trapping heat near the Earth's surface, and raising the temperature.

Ecological Footprint : ↑ This is a measure of how much people take from nature, which is then compared to what natural resources are available to provide for people.

Conflict of Interest Statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

[1] ↑ Ernst, C., Gullick, R., and Nixon, K. 2004. Conserving forests to protect water. Opflow 30:1–7. doi: 10.1002/j.1551-8701.2004.tb01752.x

[2] ↑ Nowak, D. J., Hirabayashi, S., Bodine, A., and Greenfield, E. 2014. Tree and forest effects on air quality and human health in the United States. Environ. Pollut. 193:119–29. doi: 10.1016/j.envpol.2014.05.028

[3] ↑ Carrington, D. 2018. What is Biodiversity and Why Does it Matter to Us? Guard. Available online at: https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/mar/12/what-is-biodiversity-and-why-does-it-matter-to-us

[4] ↑ Millennium Ecosystem Assessment 2005. Ecosystems and Human Well-being: Synthesis . Washington, DC: Island Press. Available online at: http://www.millenniumassessment.org/documents/document.356.aspx.pdf

[5] ↑ Daz, S., Pascual, U., Stenseke, M., Martn-López, B., Watson, R. T., Molnár, Z., et al. 2018. Assessing nature's contributions to people. Science 359:270–2. doi: 10.1126/science.aap8826

[6] ↑ Potts, S. G., Imperatriz-Fonseca, V. L., and Thompson, H. M. (Eds.). 2016. The Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services on Pollinators, Pollination and Food Production . Bonn: Secretariat of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. Available online at: https://www.ipbes.net/assessment-reports/pollinators

[7] ↑ Center for Climate and Energy Solutions. Climate Basics for Kids . Available online at: https://www.c2es.org/content/climate-basics-for-kids/ (accessed June, 2019).

[8] ↑ Global Footprint Network. Ecological Footprint . Available online at: https://www.footprintnetwork.org/our-work/ecological-footprint/ (accessed June, 2019).

 / 

Conservation

In defense of biodiversity: why protecting species from extinction matters.

By Carl Safina • February 12, 2018

A number of biologists have recently made the argument that extinction is part of evolution and that saving species need not be a conservation priority. But this revisionist thinking shows a lack of understanding of evolution and an ignorance of the natural world. 

A few years ago, I helped lead a ship-based expedition along south Alaska during which several scientists and noted artists documented and made art from the voluminous plastic trash that washes ashore even there. At Katmai National Park, we packed off several tons of trash from as distant as South Asia. But what made Katmai most memorable was: huge brown bears. Mothers and cubs were out on the flats digging clams. Others were snoozing on dunes. Others were patrolling.

During a rest, several of us were sitting on an enormous drift-log, watching one mother who’d been clamming with three cubs. As the tide flooded the flat, we watched in disbelief as she brought her cubs up to where we were sitting — and stepped up on the log we were on. There was no aggression, no tension; she was relaxed. We gave her some room as she paused on the log, and then she took her cubs past us into a sedge meadow. Because she was so calm, I felt no fear. I felt the gift.

In this protected refuge, bears could afford a generous view of humans. Whoever protected this land certainly had my gratitude.

In the early 20th century, a botanist named Robert F. Griggs discovered Katmai’s volcanic “Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes.” In love with the area, he spearheaded efforts to preserve the region’s wonders and wildlife. In 1918, President Woodrow Wilson established Katmai National Monument (now Katmai National Park and Preserve ), protecting 1,700 square miles, thus ensuring a home for bear cubs born a century later, and making possible my indelible experience that day. As a legacy for Griggs’ proclivity to share his love of living things, George Washington University later established the Robert F. Griggs Chair in Biology.

That chair is now occupied by a young professor whose recent writing probably has Griggs spinning in his grave. He is R. Alexander Pyron . A few months ago,  The Washington Post published a “ Perspective” piece by Pyron that is an extreme example of a growing minority opinion in the conservation community, one that might be summarized as, “Humans are profoundly altering the planet, so let’s just make peace with the degradation of the natural world.” 

No biologist is entitled to butcher the scientific fundamentals on which they hang their opinions.

Pyron’s essay – with lines such as, “The only reason we should conserve biodiversity is for ourselves, to create a stable future for human beings” and “[T]he impulse to conserve for conservation’s sake has taken on an unthinking, unsupported, unnecessary urgency” – left the impression that it was written in a conservative think tank, perhaps by one of the anti-regulatory zealots now filling posts throughout the Trump administration. Pyron’s sentiments weren’t merely oddly out of keeping with the legacy of the man whose name graces his job title. Much of what Pyron wrote is scientifically inaccurate. And where he stepped out of his field into ethics, what he wrote was conceptually confused.

Pyron has since posted, on his website and Facebook page, 1,100 words of frantic backpedaling that land somewhere between apology and retraction, including mea culpas that he “sensationalized” parts of his own argument and “cavalierly glossed over several complex issues.” But Pyron’s original essay and his muddled apology do not change the fact that the beliefs he expressed reflect a disturbing trend that has taken hold among segments of the conservation community. And his article comes at a time when conservation is being assailed from other quarters, with a half-century of federal protections of land being rolled back, the Endangered Species Act now more endangered than ever, and the relationship between extinction and evolution being subjected to confused, book-length mistreatment.

Pyron’s original opinion piece, so clear and unequivocal in its assertions, is a good place to unpack and disentangle accelerating misconceptions about the “desirability” of extinction that are starting to pop up like hallucinogenic mushrooms.

In recent years, some biologists and writers have been distancing themselves from conservation’s bedrock idea that in an increasingly human-dominated world we must find ways to protect and perpetuate natural beauty, wild places, and the living endowment of the planet. In their stead, we are offered visions of human-dominated landscapes in which the stresses of destruction and fragmentation spur evolution. 

White rhinoceros ( Ceratotherium simum ). Source: Herman Pijpers/ Flickr

Conservation International ditched its exuberant tropical forest graphic for  a new corporate logo  whose circle and line were designed to suggest a human head and outstretched arms. A few years ago, Peter Kareiva, then chief scientist for The Nature Conservancy,  said , “conservationists will have to jettison their idealized notions of nature, parks, and wilderness,” for  “a more optimistic, human-friendly vision.” Human annihilation of the passenger pigeon, he wrote, caused “no catastrophic or even measurable effects,” characterizing the total extinction of the hemisphere’s most abundant bird — whose population went from billions to zero inside a century (certainly a “measurable effect” in itself) — as an example of nature’s “resilience.”

British ecologist Chris Thomas’s recent book, Inheritors of the Earth: How Nature is Thriving in an Age of Extinction, argues that the destruction of nature creates opportunities for evolution of new lifeforms that counterbalance any losses we create, an idea that is certainly optimistic considering the burgeoning lists of endangered species. Are we really ready to consider that disappearing rhinos are somehow counterbalanced by a new subspecies of daisy in a railroad track? Maybe it would be simpler if Thomas and his comrades just said, “We don’t care about nature.’’

Enter Pyron, who — at least in his initial essay — basically said he doesn’t. He’s entitled to his apathy, but no biologist is entitled to butcher the scientific fundamentals on which they hang their opinions.

Pyron began with a resonant story about his nocturnal rediscovery of a South American frog that had been thought recently extinct. He and colleagues collected several that, he reassured us, “are now breeding safely in captivity.” As we breathed a sigh of relief, Pyron added, “But they will go extinct one day, and the world will be none the poorer for it.” 

The conviction that today’s slides toward mass extinction are not inevitable spurred the founding of the conservation movement.

I happen to be writing this in the Peruvian Amazon, having just returned from a night walk to a light-trap where I helped a biologist collect moths. No one yet knows how many species live here. Moths are important pollinators. Knowing them helps detangle a little bit of how this rainforest works. So it’s a good night to mention that the number of species in an area carries the technical term “species richness.” More is richer, and fewer is, indeed, poorer. Pyron’s view lies outside scientific consensus and societal values. 

Pyron wasn’t concerned about his frogs going extinct, because, “Eventually, they will be replaced by a dozen or a hundred new species that evolve later.” But the timescale would be millennia at best — meaningless in human terms — and perhaps never; hundreds of amphibians worldwide are suffering declines and extinctions, raising the possibility that major lineages and whole groups of species will vanish. Pyron seemed to have no concerns about that possibility, writing, “Mass extinctions periodically wipe out up to 95 percent of all species in one fell swoop; these come every 50 million to 100 million years.”

But that’s misleading. “Periodically” implies regularity. There’s no regularity to mass extinctions. Not in their timing, nor in their causes. The mass extinctions are not related. Three causes of mass extinctions — prolonged worldwide atmosphere-altering volcanic eruptions; a dinosaur-snuffing asteroid hit; and the spreading agriculture, settlement, and sheer human appetite driving extinctions today — are unrelated.

Rio Pescado stubfoot toad ( Atelopus balios ). Source: De Investigación y Conservación de Anfibios/ Flickr

The conviction that today’s slides toward mass extinction are not inevitable, and could be lessened or avoided, spurred the founding of the conservation movement and created the discipline of conservation biology.

But Pyron seems unmoved. “Extinction is the engine of evolution, the mechanism by which natural selection prunes the poorly adapted and allows the hardiest to flourish,” he declared. “Species constantly go extinct, and every species that is alive today will one day follow suit. There is no such thing as an ‘endangered species,’ except for all species.”

Let us unpack. Extinction is not evolution’s driver; survival is. The engine of evolution is survival amidst competition. It’s a little like what drives innovation in business. To see this, let’s simply compare the species diversity of the Northern Hemisphere, where periodic ice sheets largely wiped the slate clean, with those of the tropics, where the evolutionary time clock continued running throughout. A couple of acres in eastern temperate North America might have a dozen tree species or fewer. In the Amazon a similar area can have 300 tree species. All of North American has 1,400 species of trees; Brazil has 8,800. All of North America has just over 900 birds; Colombia has 1,900 species. All of North America has 722 butterfly species. Where I am right now, along the Tambopata River in Peru, biologists have tallied around 1,200 butterfly species.

Competition among living species drives proliferation into diversified specialties. Specialists increasingly exploit narrowing niches. We can think of this as a marketplace of life, where little competition necessitates little specialization, thus little proliferation. An area with many types of trees, for instance, directly causes the evolution of many types of highly specialized pollinating insects, hummingbirds, and pollinating bats, who visit only the “right” trees. Many flowering plants are pollinated by just one specialized species.

Pyron muddles several kinds of extinctions, then serves up further misunderstanding of how evolution works. So let’s clarify. Mass extinctions are global; they involve the whole planet. There have been five mass extinctions and we’ve created a sixth . Past mass extinctions happened when the entire planet became more hostile. Regional wipeouts, as occurred during the ice ages, are not considered mass extinctions, even though many species can go extinct. Even without these major upheavals there are always a few species blinking out due to environmental changes or new competitors. And there are pseudo-extinctions where old forms no longer exist, but only because their descendants have changed through time. 

New species do not suddenly “arise,” nor are they really new. They evolve from existing species, as population gene pools change.

Crucially for understanding the relationship between extinction and evolution is this: New species do not suddenly “arise,” nor are they really new. New species evolve from existing species, as population gene pools change. Many “extinct” species never really died out; they just changed into what lives now. Not all the dinosaurs went extinct; theropod dinosaurs survived. They no longer exist because they evolved into what we call birds. Australopithecines no longer exist, but they did not all go extinct. Their children morphed into the genus Homo, and the tool- and fire-making Homo erectus may well have survived to become us. If they indeed are our direct ancestor — as some species was — they are gone now, but no more “extinct” than our own childhood. All species come from ancestors, in lineages that have survived.

Pyron’s contention that the “hardiest” flourish is a common misconception. A sloth needs to be slow; a faster sloth is going to wind up as dinner in a harpy eagle nest. A white bear is not “hardier” than a brown one; the same white fur that provides camouflage in a snowy place will scare away prey in green meadow. Bears with genes for white fur flourished in the Arctic, while brown bears did well amidst tundra and forests. Polar bears evolved from brown bears of the tundra; they got so specialized that they separated, then specialized further. Becoming a species is a process, not an event. “New” species are simply specialized descendants of old species.

True extinctions beget nothing. Humans have recently sped the extinction rate by about a thousand times compared to the fossil record. The fact that the extinction of dinosaurs was followed, over tens of millions of years, by a proliferation of mammals, is irrelevant to present-day decisions about rhinos, elephant populations, or monarch butterflies. Pyron’s statement, “There is no such thing as an ‘endangered species,’ except for all species,” is like saying there are no endangered children except for all children. It’s like answering “Black lives matter” with “All lives matter.” It’s a way of intentionally missing the point. 

Chestnut-sided warbler ( Setophaga pensylvanica ). Source: Francesco Veronesi/ Wikimedia

Here’s the point: All life today represents non-extinctions; each species, every living individual, is part of a lineage that has not gone extinct in a billion years.

Pyron also expressed the opinion that “the only reason we should conserve biodiversity is for ourselves …” I don’t know of another biologist who shares this opinion. Pyron’s statement makes little practical sense, because reducing the diversity and abundance of the living world will rob human generations of choices, as values change. Save the passenger pigeon? Too late for that. Whales? A few people acted in time to keep most of them. Elephants? Our descendants will either revile or revere us for what we do while we have the planet’s reins in our hands for a few minutes. We are each newly arrived and temporary tourists on this planet, yet we find ourselves custodians of the world for all people yet unborn. A little humility, and forbearance, might comport.

Thus Pyron’s most jarring assertion: “Extinction does not carry moral significance, even when we have caused it.” That statement is a stranger to thousands of years of philosophy on moral agency and reveals an ignorance of human moral thinking. Moral agency issues from an ability to consider consequences. Humans are the species most capable of such consideration. Thus many philosophers consider humans the only creatures capable of acting as moral agents. An asteroid strike, despite its consequences, has no moral significance. Protecting bears by declaring Katmai National Monument, or un-protecting Bears Ears National Monument, are acts of moral agency. Ending genetic lineages millions of years old, either actively or by the willful neglect that Pyron advocates, certainly qualifies as morally significant.

Do we really wish a world with only what we “rely on for food and shelter?” Do animals have no value if we don’t eat them?

How can we even decide which species we “directly depend’’ upon? We don’t directly depend on peacocks or housecats, leopards or leopard frogs, humpback whales or hummingbirds or chestnut-sided warblers or millions of others. Do we really wish a world with only what we “rely on for food and shelter,” as Pyron seemed to advocate? Do animals have no value if we don’t eat them? I happen not to view my dogs as food, for instance. Things we “rely on” make life possible, sure, but the things we don’t need make life worthwhile.

When Pyron wrote, “Conservation is needed for ourselves and only ourselves… If this means fewer dazzling species, fewer unspoiled forests, less untamed wilderness, so be it,” he expressed a dereliction of the love, fascination, and perspective that motivates the practice of biology.

Here is a real biologist, Alfred Russell Wallace, co-discoverer of evolution by natural selection:

I thought of the long ages of the past during which the successive generations of these things of beauty had run their course … with no intelligent eye to gaze upon their loveliness, to all appearances such a wanton waste of beauty… . This consideration must surely tell us that all living things were not made for man… . Their happiness and enjoyments, their loves and hates, their struggles for existence, their vigorous life and early death, would seem to be immediately related to their own well-being and perpetuation alone. —The Malay Archipelago, 1869

At the opposite pole of Wallace’s human insight and wonder, Pyron asked us to become complicit in extinction. “The goals of species conservation have to be aligned with the acceptance that large numbers of animals will go extinct,” he asserted. “Thirty to 40 percent of species may be  threatened  with extinction in the near future, and their loss may be inevitable. But both the planet and humanity can probably survive or even thrive in a world with fewer species … The species that we rely on for food and shelter are a tiny proportion of total biodiversity, and most humans live in — and rely on — areas of only moderate biodiversity, not the Amazon or the Congo Basin.”

African elephant ( Loxodonta africana ). Source: Flowcomm/ Flickr

Right now, in the Amazon as I type, listening to nocturnal birds and bugs and frogs in this towering emerald cathedral of life, thinking such as Pyron’s strikes me as failing to grasp both the living world and the human spirit. 

The massive destruction that Pyron seems to so cavalierly accept isn’t necessary. When I was a kid, there were no ospreys, no bald eagles, no peregrine falcons left around New York City and Long Island where I lived. DDT and other hard pesticides were erasing them from the world. A small handful of passionate people sued to get those pesticides banned, others began breeding captive falcons for later release, and one biologist brought osprey eggs to nests of toxically infertile parents to keep faltering populations on life support. These projects succeeded. All three of these species have recovered spectacularly and now again nest near my Long Island home. Extinction wasn’t a cost of progress; it was an unnecessary cost of carelessness. Humans could work around the needs of these birds, and these creatures could exist around development. But it took some thinking, some hard work, and some tinkering.

It’s not that anyone thinks humans have not greatly changed the world, or will stop changing it. Rather, as the great wildlife ecologist Aldo Leopold wrote in his 1949 classic A Sand County Almanac , “To keep every cog and wheel is the first precaution of intelligent tinkering.”

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Essay on Conservation of Nature

Students are often asked to write an essay on Conservation of Nature in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Conservation of Nature

Understanding nature conservation.

Nature conservation involves preserving Earth’s natural resources. These resources include water, air, soil, plants, and animals. We conserve nature to ensure future generations can enjoy it.

Why Conserve Nature?

Conserving nature is essential because it provides us with food, water, and air. It also helps maintain biodiversity, which is vital for a healthy ecosystem.

How to Conserve Nature?

There are many ways to conserve nature. We can recycle, reduce waste, plant trees, and protect wildlife. Everyone can contribute to nature conservation.

250 Words Essay on Conservation of Nature

Introduction.

Nature, the life-support system of our planet, is an intricate web of interconnected elements, all of which are vital for the sustenance of life. However, human activities have been causing severe damage to this complex system, necessitating urgent actions for its conservation.

The Need for Nature Conservation

As we continue to exploit natural resources, we risk upsetting the balance of ecosystems, leading to biodiversity loss, climate change, and other environmental issues. Conservation of nature is not just about protecting wildlife, but also about preserving the world for future generations.

Strategies for Conservation

Conservation strategies can be bifurcated into in-situ and ex-situ methods. In-situ conservation involves preserving habitats, ecosystems, and natural areas, maintaining biodiversity within their natural environments. Ex-situ conservation, on the other hand, includes actions such as creating seed banks, botanical gardens, and zoos for species preservation.

Role of Individuals

Individuals play a crucial role in nature conservation. Simple actions like reducing waste, recycling, and reusing can make a significant impact. Additionally, supporting and participating in local conservation efforts can help maintain biodiversity.

Conservation of nature is a collective responsibility. It is an urgent call to action for all stakeholders, from governments and corporations to individuals, to protect our planet. Through concerted efforts, we can ensure the survival and prosperity of all life forms on Earth.

500 Words Essay on Conservation of Nature

Nature, in its broadest sense, is the physical world and life in its entirety. It encompasses the complex interplay of living organisms, the environment, and the ecosystems that support them. However, the relentless pursuit of human progress has led to significant degradation of natural resources. Conservation of nature, therefore, is not just a necessity, but an imperative for the survival of future generations.

The Importance of Nature Conservation

Nature offers us a plethora of resources, many of which are indispensable for our survival. It provides us with air to breathe, water to drink, food to eat, and raw materials for our industries. However, the reckless exploitation of these resources has led to their depletion. Natural habitats are being destroyed, species are becoming extinct, and climate change is becoming a grave reality. Conserving nature is thus crucial for maintaining the delicate balance of our ecosystems and ensuring the sustainability of our resources.

Methods of Nature Conservation

There are several methods to conserve nature, and they can be broadly classified into in-situ and ex-situ conservation. In-situ conservation involves preserving species in their natural habitats, like establishing protected areas such as national parks and wildlife reserves. On the other hand, ex-situ conservation involves conserving biodiversity outside their natural habitats. This includes methods like captive breeding, botanical gardens, and gene banks.

The Role of Technology in Nature Conservation

In this digital era, technology plays a significant role in nature conservation. Satellite imagery and remote sensing technologies are being used to monitor deforestation and habitat destruction. Drones are being deployed for wildlife tracking and anti-poaching efforts. Moreover, data analytics and artificial intelligence are being utilized to predict environmental changes and devise effective conservation strategies.

Human Responsibility and Nature Conservation

While technology and policies play a pivotal role, the onus of nature conservation ultimately lies on individuals. Adopting sustainable practices, reducing waste, and promoting renewable energy are some ways in which we can contribute. Education and awareness about the importance of nature conservation are also essential to foster a collective sense of responsibility towards our environment.

In conclusion, the conservation of nature is a complex yet crucial task that requires a multi-pronged approach. It involves not only the implementation of effective conservation strategies but also a shift in human attitudes and behaviors. As we stand at the precipice of an environmental crisis, it is imperative that we prioritize nature conservation to ensure a sustainable future for all. As the famous naturalist John Muir once said, “When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world.”

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

If you’re looking for more, here are essays on other interesting topics:

• Essay on Beauty of Nature
• Essay on My Hobby Watching T.V.
• Essay on My Hobby Horse Riding

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• Published: 07 October 2020

Area-based conservation in the twenty-first century

• Sean L. Maxwell 1 ,
• Victor Cazalis   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-0850-883X 2 ,
• Nigel Dudley 1 , 3 ,
• Michael Hoffmann   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-4785-2254 4 ,
• Ana S. L. Rodrigues 2 ,
• Sue Stolton 3 ,
• Piero Visconti   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-6823-2826 5 , 6 , 7 ,
• Stephen Woodley   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-3074-6578 8 ,
• Naomi Kingston 9 ,
• Edward Lewis 9 ,
• Martine Maron   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-5563-5789 1 ,
• Bernardo B. N. Strassburg   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-8598-3020 10 , 11 , 12 ,
• Amelia Wenger 1 , 13 ,
• Harry D. Jonas 8 , 14 ,
• Oscar Venter 15 &
• James E. M. Watson   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-4942-1984 1 , 16  

Nature volume  586 ,  pages 217–227 ( 2020 ) Cite this article

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• Conservation biology

An Author Correction to this article was published on 18 November 2020

This article has been updated

Humanity will soon define a new era for nature—one that seeks to transform decades of underwhelming responses to the global biodiversity crisis. Area-based conservation efforts, which include both protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures, are likely to extend and diversify. However, persistent shortfalls in ecological representation and management effectiveness diminish the potential role of area-based conservation in stemming biodiversity loss. Here we show how the expansion of protected areas by national governments since 2010 has had limited success in increasing the coverage across different elements of biodiversity (ecoregions, 12,056 threatened species, ‘Key Biodiversity Areas’ and wilderness areas) and ecosystem services (productive fisheries, and carbon services on land and sea). To be more successful after 2020, area-based conservation must contribute more effectively to meeting global biodiversity goals—ranging from preventing extinctions to retaining the most-intact ecosystems—and must better collaborate with the many Indigenous peoples, community groups and private initiatives that are central to the successful conservation of biodiversity. The long-term success of area-based conservation requires parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity to secure adequate financing, plan for climate change and make biodiversity conservation a far stronger part of land, water and sea management policies.

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Governments, policy-makers and many members of the conservation community have long held that protected areas are a fundamental cornerstone of biodiversity conservation 1 , 2 . The importance of other effective area-based conservation measures (OECMs) is also beginning to be recognized 3 , 4 . OECMs were defined by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in 2018 as places outside the protected-area estate that deliver effective biodiversity conservation, such as government-run water catchment areas, territories conserved by Indigenous peoples and local communities, as well as some private conservation initiatives (Box 1 ). Both protected areas and OECMs (here referred to collectively as area-based conservation measures) are acknowledged in the CBD and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development 5 . In particular, the current ten-year Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 6 of the CBD—which was agreed to by 168 countries in 2010—has an explicit target (Aichi Target 11) that stipulates ‘at least 17 per cent of terrestrial and inland water areas and 10 per cent of coastal and marine areas, especially areas of particular importance for biodiversity and ecosystem services, are conserved through effectively and equitably managed, ecologically representative and well-connected systems of protected areas and OECMs, and integrated into the wider landscape and seascape’ by 2020. This target has dominated the area-based conservation agenda for the past decade.

Between 2010 and 2019, protected areas expanded from covering 14.1% to 15.3% of global land and freshwater environments (excluding Antarctica) and from 2.9% to 7.5% of the marine realm 7 (Figs. 1 , 2 ). Although it is not yet possible to track their global extent systematically, OECMs have emerged as a category of area-based conservation since 2010 8 . However, despite these encouraging efforts, some disconcerting spatial dynamics in the global protected-area estate are becoming more apparent. One recent analysis showed that, on average, 1.1 million km 2 of land and sea were recorded as being removed from the global protected-area estate annually between 2006 and 2018 9 . There is also concern that nations are paying less attention to the qualitative elements of Aichi Target 11, including the need for representative and connected protected areas that are equitably governed and managed 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 . Moreover, some long-standing issues—including poor resourcing and low management effectiveness—continue to compromise the ability of protected areas to conserve biodiversity and ecosystems 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 . As a consequence, there is a risk that humanity could fail to deliver on the overall strategic goal for which the target was established: to ‘improve the status of biodiversity by safeguarding ecosystems, species, and genetic diversity’ 6 .

The map shows the annual expansion of protected areas across marine (blue-to-pink colours) and terrestrial (green-to-red colours) realms on Earth. Protected area data were sourced from ref. 7 . Country borders were sourced from the Database of Global Administrative Areas ( www.gadm.org ). Exclusive economic zones were sourced from Flanders Marine Institute ( www.marineregions.org ).

Circular plot shows increases in areal coverage (%) per year for marine and terrestrial protected-area estates for countries >25,000 km 2 in size. Landlocked countries are marked with an asterisk. Progress towards the globally agreed target—to have 17% of land and inland waters, and 10% of coastal and marine areas, protected by 2020—is promising but incomplete. Colours of the bars are as in Fig. 1 . Protected area data were sourced from ref. 7 .

A post-2020 global biodiversity framework will be agreed upon at the fifteenth conference of the parties to the CBD. This new strategic plan could be humanity’s last chance to prevent catastrophic loss of global biodiversity 24 . The urgency to act has emboldened calls for a substantial expansion of area-based conservation globally 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 and fundamental changes in how environmental targets are framed and implemented 17 , 22 , 29 , 30 . It is therefore timely to assess the achievements and failures of area-based conservation efforts over the past decade, and to place these findings within the wider context of the global biodiversity crisis.

Box 1
 Protected areas and OECMs are complementary area-based conservation measures

A protected area is formally defined as “A clearly defined geographical space, recognised, dedicated and managed, through legal or other effective means, to achieve the long term conservation of nature with associated ecosystem services and cultural values” 2 ; an OECM is defined as “A geographically defined area other than a Protected Area, which is governed and managed in ways that achieve positive and sustained long-term outcomes for the in situ conservation of biodiversity, with associated ecosystem functions and services and, where applicable, cultural, spiritual, socioeconomic, and other locally relevant values” 89 . The feature that distinguishes between a protected area and an OECM is that the former has a primary conservation objective whereas the latter delivers the effective in situ conservation of biodiversity, regardless of its objectives. Protected areas help to conserve critically endangered species such as the Philippine eagle ( Pithecophaga jefferyi ) (photograph credit: B. Demeulemeester) ( a ) and the Nassau grouper ( Epinephelus striatus ) (photograph credit: E. Poliakoff) ( b ). OECMs have been recognized at a locally managed marine area on Totoya Island (Fiji) (photograph credit: S. Jupiter) ( c ) and at a conservation concession in Loreto region (Peru) (photograph credit: Brian Moriarty/CC-BY) ( d ).

The performance of protected areas since 2010

Here we provide an up-to-date temporal analysis (spanning between 2010 and 2019) of how the recent expansion of protected areas globally has affected the net coverage of the qualitative components of Aichi Target 11; details of methodology and calculations are provided in the  Supplementary Methods . We omit reference to OECMs in this section, as a database showing the global extent of these sites is not yet available.

Protected areas being ecologically representative

The concept of being ecologically representative has been interpreted as the coverage of species or ecoregions (areas that contain geographically distinct assemblages of species 31 , 32 ), especially those that are threatened with extinction 10 , 13 , 33 , 34 . We analysed how expansion of the global protected-area estate between 2010 and 2019 affected coverage of 12,056 species listed as ‘Vulnerable’, ‘Endangered’ or ‘Critically Endangered’ (hereafter referred to as threatened species) on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List 35 (Fig. 3 ). Between 2010 and 2019, the percentage of species with some portion of their geographical range protected increased from 86% to 87.6% ( n  = 10,563). However, only 21.7% ( n  = 2,618) of species assessed had adequate representation inside protected areas in 2019 (up from 18.9% in 2010), where adequacy targets for individual species were set according to their geographical range 34 .

a , b , Trends in biodiversity and ecosystem service representation within the global marine ( a ) and terrestrial ( b ) protected-area estates. Left, plots showing increases in representation of values (coloured bars) compared with per cent growth in protected-area estates between 2010 and 2019 (grey dashed lines). Coloured bars that extend past the grey dashed lines highlight cases in which when an increase in representation was greater than the growth in the protected-area estate, which suggests that these values benefitted most from the recent expansion of area-based conservation efforts. Right, plots showing change in biodiversity and ecosystem service representation (coloured lines; left axis) as the terrestrial and marine protected-area estates expanded between 2010 and 2019 (grey shading; right axis). For taxonomic groups, trend lines show the proportion of threatened species with adequate representation. Trend lines for ecoregions and pelagic regions show the proportion of these features that are at least 17% protected (for terrestrial ecoregions) or at least 10% protected (for marine ecoregions or pelagic regions). Trend lines for all other values, including KBAs, wilderness areas, biomass carbon, soil carbon and exclusive economic zones (EEZs) within the top 20% for annual fisheries catch per km 2 , represent global averages. Data sources and methods are provided in the  Supplementary Information .

The proportion of threatened reef-forming corals with adequate representation grew rapidly over the past decade, from 9.1% to 44.0%. The proportion of species with adequate coverage also increased for threatened mangroves (to 50.0%), seagrasses (to 50.0%), marine mammals (to 43.2%), marine bony fishes (to 42.1%) and cartilaginous fishes (to 32.4%) over this period. However, no threatened marine reptiles had adequate levels of protection in 2019. On land, the proportion of species with adequate coverage grew by <3% for birds (to 33.6%) and <2% for amphibians (to 10.9%), reptiles (to 13.6%), mammals (to 37.0%) and freshwater species (to 19.0%) in the past decade (Supplementary Tables 1 , 2 ). It remains that 78.3% ( n  = 9,438) of all threatened species assessed had inadequate protection as of 2019, with at least 1,493 (12.4%) remaining without any coverage at all.

We further assessed progress towards the adequacy targets of 17% protection for terrestrial ecoregions and 10% for marine ecoregions or pelagic regions. We found that 42.6% ( n  = 361) of terrestrial ecoregions were adequately protected in 2019 (up from 38.8% in 2010) (Fig. 3 , Supplementary Table 3 ). We also found that one-fifth (20.6%) of land protected since 2010 covered tropical and subtropical grassland ecoregions—a critically endangered biome 31 (Supplementary Table 4 ). However, 32.9% of land protected since 2010 covered dry or desert ecoregions, which are relatively species-poor and are well-represented in the global protected-area estate 31 . The percentage of marine ecoregions with adequate coverage increased to 45.7% ( n  = 106) over the past decade (from 31.8% in 2010) (Supplementary Table 5 ), with much of this growth occurring in the Southern Ocean around Antarctica (0.7 million km 2 ; 4.2% of all new marine protected area). Despite attracting 81.3% (14.7 million km 2 ) of all new protected areas since 2010, the coverage in pelagic regions remains low: only 10.8% ( n  = 4) of these regions were adequately protected in 2019 (up from 2.7% in 2010) (Fig. 3 , Supplementary Table 6 ). The expansion of protected areas in pelagic regions was particularly concentrated in waters between Australia and South America, which received 36.6% of all new marine protected area (6.0 million km 2 ) in the past decade.

Coverage of areas of particular importance for biodiversity

The ‘Key Biodiversity Area’ (KBA) approach 36 offers a global standard for identifying marine, terrestrial and freshwater sites that contribute substantially to the global persistence of biodiversity. Over 15,000 KBAs have so far been identified (83.1% of which are ‘Important Bird Areas’, the avian subset of KBAs) 37 . Host nations are encouraged to ensure that these sites are managed in ways that ensure the persistence of biodiversity, although this does not necessarily mean inclusion within a protected area 36 . Our analysis showed average coverage of terrestrial KBAs was 45.9% in 2019 (up from 43.6% in 2010) and 43.3% for marine KBAs (up from 37.9% in 2010) (Fig. 3 ). Overall, around 4,900 KBAs (33.0%) remained without protected area coverage in 2019.

Wilderness areas are ecologically intact land and seascapes that are predominantly free of human-driven biophysical disturbance 38 , 39 . They underpin planetary life-support systems 40 and are critical for the long-term persistence of imperilled species 41 , especially in a time of climate change 42 . Over half (55.6%) of all wilderness overlaps with the geographical range of at least one threatened species, yet wilderness areas are also very spatially discordant from KBAs—only 1.2% of all land and sea on Earth is simultaneously recognized as both a KBA and a wilderness area (Supplementary Fig. 1 ). Our analysis shows that coverage increased for both terrestrial (from 19.7% to 22.1%) and marine wilderness (2.0% to 8.5%) areas during the past decade (Fig. 3 ).

Coverage of ecosystem services

The carbon sequestered and stored in terrestrial ecosystems has a pivotal role in mitigating anthropogenic climate change 43 . We therefore assessed the coverage of global aboveground biomass and soil carbon stocks 44 . Coverage of aboveground biomass increased from 22.6% in 2010 to 23.7% (99.0 petagrams of carbon (Pg C)) in 2019. Coverage of global soil-carbon stocks was lower on average and increased less in the past decade, from 13.9% in 2010 to 14.6% (400.5 Pg C) in 2019. Large unprotected repositories of soil carbon are prevalent across northeast North America, Russia and southeast Asia (Supplementary Fig. 2 ). However, maps of terrestrial organic carbon—particularly in peatlands and tropical rainforests—are continually being refined 45 , which may influence future understandings of carbon storage in particular areas.

The ‘biological pump’—carbon fixed by phytoplankton in the oceans being exported to the deep ocean 46 , 47 —also has a key role in mitigating climate change, because it removes carbon from the ocean and atmosphere systems for decades to millennia 48 . We estimate that 0.21 Pg of particulate organic carbon 49 and 0.17 Pg of dissolved organic carbon 50 is exported inside marine protected areas each year (Supplementary Tables 7 , 8 ). However, the factors that drive carbon export in the oceans vary seasonally 51 and the relative value of marine protected areas in carbon export may vary through time.

About three billion people rely on wild-caught or farmed seafood as their primary source of protein, which makes the sustained provision of seafood a globally important goal 5 . We compared protected area coverage of the most- and least-productive marine regions for fisheries catch in the oceans, finding that coverage of the least-productive exclusive economic zones (those within the bottom 20% for annual fisheries catch per unit area) (Supplementary Table 9 ) was—on average—three times greater than coverage of the most-productive exclusive economic zones (those within the top 20% for annual fisheries catch per unit area) (Supplementary Table 10 ) (31.2% versus 9.8%). Moreover, average coverage of the most-productive exclusive economic zones has not changed notably since 2010 (Fig. 3 ). We also found that the seven most-productive pelagic regions for fisheries catch have no formal protected area coverage (Supplementary Table 11 ).

Protected areas being well-connected

Well-connected ecosystems are critical for maintaining important ecological and evolutionary processes (including species migration and gene flow), especially when species face rapid climatic and environmental changes 52 , 53 . Connectivity among marine protected areas further helps to replenish and maintain fish populations, including on fished reefs 54 , 55 . A previous study showed that in 2016 only 30% of terrestrial ecoregions were at least 17% covered by protected areas that were within the potential dispersal distance of terrestrial vertebrates 56 . A subsequent study showed that the percentage of connected terrestrial protected areas increased from 6.5% to 7.7% between 2010 and 2018 57 . However, these assessments did not account for the permeability of unprotected land between protected areas. There have been no global-scale assessments of connectivity among marine or freshwater protected areas, but regional-scale studies show them to have limited connectivity—especially for species with a dispersive larval stage 58 .

Effectiveness of protected area management

Over the past few decades, four broad approaches have been used to evaluate area-based conservation efforts (Table 1 ). Three of these approaches pertain to management effectiveness, the first of which (which we term input evaluation) evaluates the adequacy of management resources for area-based conservation. A recent study of about 23% of terrestrial protected area found that 47% of protected areas suffer from inadequate staff and budget resources, with poor resourcing especially noticeable in the Neotropics 21 . Similarly, a study of 433 marine protected areas showed 65% to have insufficient budget for basic management needs and 91% to have on-site staff capacity that is inadequate or below optimum 20 . Related inputs, including the weak enforcement of protected area regulations 59 , have also been implicated in poor management effectiveness.

A second evaluation approach (which we term threat reduction evaluation) asks whether area-based conservation effectively reduces threats to the persistence of biodiversity. The majority of these evaluations show that protected areas slow, but do not completely halt, human pressures within their borders. For example, human pressures increased inside 55% of protected areas on land between 1993 and 2009 60 , and in the marine realm 94% of protected areas created before 2014 permit fishing activities 61 , 62 . However, terrestrial protected areas have been found to reduce rates of deforestation and forest degradation to below those observed in nearby unprotected areas 63 , including in the Amazon 64 , 65 ; marine protected areas can reduce fishing vessel traffic 66 and the negative effects of some non-native species 67 .

The third evaluation approach (which we term outcome evaluation) asks whether the goals of area-based conservation are being achieved relative to no intervention taking place. A recent controlled study showed that around 12,000 protected areas were ineffective at reducing human pressures inside their borders between 1995 and 2010 68 . However, several studies have reported beneficial effects of protected areas on biodiversity. For example, a controlled study of 359 terrestrial protected areas showed species richness to be 10.6% higher and abundance 14.5% higher inside protected areas than outside, with the effects of protection being most prominent in human-dominated land uses in the tropics (for example, cropland and plantations) 69 . Similarly, a controlled study of 218 marine protected areas found that, on average, fish biomass inside protected areas is nearly double that in non-protected sites 20 . Marine protected areas can also promote the recovery of commercial fish species 70 , 71 . In particular, no-take marine reserves can effectively increase species richness, density and biomass in both tropical and temperate systems 20 , 72 , 73 , 74 , as well as being effective at restoring trophic function 75 , 76 and lowering levels of coral disease 77 . Finally, several studies have reported on the social effects of protected areas. For example, a controlled study covering 603 protected areas found that households near protected areas with tourism opportunities had higher wealth levels (by 17%) and a lower likelihood of poverty (by 16%) than similar households living far from protected areas 78 .

Equitable governance and management in protected areas

Social equity in the context of protected areas has multiple dimensions, including distributional equity (for example, people agree on a scheme for sharing benefits and burdens), procedural equity (for example, decision-making that is transparent, accountable and participatory) and recognition (for example, respect for cultural identities, customary rights and traditional management practices) 79 . A recent survey covering 225 protected areas showed the majority of conservation managers, staff and community representatives believe that the benefits of protected areas are shared equally 15 . Yet, the study also showed that decision-making was not equitable in many cases and that local stakeholders perceived a general loss of rights over natural resources after the establishment of a protected area 15 .

Despite limited evidence of progress towards social equity, protected areas that do integrate local communities as stakeholders often produce better socio-economic and conservation outcomes 14 , 80 . A review of 27 marine protected areas found that stakeholder engagement, surveillance, leadership, political will and the existence of sanctioning and conflict resolution mechanisms were key factors in achieving ecological objectives 81 . No-take, well-enforced and longer-established marine protected areas show not only conservation success 82 , but also positive economic and governance outcomes for dependant human communities 83 . Furthermore, community-managed terrestrial protected areas are often more effective than nationally designated protected areas at reducing deforestation pressures, including in Peru, Brazil, Australia and Namibia 84 , 85 .

Lessons learned and priority actions

Collectively, national governments have made some progress towards Aichi Target 11 in the past decade—particularly in the marine realm. However, it is clear that nations have, as yet, failed to meet this target. The rate of expansion of terrestrial protected areas needed to be double what was observed in the past decade to achieve 17% coverage for land and freshwater environments. Moreover, 78.3% of known threatened species and more than half of all ecosystems on land and sea remained without adequate protection in 2019. A clear lesson from this assessment is that nations must expand area-based conservation efforts and better ensure that they contribute meaningfully to global goals for species and ecosystem conservation, which range from stopping extinction 86 to keeping ecosystems intact 87 . The past decade has also shown that many protected areas are poorly managed (owing predominantly to chronic resource shortages), and that many Indigenous and community groups are inadequately or inequitably represented in land, water and sea conservation plans. In light of these lessons, we identify three urgent challenges that must be acted upon by governments, scientists, policy-makers and other stakeholders as they embark on the next decade of area-based conservation (Tables 2 , 3 ).

Making OECMs count

There are now expanding opportunities to formally recognize places outside state-run protected areas that can conserve biodiversity. In addition to protected areas that are governed privately 88 and by Indigenous peoples 84 , other OECMs are being increasingly recognized. The importance of OECMs was formally recognized in Aichi Target 11 in 2010, but their guiding principles and criteria for identification were not agreed until November 2018 (Box 1 ). This delay probably contributed to OECMs being overlooked in most national biodiversity policies and strategies over the past decade. With a formal definition now agreed 89 , nations and managing bodies look set to operationalize OECMs more rapidly. The challenge now for the conservation community is to ensure that OECMs contribute meaningfully to biodiversity conservation.

OECMs could help to address representation shortfalls in the global protected-area estate. One recent study has shown that 566 unprotected KBAs are at least partly covered by one or more potential OECMs 4 , and—compared with nationally designated protected areas—OECMs may prove to be more socially acceptable in productive land- and seascapes (which are hotspots for poorly protected threatened species 10 , 11 ). Recognizing OECMs in inshore marine habitats, farmlands and managed forests could also enhance the connectivity of area-based conservation efforts, providing that natural ecological functions can be restored and maintained in such areas 90 , 91 . Wider recognition of OECMs should also help to make area-based conservation management more equitable, as they are managed by and for the benefit of a diverse set of actors. A recent study showed that lands managed by Indigenous communities in Australia, Brazil and Canada support concentrations of vertebrate species similar to those inside nationally designated protected areas 92 , which exemplifies the importance of working with Indigenous peoples to recognize OECMs in their territories.

However, to deliver on the potential of OECMs, governments, private industry and the conservation community must immediately mobilize support for OECMs to overcome the issues that are faced by many protected areas, including inadequate reporting and resourcing. A reporting platform for OECMs 8 was released in December 2019 and has the potential to make assessments of progress towards the successor of Aichi Target 11 more accurate, if countries make use of it. The success of OECMs will also depend on governments and conservation actors upholding human rights and social safeguards, particularly in Indigenous and community areas. In cases in which meeting OECM criteria will require some adaptation to livelihoods, great care must be taken to develop alternative livelihood opportunities that deliver tangible benefits to resource users 93 . Alternative livelihood schemes must also be mindful to retain the biodiversity benefits of OECMs 94 .

Tracking the increasing dynamism of area-based conservation

Recent studies have shown that protected areas are more dynamic in space and time than previously thought 9 . Decisions to remove, shrink or relax protected areas are poorly documented, which makes it difficult to assess which ecosystems are most susceptible to such dynamics or how these changes affect the overall quality of area-based conservation networks. The challenge for the conservation community is to have protected area dynamics reported more transparently, especially when they compromise biodiversity outcomes.

Many removals from the protected-area estate can be attributed to ‘protected area downgrading, downsizing and degazettement’ (PADDD) events. More than 1,500 PADDD events affected, in total, over one-third of the protected area network in Australia (416,740 km 2 ) between 1997 and 2014 95 . Moreover, 23 PADDD events have affected natural World Heritage sites (protected areas with ‘outstanding universal value’, such as the Virunga, Serengeti and Yosemite National Parks) 96 . PADDD events can accelerate forest loss and fragmentation 97 , and most (62%) are associated with activities that are in stark conflict with biodiversity conservation, including industrial-scale resource extraction and infrastructure development 98 . Potentially of greatest concern are the many PADDD events that are going undocumented, particularly in marine systems 99 and on private lands 100 .

To improve the transparency of area-based conservation decisions, we encourage governments and the conservation community to engage more with global PADDD tracking platforms (for example, www.padddtracker.org ). We also believe that integrating PADDD tracking data with existing area-based conservation databases (for example, the World Database on Protected Areas 7 ) would vastly improve their utility and aid global reporting. Dynamism in area-based conservation could signal attempts to expand or enhance protected areas, either through improved resourcing and management 101 , 102 or by enacting more restrictive regulations 103 . As such, there is also a clear need to better incentivize and track the continuum of changes to protected areas that can improve their ability to conserve biodiversity. We suggest that such changes be characterized collectively as ‘protected area gazettement, expansion and enhancement’ (PAGEE) events. Clear, transparent tracking around both PADDD and PAGEE events will ensure we address—and do not exacerbate—current shortfalls in area-based conservation.

Outcome-orientated evaluation of area-based conservation

The numerous approaches that have been developed to evaluate area-based conservation efforts all have merit, but the conservation community remains too reliant on types of evaluation that focus on management inputs or threat reduction 104 (Table 1 ). Adopting evaluation techniques that more effectively capture the biodiversity and socio-economic outcomes of area-based conservation is currently a substantial challenge.

The Global Database on Protected Area Management Effectiveness provides information on many protected area processes, including the existence of a management plan or the adequacy of law enforcement activities 105 . Yet the majority of the methodologies of the Global Database on Protected Area Management Effectiveness were not developed to quantify the effects of protected area management activities on species and ecosystems 105 , and therefore cannot be used to evaluate progress towards the effective conservation of biodiversity. High-resolution maps of ecological change across land- and seascapes, including forest cover change 106 and changes in cumulative human pressure 107 , 108 , enable more outcome-orientated conservation evaluations. But ecological changes across land- and seascapes do not always explain local biodiversity patterns 109 . The temporal resolution of cumulative human-pressure mapping also lags behind that of forest-cover mapping efforts, and some maps of human pressure are at spatial resolutions (for example, 77 km 2 (ref. 108 )) that preclude assessments of many small (<1 km 2 )—but crucially important 110 —protected areas.

To make area-based conservation evaluations more outcome-orientated, we suggest making robust outcome evaluation techniques—both ex ante to help to site areas 111 and ex post to report on outcomes 112 —a standard reporting requirement for all organizations that are involved in area-based conservation. Conservation agencies must then better fund long-term and well-designed biodiversity monitoring programmes. It will be especially important for such programmes to monitor control sites that match protected areas in terms of ecological and anthropogenic conditions, so as to isolate any confounding effects 113 , 114 . We also encourage governments and communities to engage more with citizen science initiatives that use techniques such as camera traps, drones and acoustic monitors to increase the coverage and frequency of biodiversity data 115 . Combining advances in remote sensing and field campaigns (for example, the Biomass Earth Explorer of the European Space Agency) with in situ reporting of protected area management capacity and biodiversity trends (for example, using the Spatial Monitoring and Reporting Tool (SMART) could also make outcome evaluations much more accurate and reliable.

Future-proofing area-based conservation

Although the three challenges already discussed are immediate priorities, broader policy changes can ensure that area-based conservation can contribute meaningfully to longer-term goals held by the CBD: namely, that ‘by 2050, biodiversity is valued, conserved, restored and widely used, maintaining ecosystem services, sustaining a healthy planet and delivering benefits essential for all people’ 116 (Tables 2 , 3 ). In this final section, we outline a set of necessary pre-conditions—adequate financing, being climate-smart and mainstreaming biodiversity across national policy frameworks—that require action by governments now to ensure the long-term success of area-based conservation strategies.

Secure adequate financing

The global funding available for species protection has more than halved in the past two decades, from approximately US$200 million per year in the 2000s to less than US$100 million per year in the 2010s 117 . The costs associated with expanding area-based conservation efforts compound resource shortfalls at existing sites. One estimate suggests that protecting and effectively managing a terrestrial protected-area network that is more taxonomically comprehensive that the current network would cost US$76.1 billion annually 118 . As such, a conservative estimate of the current financial shortfall for area-based conservation probably exceeds the multi-billion dollar mark. This shortfall is unlikely to be fully addressed in the coming decade, but reducing it must become an immediate priority for governments and private industry.

Current and future resourcing needs could be met if the contribution of area-based conservation to national economies was adequately recognized. The direct value generated by visits to protected areas is valued at US$600 billion per year 119 . Governments must therefore better account for the contribution of area-based conservation efforts to national economies. When budgeting for area-based conservation, we suggest that governments use predictive measures of funding requirements and effects 120 , and that they consider the under-appreciated cost-saving benefits of effective biodiversity conservation. For example, it would be useful to compare the costs arising from the socio-economic devastation caused by zoonotic diseases such as severe acute respiratory syndrome or coronavirus disease 2019 with those needed to effectively manage area-based conservation networks in a way that reduces supply to illegal wildlife markets 121 , 122 . There is also an urgent need to better harness industry and philanthropic contributions to area-based conservation, through—for example—improved funding guidelines that ensure that the involvement of private interests does not compromise the siting or management of area-based conservation 123 , 124 , 125 .

Being climate-smart

Anthropogenic climate change will become an increasingly strong mediator of the success of area-based conservation this decade 126 , with many predicted biological responses to climate change already underway 127 . A recent study showed that under a business-as-usual scenario for greenhouse gas emissions (Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 8.5), mean sea-surface temperatures within marine protected areas are projected to increase by 2.8 °C by 2100 128 . We overlaid climate change projections under a more-moderate emissions scenario (RCP 4.5) on the terrestrial protected-area network and found that temperatures in the warmest quarter will increase on average by 2.9 °C on protected land by 2050, with higher increases occurring in European nations (Supplementary Fig. 2 , Supplementary Table 12 ). We also found that by 2050 some biodiverse nations, including Suriname and Guyana, can expect 30–40% less rainfall on protected land during dry months (Supplementary Fig. 3 , Supplementary Table 13 ). Such changes in bioclimatic conditions are likely to markedly alter ecological networks 129 and imperil some species and ecosystems 130 . Even the relatively moderate RCP 4.5 scenarios are likely to drive the elimination of most warm-water coral reefs by 2040–2050 131 .

There are now well-established ways to incorporate climate change into area-based conservation plans 132 , including safeguarding or—where possible—restoring the integrity of ecosystems around protected areas so as to ensure ecological connectivity 133 , 134 . Ensuring that managers have the knowledge and capacity to implement realistic climate adaptation policies is also paramount 135 . Greater enforcement of conservation regulations 136 and accounting for human responses to climate change 137 are also likely to enhance the climate resilience of area-based conservation efforts. However, targeting protected areas in sites in which bioclimatic changes may be small (refugia) must be done with caution, because predicted changes can be spatially discordant 128 as can the biotic response. For example, only 3.5% of marine protected areas co-occur with refugia for both sea-surface temperature and oxygen concentration 128 . In such cases, decision-support tools (for example, value-of-information analysis 138 and systems modelling 139 ) can evaluate the benefits of resolving uncertainty about ecological responses to climate change before implementing conservation action, and therefore lead to more-robust management decisions.

Make biodiversity conservation mainstream

No matter how well-sited, resourced or managed, area-based conservation can act only on a subset of threats to biodiversity persistence. The amelioration of large-scale distal threats requires other interventions that are triggered by broader land, water and sea management policies 140 , 141 . China is the first major economy to formulate a national policy—known as the Ecological Redline Policy—that mandates municipality and provincial governments to establish biodiversity and ecosystem service assessments in land-use planning 142 . It is hoped that the Ecological Redline Policy extends to China’s planned activities beyond their national boundaries—including the Belt and Road Initiative, which could affect many areas of critical conservation concern 143 . However, most national land, water and sea management policies are subservient to economic development 144 or contain loopholes that lead to perverse environmental outcomes 145 . Governments must recognize that getting these policies right is essential and will ease the strain on area-based conservation strategies in the long term.

Two cross-cutting changes could improve the efficacy of national land, water and sea management policies. First, we suggest that nations adopt an overarching goal for biodiversity that is bold—to have a net positive effect on biodiversity, for example 29 —and then agree a set of socio-economic and environmental targets that can contribute proportionally to this overarching goal. Targets should then be made mutually conditional: environmental targets (for example, to protect 30% of land) cannot be considered met if progress towards socio-economic targets (for example, to eliminate incentives harmful to biodiversity) is found to be wanting. Improving biodiversity accounting protocols could also enhance the efficacy of land, water and sea management policies. One example of this is switching from biodiversity impact-offsetting protocols that simply displace conservation funding or entrench rates of biodiversity loss (for example, averted loss offsetting) to emerging protocols that align compensation with desired trajectories for imperilled species or ecosystems (for example, target-based compensation) 146 .

Conclusions

Area-based conservation will remain the cornerstone of biodiversity conservation long into the twenty-first century, but governments have markedly underinvested in protected areas and OECMs and been weak in legally protecting them. In addition to addressing existing shortfalls, conservation organizations need to adopt more impact-orientated evaluation measures and promote governance and management equity. Organizations must also improve the transparency of decisions that result in spatial and resource dynamics, and ensure that OECMs can contribute meaningfully to biodiversity conservation. Finally, governments must future-proof area-based conservation by securing adequate financing, being climate-smart and mainstreaming biodiversity across environmental and socio-economic policies.

Data availability

The World Database on Protected Areas ( http://www.protectedplanet.net ) 7 , the World Database of KBAs ( http://keybiodiversityareas.org ) 37 , ecoregions on land 31 and sea 32 , 147 , wilderness on land 39 and sea 38 , geographical distributions of non-avian 35 and avian 148 threatened species and bioclimatic projections 149 are publically available online. Maps of fisheries catch 150 , particulate organic carbon 49 and dissolved organic carbon 50 export, and biomass and soil carbon 44 can be obtained from their creators. Source data for Figs. 1 – 3 , Supplementary Figs. 3 , 4 and all  Supplementary tables are available in an online digital repository at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3894431 .

Code availability

Spatial analysis was conducted using ESRI ArcGIS Pro v.2.4.0. The workflow we used to process the World Database on Protected Areas is available in the  Supplementary Information .

Change history

18 november 2020.

A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2952-y

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Acknowledgements

We thank B. Williams, R. Venegas, S. Henson and S. Roshan for assisting with some of the analytical components of this Review. We also thank H. C. Jonas, P. Langhammer and those that attended the CBD’s Thematic Workshop on Area-based Conservation Measures in Montreal in November 2019 for thoughts and discussion around this manuscript.

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This file contains: Global gap analysis for protected area coverage, Procedure for processing the World Database on Protected Areas prior to performing gap analysis, Supplementary Figures 1-4, Supplementary Tables 1-13, and Supplementary References.

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Maxwell, S.L., Cazalis, V., Dudley, N. et al. Area-based conservation in the twenty-first century. Nature 586 , 217–227 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2773-z

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Nature is a precious gift that surrounds us, encompassing the world’s landscapes, ecosystems, and living beings. It is a source of immense beauty, inspiration, and solace. From towering mountains to vast oceans, lush forests to serene meadows, nature provides us with breathtaking sights and a sense of awe.

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In conclusion, nature is a precious and awe-inspiring entity that sustains life and provides solace and inspiration. It is essential for our physical and mental well-being. As stewards of the Earth, it is our responsibility to protect and conserve nature, ensuring its preservation for future generations to cherish and enjoy.

Nature is a magnificent and awe-inspiring gift that surrounds us, encompassing the diverse landscapes, ecosystems, and living beings that make up our planet. From the majestic mountains to the serene lakes, from the vibrant forests to the vast oceans, nature captivates us with its beauty, power, and serenity.

Nature provides us with numerous benefits and is essential for our survival and well-being. It is the source of clean air, freshwater, and fertile soil that sustains life on Earth. The intricate web of ecosystems, comprising plants, animals, and microorganisms, works together to maintain the delicate balance of nature.

Beyond its practical importance, nature has a profound impact on our physical and mental health. Spending time in nature has been shown to reduce stress, improve mood, and enhance overall well-being. The sight of a breathtaking sunset, the sound of waves crashing on the shore, or the touch of grass beneath our feet can have a soothing and therapeutic effect, allowing us to reconnect with ourselves and find solace in the beauty of the natural world.

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Conservation and sustainable practices are vital for ensuring the continued well-being of our planet. We must strive to live in harmony with nature, embracing sustainable lifestyles and adopting practices that minimize our ecological footprint. This includes reducing waste, conserving energy and water, practicing responsible consumption, and supporting conservation efforts.

Furthermore, education and awareness play a crucial role in fostering a deeper appreciation and understanding of nature. By learning about the intricate interconnectedness of ecosystems and the importance of biodiversity, we can develop a sense of responsibility and take action to protect and conserve the natural world.

Preserving nature is not just about ensuring our own well-being; it is a moral obligation to future generations and a commitment to the intrinsic value of all living beings and ecosystems. By valuing and respecting nature, we can create a more sustainable and harmonious future, where humans coexist with the natural world in a mutually beneficial relationship.

In conclusion, nature is a source of wonder, beauty, and vital resources. It sustains life, nourishes our souls, and provides us with a profound sense of connection. As custodians of the Earth, it is our responsibility to protect and preserve nature, adopting sustainable practices and fostering a deep appreciation for the natural world. By doing so, we can ensure a vibrant and thriving planet for ourselves and future generations to enjoy and cherish.

Title: Nature – A Pristine Gift Nurturing Life and Inspiring the Human Spirit

Introduction :

Nature, with its awe-inspiring landscapes, diverse ecosystems, and intricate web of life, is a pristine gift that surrounds us. It captivates us with its beauty, serenity, and transformative power. This essay explores the profound relationship between humans and nature, highlighting its importance for our physical, mental, and spiritual well-being. It also emphasizes the urgent need to protect and preserve nature in the face of environmental challenges.

The Beauty and Diversity of Nature

Nature encompasses a vast array of breathtaking landscapes, from snow-capped mountains to lush forests, from vast oceans to tranquil meadows. Each holds its unique charm, captivating us with its grandeur, tranquility, and raw beauty. From the vibrant colors of blooming flowers to the graceful flight of birds, nature’s diversity evokes wonder and ignites our imagination.

Nurturing Life and Ecosystems

Nature sustains life on Earth, providing vital resources and supporting intricate ecosystems. It supplies us with clean air, freshwater, and fertile soil, enabling the growth of crops and the survival of diverse species. The delicate balance of ecosystems ensures the survival of plants, animals, and microorganisms, each playing a crucial role in maintaining biodiversity and ecological harmony.

Physical and Mental Well-being

Spending time in nature has numerous physical and mental health benefits. It reduces stress, anxiety, and depression, promoting a sense of calm and well-being. The healing power of nature can be seen in activities such as forest bathing, where individuals immerse themselves in natural environments to enhance their overall health. Nature provides a respite from the fast-paced urban life, allowing us to disconnect, recharge, and rejuvenate our spirits.

Inspiration and Spiritual Connection

Nature inspires us and stirs our innermost emotions. The grandeur of a mountain range, the rhythmic crashing of waves, or the delicate beauty of a flower can evoke a profound sense of awe and wonder. Nature’s beauty stimulates our creativity, kindles our imagination, and nurtures our spirit. It serves as a reminder of our place in the larger tapestry of life, connecting us to something greater than ourselves.

Environmental Challenges and the Need for Conservation

Nature is facing unprecedented challenges due to human activities. Deforestation, pollution, climate change, and habitat destruction pose significant threats to the delicate balance of ecosystems and the survival of countless species. The urgency to protect and preserve nature has never been greater. Conservation efforts, sustainable practices, and environmental awareness are crucial in mitigating these challenges and ensuring a sustainable future.

Cultivating a Connection with Nature

To protect and preserve nature, it is essential to cultivate a deep connection and appreciation for the natural world. Education plays a vital role in fostering environmental awareness and instilling a sense of responsibility. Encouraging outdoor experiences, nature-based activities, and environmental stewardship programs can nurture a love for nature and promote a sense of guardianship of the planet.

Conclusion :

Nature is a remarkable and invaluable gift, nurturing life, inspiring the human spirit, and offering solace and serenity. It is essential for our physical, mental, and spiritual well-being. However, it faces significant challenges that threaten its delicate balance and the well-being of future generations. By protecting and preserving nature, adopting sustainable practices, and fostering a deep connection with the natural world, we can ensure a vibrant and thriving planet for ourselves and future generations to enjoy and cherish. Let us embrace our role as stewards of the Earth and work collectively to safeguard nature’s invaluable gifts.

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• School Education /

Essay on Nature: In 100 Words, 200 Words, 300 Words

• Updated on  
• Oct 13, 2023

Nature is the intricate web of life that surrounds us, encompassing everything from the air we breathe to the majestic landscapes we admire. It includes the delicate balance of ecosystems, the diversity of flora and fauna, and the natural resources that sustain all living beings on Earth. Exploring the beauty and significance of nature is not only a pleasurable endeavour but also a crucial one, as it reminds us of our responsibility to protect and preserve our environment.

This Blog Includes:

Tips to write the best essay, essay on nature in 100 words, essay on nature in 200 words, essay on nature in 300 words.

Here are some tips to craft an exceptional essay:

• Understand the Topic: Grasp the essence of the topic and its different aspects before you start writing.
• Structure: Organize your essay coherently, with a clear introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion.
• Thesis Statement: Formulate a strong thesis statement that summarizes the main point you want to convey.
• Use Vivid Language: Employ descriptive language to bring the beauty of nature to life for your readers.
• Supporting Evidence: Back up your points with facts, statistics, and examples to make your essay more convincing.
• Variety of Ideas: Discuss different perspectives and dimensions of the topic to showcase a comprehensive understanding.
• Proofread: Edit your essay for grammar, punctuation, and clarity before submitting it.

Nature is a precious gift, encompassing all living and non-living entities. It provides us with air, water, food, and shelter. The beauty of nature soothes our souls and brings us closer to the marvels of creation. However, human activities are threatening the delicate balance of ecosystems, leading to pollution, deforestation, and climate change. It’s our responsibility to protect and preserve nature for future generations to enjoy its wonders.

Nature is the ultimate source of inspiration and sustenance for all life forms on Earth. From the smallest microorganisms to the tallest trees, every aspect of nature plays a crucial role in maintaining the delicate balance of our planet. The diversity of flora and fauna, the intricate ecosystems, and the natural resources provide us with food, shelter, and even the air we breathe.

Despite its undeniable importance, human activities are wreaking havoc on nature. Deforestation, pollution, and excessive use of natural resources are causing irreparable damage to our environment. Climate change, triggered by human-induced factors, is resulting in extreme weather events and rising sea levels, endangering both human and animal habitats.

Preserving nature is not a choice; it’s a necessity. The responsibility to conserve nature lies in the hands of every individual. Planting trees, reducing waste, using sustainable resources, and raising awareness about the importance of nature are steps we can take to mitigate the damage.

Nature has provided us with boundless beauty and resources, but it’s up to us to ensure its survival. By respecting and nurturing the natural world, we can secure a healthier and more vibrant planet for current and future generations.

Nature is a symphony of vibrant life forms and dynamic ecosystems that create a harmonious and intricate web of existence. The lush greenery of forests, the tranquil blue of oceans, the diverse habitats of animals, and the breathtaking landscapes remind us of the sheer magnificence of the world we inhabit. It’s a world that offers us both solace and sustenance, making our survival intertwined with its preservation.

The ecosystem services provided by nature are immeasurable. The forests act as the lungs of the Earth, producing oxygen and absorbing carbon dioxide. Wetlands filter our water, providing us with clean and fresh sources of hydration. Bees and other pollinators enable the growth of crops, contributing to global food security.

However, the rampant disregard for nature’s delicate balance is leading to alarming consequences. The relentless deforestation for urbanization and agriculture is causing habitat loss, leading to the extinction of numerous species. The excessive emission of greenhouse gases is driving climate change, with rising temperatures and unpredictable weather patterns threatening vulnerable communities.

To ensure the well-being of our planet and future generations, conservation and sustainable practices are imperative. Afforestation and reforestation efforts must be intensified to restore lost ecosystems. Transitioning to renewable energy sources can reduce carbon emissions and mitigate climate change. Moreover, raising awareness and fostering a deep connection with nature can instil a sense of responsibility and inspire positive action.

In conclusion, nature is not merely a resource for human exploitation; it’s a complex and interconnected system that sustains life in all its forms. We must recognize our role as custodians of the environment and act with diligence to protect and preserve it. By embracing sustainable practices and fostering a profound respect for nature, we can secure a future where the world’s natural wonders continue to thrive.

Nature encompasses the entirety of the physical world and its components, including landscapes, flora, fauna, air, water, and ecosystems. It encompasses the natural environment and all living and non-living elements that shape and sustain life on Earth.

Nature is vital for our survival, providing resources like air, water, and food. It maintains ecological balance, supports biodiversity, and offers inspiration and solace. However, human activities threaten its delicate equilibrium, necessitating conservation efforts.

Saving nature requires planting trees, reducing waste, using sustainable resources, and raising awareness about its importance. Adopting renewable energy sources, practising responsible consumption, and fostering a connection with nature are crucial steps in its preservation.

We hope that this essay blog on Nature helps. For more amazing daily reads related to essay writing , stay tuned with Leverage Edu .

Manasvi Kotwal

Manasvi's flair in writing abilities is derived from her past experience of working with bootstrap start-ups, Advertisement and PR agencies as well as freelancing. She's currently working as a Content Marketing Associate at Leverage Edu to be a part of its thriving ecosystem.

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• Nature Essay

Essay About Nature

Nature refers to the interaction between the physical surroundings around us and the life within it like atmosphere, climate, natural resources, ecosystem, flora, fauna, and humans. Nature is indeed God’s precious gift to Earth. It is the primary source of all the necessities for the nourishment of all living beings on Earth. Right from the food we eat, the clothes we wear, and the house we live in is provided by nature. Nature is called ‘Mother Nature’ because just like our mother, she is always nurturing us with all our needs. 

Whatever we see around us, right from the moment we step out of our house is part of nature. The trees, flowers, landscapes, insects, sunlight, breeze, everything that makes our environment so beautiful and mesmerizing are part of Nature. In short, our environment is nature. Nature has been there even before the evolution of human beings. 

Importance of Nature

If not for nature then we wouldn’t be alive. The health benefits of nature for humans are incredible. The most important thing for survival given by nature is oxygen. The entire cycle of respiration is regulated by nature. The oxygen that we inhale is given by trees and the carbon dioxide we exhale is getting absorbed by trees. 

The ecosystem of nature is a community in which producers (plants), consumers, and decomposers work together in their environment for survival. The natural fundamental processes like soil creation, photosynthesis, nutrient cycling, and water cycling, allow Earth to sustain life. We are dependent on these ecosystem services daily whether or not we are aware.

Nature provides us services round the clock: provisional services, regulating services, and non-material services. Provisional services include benefits extracted from nature such as food, water, natural fuels and fibres, and medicinal plants. Regulating services include regulation of natural processes that include decomposition, water purification, pollution, erosion and flood control, and also, climate regulation. Non-material services are the non-material benefits that improve the cultural development of humans such as recreation, creative inspiration from interaction with nature like art, music, architecture, and the influence of ecosystems on local and global cultures. 

The interaction between humans and animals, which are a part of nature, alleviates stress, lessens pain and worries. Nature provides company and gives people a sense of purpose. 

Studies and research have shown that children especially have a natural affinity with nature. Regular interaction with nature has boosted health development in children. Nature supports their physical and mental health and instills abilities to access risks as they grow. 

Role and Importance of Nature

The natural cycle of our ecosystem is vital for the survival of organisms. We all should take care of all the components that make our nature complete. We should be sure not to pollute the water and air as they are gifts of Nature.

Mother nature fosters us and never harms us. Those who live close to nature are observed to be enjoying a healthy and peaceful life in comparison to those who live in urban areas. Nature gives the sound of running fresh air which revives us, sweet sounds of birds that touch our ears, and sounds of breezing waves in the ocean makes us move within.

All the great writers and poets have written about Mother Nature when they felt the exceptional beauty of nature or encountered any saddening scene of nature. Words Worth who was known as the poet of nature, has written many things in nature while being in close communion with nature and he has written many things about Nature. Nature is said to be the greatest teacher as it teaches the lessons of immortality and mortality. Staying in close contact with Nature makes our sight penetrative and broadens our vision to go through the mysteries of the planet earth. Those who are away from nature can’t understand the beauty that is held by Nature. The rise in population on planet earth is leading to a rise in consumption of natural resources.  Because of increasing demands for fuels like Coal, petroleum, etc., air pollution is increasing at a rapid pace.  The smoke discharged from factory units and exhaust tanks of cars is contaminating the air that we breathe. It is vital for us to plant more trees in order to reduce the effect of toxic air pollutants like Carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, etc. 

Save Our Nature

Earth’s natural resources are not infinite and they cannot be replenished in a short period. The rapid increase in urbanization has used most of the resources like trees, minerals, fossil fuels, and water. Humans in their quest for a comfortable living have been using the resources of nature mindlessly. As a result, massive deforestation, resultant environmental pollution, wildlife destruction, and global warming are posing great threats to the survival of living beings. 

Air that gives us oxygen to breathe is getting polluted by smoke, industrial emissions, automobile exhaust, burning of fossil fuels like coal, coke and furnace oil, and use of certain chemicals. The garbage and wastes thrown here and there cause pollution of air and land. 

Sewage, organic wastage, industrial wastage, oil spillage, and chemicals pollute water. It is causing several water-borne diseases like cholera, jaundice and typhoid. 

The use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers in agriculture adds to soil pollution. Due to the mindless cutting of trees and demolition of greeneries for industrialization and urbanization, the ecological balance is greatly hampered. Deforestation causes flood and soil erosion.

Earth has now become an ailing planet panting for care and nutrition for its rejuvenation. Unless mankind puts its best effort to save nature from these recurring situations, the Earth would turn into an unfit landmass for life and activity. 

We should check deforestation and take up the planting of trees at a massive rate. It will not only save the animals from being extinct but also help create regular rainfall and preserve soil fertility. We should avoid over-dependence on fossil fuels like coal, petroleum products, and firewood which release harmful pollutants to the atmosphere. Non-conventional sources of energy like the sun, biogas and wind should be tapped to meet our growing need for energy. It will check and reduce global warming. 

Every drop of water is vital for our survival. We should conserve water by its rational use, rainwater harvesting, checking the surface outflow, etc. industrial and domestic wastes should be properly treated before they are dumped into water bodies. 

Every individual can do his or her bit of responsibility to help save the nature around us. To build a sustainable society, every human being should practice in heart and soul the three R’s of Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. In this way, we can save our nature.  

Nature Conservation

Nature conservation is very essential for future generations, if we will damage nature our future generations will suffer.

Nowadays, technological advancement is adversely affecting our nature. Humans are in the quest and search for prosperity and success that they have forgotten the value and importance of beautiful Nature around. The ignorance of nature by humans is the biggest threat to nature. It is essential to make people aware and make them understand the importance of nature so that they do not destroy it in the search for prosperity and success.

On high priority, we should take care of nature so that nature can continue to take care of us. Saving nature is the crying need of our time and we should not ignore it. We should embrace simple living and high thinking as the adage of our lives.  

FAQs on Nature Essay

1. How Do You Define Nature?

Nature is defined as our environment. It is the interaction between the physical world around us and the life within it like the atmosphere, climate, natural resources, ecosystem, flora, fauna and humans. Nature also includes non-living things such as water,  mountains, landscape, plants, trees and many other things. Nature adds life to mother earth. Nature is the treasure habitation of every essential element that sustains life on this planet earth. Human life on Earth would have been dull and meaningless without the amazing gifts of nature. 

2. How is Nature Important to Us?

Nature is the only provider of everything that we need for survival. Nature provides us with food, water, natural fuels, fibres, and medicinal plants. Nature regulates natural processes that include decomposition, water purification, pollution, erosion, and flood control. It also provides non-material benefits like improving the cultural development of humans like recreation, etc. 

An imbalance in nature can lead to earthquakes, global warming, floods, and drastic climate changes. It is our duty to understand the importance of nature and how it can negatively affect us all if this rapid consumption of natural resources, pollution, and urbanization takes place.

3. How Should We Save Our Nature?

We should check deforestation and take up the planting of trees at a massive rate. It will save the animals from being extinct but also help create regular rainfall and preserve soil fertility. We should avoid over-dependence on fossil fuels like coal, petroleum products, and firewood which release harmful pollutants to the atmosphere. We should start using non-conventional sources of energy like the sun, biogas, and wind to meet our growing need for energy. It will check and reduce global warming. Water is vital for our survival and we should rationalize our use of water. 

Conservation of Nature Essay

Conservation of Nature refers to the preservation of resources that are produced naturally. These include water, sunlight, atmosphere, minerals, land, vegetation and animals. Many of these resources are depleting at a rapid pace due to over utilization. The importance of conservation of nature must be understood and steps must be taken to ensure the ecological balance.

Conservation of nature implies the conservation of resources that are formed naturally, without any human intervention. The importance of conservation of natural resources has been stressed upon often enough as it is essential for maintaining a balanced environment on earth. Here are essays of varying lengths on the topic to help you with it in your exam.

Long and Short Essay on Conservation of Nature in English

Conservation of nature essay 1 (200 words).

Conservation of nature is basically the conservation of resources such as air, water, sunlight, land, vegetation, animal life and minerals. All these resources are obtained from nature without any interference from the mankind. These resources are further employed to produce various things that make the lives of human beings as well as other living beings comfortable.

Natural resources are broadly categorized into renewable resources and non-renewable resources. Renewable resources are the ones that replenish naturally. These include air, water and sunlight. The use of these resources is encouraged over the non-renewable resources as the latter do not replenish and are fast depleting.

Conservation of nature is an issue that must be taken seriously. While the governments of different countries are employing various means to conserve nature, individuals must also come forward to contribute their bit in this direction.

Some of the ways in which the common man can help in the conservation of nature is by planting trees, restricting the use of paper, stopping wastage of water and electricity, stopping ill practices such as hunting of animals, and employing rain water harvesting systems. It does not take much to put the above mentioned ideas to practice. However, if each one of us contributes our bit to it, the difference it will bring about would be tremendous.

Conservation of Nature Essay 2 (300 words)

Introduction

Nature fulfils our basic requirement to live by providing us air, water, land, sunlight and plants. These resources are further used to manufacture various things that make life more convenient and comfortable for the human beings. Unfortunately, man has grown so engrossed in over-utilizing these resources to invent newer things that he has almost forgotten the importance of conserving them. As a result, many of these resources are depleting at a fast pace and if it continues this way then the survival of human beings as well as other living beings on Earth would become very difficult.

What Conservation of Nature Means

Conservation of nature means the preservation of forests, land, water bodies and conservation of resources such as minerals, fuels, natural gases, etc to ensure that all these continue to be available in abundance. There are many ways in which the common man can help in the conservation of nature. Here are some of those that can be done easily and can make a huge difference:

• Restrict Usage of Water

Water must be used wisely else that day wouldn’t be far when we will have to pay a huge price for it. Turn off the tap while brushing your teeth, limit the number of showers, use the waste RO water to water the plants or clean the house so as to ensure wise usage of water.

• Limit Usage of Electricity

Limiting the usage of electricity is also essential for the conservation of nature. Simple things such as turning off the electric appliances when they are not in use and switching to energy saving lights, such as LED lights, to save electricity can help in this direction.

• Plant Trees and Grow Vegetables

It is advised to plant as many trees as possible to make up for those that are cut each day. Also grow vegetables at home to restrict the usage of chemical fertilizers used in professional farming.

Besides these, people can do their bit by limiting the usage of paper, employing rain water harvesting system, restricting usage of cars and lastly by spreading awareness about the conservation of nature.

To keep earth in its serene and pristine form, it is very essential to conserve nature and its resources in their present form, maintaining both quality and quantity. “Conservation of Nature” relates to not just conserving one or two elements of nature, but all the elements – water, soil, forests, flora & fauna, oceans, air, plants, insects, birds, etc, which together constitute nature or our natural habitat. In the preceding essay we have gone through some of the methods for conserving nature, which indeed will help us in achieving the goal of nature conservation.

Conservation of Nature Essay 3 (400 words)

Nature has given us several gifts such as air, water, land, sunlight, minerals, plants and animals. All these gifts of nature make our planet a place worth living. Survival on Earth would not be possible without any of these. Now, while these natural resources are present on Earth in abundance, unfortunately the requirement of most of these has increased tremendously over the centuries due to growth in human population.

How to Conserve Nature and Its Resources

Many of the natural resources are being consumed at a far greater speed as compared to their rate of production. There is thus a need for conservation of nature and the natural resources it offers. Here is a look at some of the ways in which these resources can be conserved:

• Reduce Water Consumption

Water is available in abundance on Earth and this is one of the reasons people do not think much before using it. However, if we continue to use it at this pace we may not be left with as much of it in the future. Simple things such as turning the tap off while brushing, using washing machine only when its tub is full, using the left over water in the bottles to water the plants, etc can help in this direction.

• Reduce Usage of Electricity

Energy saved is energy produced. It is thus suggested to restrict the usage of electricity. Simple practices such as turning off the lights before leaving your room, turning off the electric appliances after use and switching to energy saving fluorescent or LED bulbs can make a difference.

• Restrict Usage of Paper

Paper is made from trees. Using more paper means encouraging deforestation which is one of the main causes of concern in today’s time. Make sure you use only as much paper as is required. Stop taking print outs and use e-copies instead to do your bit.

• Use Newer Agricultural Methods

The government must teach methods such as mixed cropping, crop rotation and appropriate use of pesticides, insecticides, manures, bio fertilizers and organic fertilizers to the farmers.

• Spread Awareness

Spreading awareness about the conservation of nature and the methods to be used for the same is very important. It can be achieved only when more and more people understand its importance and the ways in which they can help.

Apart from this, it is important to plant more and more tress, contribute towards lowering the air pollution by using shared transport and employing rain water harvesting systems to conserve nature.

Nature consists of everything that surrounds us which is also not human made.  The trees, forests, rivers, rivulets, soil, air all are part of nature. Keeping the nature and its resources intact is very essential for the continuation of life on earth. It would be hard to imagine life on earth, which has a damaged natural environment. Therefore, taking appropriate steps to conserve nature in its pristine form must remain a priority for the human race. Only humans are bestowed with power and ability to help save the nature in its purest forms.

Conservation of Nature Essay 4 (500 words)

Conservation of nature refers to the conservation of all those resources that are formed naturally without any kind of help from the human beings. These include water, air, sunlight, land, forests, minerals, plants as well as animals. Together, all these natural resources make life worth living on Earth. Life would not be possible without air, water, sunlight as well as other natural resources present on the planet. It is thus essential to conserve these resources in order to keep the environment intact. Here is a look at the kind of natural resources present on Earth and the ways to conserve these:

Types of Natural Resources

• Renewable Resources : These are resources such as air, water and sunlight that replenish naturally.
• Non-Renewable Resources: These are resources like fossil fuels and minerals that do not replenish or form very slowly.
• Biotic: These come from living beings and organic material like plants and animals.
• Abiotic: These are derived from non-living things and non-organic material. These include air, water and land as well as metals like iron, copper and silver.

Natural resources are also divided into categories such as actual resources, reserve resources, stock resources and potential resources based on their development stage.

Methods for Conservation of Nature

Conservation of nature is a subject that requires serious attention. Most of the resources of nature are depleting at a fast rate. This is because the demand of these resources is high while the rate of their formation is low. However, it needs to be understood that nature has given us abundance of all that we require. We require using the available natural resources wisely and must employ the below mentioned methods to conserve these:

• Limit Usage

Water and electricity are two things that are being wasted the most. It is essential to understand the importance of saving both these. Use only as much water as you require. Same goes for electricity. Use the electric appliances wisely and turn them off when they are not in use. Similarly, the use of other resources such as paper, petroleum and gases must also be restricted.

There are a lot of things such as paper, cardboard, metal, tin, aluminium foil, glass bottles, plastic containers as well as water that can be recycled and reused. The government is using methods to pick these things from the waste to recycle them. You can also do your bit by employing rain water harvesting system to reuse water.

• Replenish Nature

Plant more and more trees to make up for those that are cut for manufacturing paper, furniture and other items made of wood. Also ensure cleanliness around your area. Do not throw waste products in water bodies and elsewhere.

Lastly, spread as much awareness as you can about the importance of conservation of nature.

The consumption of natural resources has far exceeded their production. It is the duty of each one of us to stop wasting these gifts of nature and start using them wisely so as to maintain ecological balance on Earth. The aforementioned methods should help in this direction.

Conservation of Nature Essay 5 (600 words)

Conservation of nature is basically the conservation of all those resources that nature has gifted to the mankind. These include minerals, water bodies, land, sunlight and atmosphere. It also includes the preservation of flora and fauna. All these help in creating a balanced environment that it fit for the survival of human beings as well as other living organisms on Earth. Conservation of nature is thus vital.

Natural resources have been categorized based on their characteristics. Here is a look at this classification, the ways employed to conserve each of these and the related concerns.

Classification of Natural Resources

Natural resources are broadly classified based on their capacity to renew, source of origin and stage of development. These are further divided into sub categories. Read on to learn about these in detail:

Certain resources are renewable while others are non-renewable. Here is a detailed look at both these categories:

• Renewable Resources: These are the resources that replenish naturally. Some of these include air, water, land and sunlight.
• Non-Renewable Resources: These resources either form at a very slow speed or do not form naturally. Minerals and fossil fuels are some of the examples of this category.

Based on their origin, natural resources are divided into two types:

• Abiotic : These are those resources that come from non living things and non organic material. Few examples of this type of natural resources include water, air, land and metals such as iron, copper, gold and silver.
• Biotic : These resources are derived from living beings and organic material such as plants and animals. This category also includes fossil fuels as they are obtained from decayed organic matter.

On the basis of their stage of development, natural resources are categorized in the following way:

• Actual Resources: The development of these resources is dependent on the availability of technology and the cost involved. These are used in the present times.
• Reserve Resources: That part of the actual resource that can successfully be developed and used in future is known as reserve resource.
• Potential Resources: These are the resources that exist in certain region but require some work before they can actually be put to work.
• Stock Resources : These are those resources that are surveyed but cannot be put to use because of lack of technology.

Whether renewable or non renewable, biotic or non-biotic, the resources of nature must be conserved. Here are some of the methods that the government and individuals should employ for conservation of nature:

• Over utilization of natural resources must be stopped. The available resources must be used wisely without any wastage.
• Hunting of wild animals must be stopped for the preservation of wild life.
• Farmers must be taught the method of mixed cropping, use of fertilizers, insecticide, pesticide, and crop rotation. The use of manures, organic fertilizers and biofertilizers should be encouraged.
• Deforestation should be controlled.
• Rain water harvesting systems should be installed.
• The use of renewable resources such as solar, hydro and wind power must be encouraged.
• Water must be recycled for using in agricultural processes.
• Car-pooling is a good way to bring down the consumption of fossil fuels.
• Restrict the use of paper and encourage recycling it.
• Save electricity by replacing old light bulbs with energy saving fluorescent bulbs. Also, turn off the light and electronic items when you do not require them.

Conservation of nature is important to ensure a balanced environment. However, sadly enough many natural resources are depleting at a fast rate. Each one must contribute his/ her bit towards conservation of nature by employing the above mentioned methods.

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Essay on Conservation of Nature for Children and Students

Table of Contents

Conservation of Nature refers to the preservation of resources that are produced naturally. These include water, sunlight, atmosphere, minerals, land, vegetation and animals. Many of these resources are depleting at a rapid pace due to over utilization. The importance of conservation of nature must be understood and steps must be taken to ensure the ecological balance.

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Target Exam ---

Conservation of nature implies the conservation of resources that are formed naturally, without any human intervention. The importance of conservation of natural resources has been stressed upon often enough as it is essential for maintaining a balanced environment on earth. Here are essays of varying lengths on the topic to help you with it in your exam.

Long and Short Essay on Conservation of Nature in English

Conservation of Nature Essay 1 (200 words)

Conservation of nature is basically the conservation of resources such as air, water, sunlight, land, vegetation, animal life and minerals. All these resources are obtained from nature without any interference from the mankind. These resources are further employed to produce various things that make the lives of human beings as well as other living beings comfortable.

Natural resources are broadly categorized into renewable resources and non-renewable resources. Renewable resources are the ones that replenish naturally. These include air, water and sunlight. The use of these resources is encouraged over the non-renewable resources as the latter do not replenish and are fast depleting.

Conservation of nature is an issue that must be taken seriously. While the governments of different countries are employing various means to conserve nature, individuals must also come forward to contribute their bit in this direction.

Some of the ways in which the common man can help in the conservation of nature is by planting trees, restricting the use of paper, stopping wastage of water and electricity, stopping ill practices such as hunting of animals, and employing rain water harvesting systems. It does not take much to put the above mentioned ideas to practice. However, if each one of us contributes our bit to it, the difference it will bring about would be tremendous.

Conservation of Nature Essay 2 (300 words)

Introduction.

Nature fulfils our basic requirement to live by providing us air, water, land, sunlight and plants. These resources are further used to manufacture various things that make life more convenient and comfortable for the human beings. Unfortunately, man has grown so engrossed in over-utilizing these resources to invent newer things that he has almost forgotten the importance of conserving them. As a result, many of these resources are depleting at a fast pace and if it continues this way then the survival of human beings as well as other living beings on Earth would become very difficult.

What Conservation of Nature Means

Conservation of nature means the preservation of forests, land, water bodies and conservation of resources such as minerals, fuels, natural gases, etc to ensure that all these continue to be available in abundance. There are many ways in which the common man can help in the conservation of nature. Here are some of those that can be done easily and can make a huge difference:

Restrict Usage of Water

Water must be used wisely else that day wouldn’t be far when we will have to pay a huge price for it. Turn off the tap while brushing your teeth, limit the number of showers, use the waste RO water to water the plants or clean the house so as to ensure wise usage of water.

Limit Usage of Electricity

Limiting the usage of electricity is also essential for the conservation of nature. Simple things such as turning off the electric appliances when they are not in use and switching to energy saving lights, such as LED lights, to save electricity can help in this direction.

Plant Trees and Grow Vegetables

It advised to plant as many trees as possible to make up for those that cut each day. Also grow vegetables at home to restrict the usage of chemical fertilizers used in professional farming.

Besides these, people can do their bit by limiting the usage of paper, employing rain water harvesting system, restricting usage of cars and lastly by spreading awareness about the conservation of nature.

To keep earth in its serene and pristine form, it is very essential to conserve nature and its resources in their present form, maintaining both quality and quantity. “Conservation of Nature” relates to not just conserving one or two elements of nature, but all the elements – water, soil, forests, flora & fauna, oceans, air, plants, insects, birds, etc, which together constitute nature or our natural habitat. In the preceding essay we have gone through some of the methods for conserving nature, which indeed will help us in achieving the goal of nature conservation.

Conservation of Nature Essay 3 (400 words)

Nature has given us several gifts such as air, water, land, sunlight, minerals, plants and animals. All these gifts of nature make our planet a place worth living. Survival on Earth would not be possible without any of these. Now, while these natural resources are present on Earth in abundance, unfortunately the requirement of most of these has increased tremendously over the centuries due to growth in human population.

How to Conserve Nature and Its Resources

Many of the natural resources are being consumed at a far greater speed as compared to their rate of production. There is thus a need for conservation of nature and the natural resources it offers. Here is a look at some of the ways in which these resources can be conserved:

Reduce Water Consumption

Water is available in abundance on Earth and this is one of the reasons people do not think much before using it. However, if we continue to use it at this pace we may not be left with as much of it in the future. Simple things such as turning the tap off while brushing, using washing machine only when its tub is full, using the left over water in the bottles to water the plants, etc can help in this direction.

Reduce Usage of Electricity

Energy saved energy produced. It thus suggested to restrict the usage of electricity. Simple practices such as turning off the lights before leaving your room, turning off the electric appliances after use and switching to energy saving fluorescent or LED bulbs can make a difference.

Restrict Usage of Paper

Paper made from trees. Using more paper means encouraging deforestation which is one of the main causes of concern in today’s time. Make sure you use only as much paper as required. Stop taking print outs and use e-copies instead to do your bit.

Use Newer Agricultural Methods

The government must teach methods such as mixed cropping, crop rotation and appropriate use of pesticides, insecticides, manures, bio fertilizers and organic fertilizers to the farmers.

Spread Awareness

Spreading awareness about the conservation of nature and the methods to used for the same is very important. It can achieved only when more and more people understand its importance and the ways in which they can help.

Apart from this, it is important to plant more and more tress, contribute towards lowering the air pollution by using shared transport and employing rain water harvesting systems to conserve nature.

Nature consists of everything that surrounds us which also not human made. The trees, forests, rivers, rivulets, soil, air all are part of nature. Keeping the nature and its resources intact is very essential for the continuation of life on earth. It would be hard to imagine life on earth, which has a damaged natural environment. Therefore, taking appropriate steps to conserve nature in its pristine form must remain a priority for the human race. Only humans bestowed with power and ability to help save the nature in its purest forms.

Conservation of Nature Essay 4 (500 words)

Conservation of nature refers to the conservation of all those resources that formed naturally without any kind of help from the human beings. These include water, air, sunlight, land, forests, minerals, plants as well as animals. Together, all these natural resources make life worth living on Earth. Life would not be possible without air, water, sunlight as well as other natural resources present on the planet. It is thus essential to conserve these resources in order to keep the environment intact. Here is a look at the kind of natural resources present on Earth and the ways to conserve these:

Types of Natural Resources

• Renewable Resources : These are resources such as air, water and sunlight that replenish naturally.
• Non-Renewable Resources: These are resources like fossil fuels and minerals that do not replenish or form very slowly.
• Biotic: These come from living beings and organic material like plants and animals.
• Abiotic: These derived from non-living things and non-organic material. These include air, water and land as well as metals like iron, copper and silver.

Natural resources also divided into categories such as actual resources, reserve resources, stock resources and potential resources based on their development stage.

Methods for Conservation of Nature

Conservation of nature is a subject that requires serious attention. Most of the resources of nature are depleting at a fast rate. This is because the demand of these resources is high while the rate of their formation is low. However, it needs to understood that nature has given us abundance of all that we require. We require using the available natural resources wisely and must employ the below mentioned methods to conserve these:

Limit Usage

Water and electricity two things that wasted the most. It is essential to understand the importance of saving both these. Use only as much water as you require. Same goes for electricity. Use the electric appliances wisely and turn them off when they are not in use. Similarly, the use of other resources such as paper, petroleum and gases must also restricted.

There are a lot of things such as paper, cardboard, metal, tin, aluminium foil, glass bottles, plastic containers as well as water that can recycled and reused. The government is using methods to pick these things from the waste to recycle them. You can also do your bit by employing rain water harvesting system to reuse water.

Replenish Nature

Plant more and more trees to make up for those that cut for manufacturing paper, furniture and other items made of wood. Also ensure cleanliness around your area. Do not throw waste products in water bodies and elsewhere.

Lastly, spread as much awareness as you can about the importance of conservation of nature.

The consumption of natural resources has far exceeded their production. It is the duty of each one of us to stop wasting these gifts of nature and start using them wisely so as to maintain ecological balance on Earth. The aforementioned methods should help in this direction.

Conservation of Nature Essay 5 (600 words)

Conservation of nature is basically the conservation of all those resources that nature has gifted to the mankind. These include minerals, water bodies, land, sunlight and atmosphere. It also includes the preservation of flora and fauna. All these help in creating a balanced environment that it fit for the survival of human beings as well as other living organisms on Earth. Conservation of nature is thus vital.

Natural resources have categorized based on their characteristics. Here is a look at this classification, the ways employed to conserve each of these and the related concerns.

Classification of Natural Resources

Natural resources are broadly classified based on their capacity to renew, source of origin and stage of development. These further divided into sub categories. Read on to learn about these in detail:

Certain resources are renewable while others are non-renewable. Here is a detailed look at both these categories:

• Renewable Resources: These are the resources that replenish naturally. Some of these include air, water, land and sunlight.
• Non-Renewable Resources: These resources either form at a very slow speed or do not form naturally. Minerals and fossil fuels are some of the examples of this category.

Based on their origin, natural resources divided into two types:

• Abiotic : These are those resources that come from non living things and non organic material. Few examples of this type of natural resources include water, air, land and metals such as iron, copper, gold and silver.
• Biotic : These resources derived from living beings and organic material such as plants and animals. This category also includes fossil fuels as they obtained from decayed organic matter.

On the basis of their stage of development, natural resources categorized in the following way:

• Actual Resources: The development of these resources is dependent on the availability of technology and the cost involved. These used in the present times.
• Reserve Resources: That part of the actual resource that can successfully developed and used in future is known as reserve resource.
• Potential Resources: These are the resources that exist in certain region but require some work before they can actually be put to work.
• Stock Resources : These are those resources that surveyed but cannot put to use because of lack of technology.

Whether renewable or non renewable, biotic or non-biotic, the resources of nature must conserved. Here are some of the methods that the government and individuals should employ for conservation of nature:

• Over utilization of natural resources must stopped. The available resources must used wisely without any wastage.
• Hunting of wild animals must stopped for the preservation of wild life.
• Farmers must taught the method of mixed cropping, use of fertilizers, insecticide, pesticide, and crop rotation. The use of manures, organic fertilizers and biofertilizers should encouraged.
• Deforestation should controlled.
• Rain water harvesting systems should installed.
• The use of renewable resources such as solar, hydro and wind power must encouraged.
• Water must recycled for using in agricultural processes.
• Car-pooling is a good way to bring down the consumption of fossil fuels.
• Restrict the use of paper and encourage recycling it.
• Save electricity by replacing old light bulbs with energy saving fluorescent bulbs. Also, turn off the light and electronic items when you do not require them.

Conservation of nature is important to ensure a balanced environment. However, sadly enough many natural resources are depleting at a fast rate. Each one must contribute his/ her bit towards conservation of nature by employing the above mentioned methods.

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