English - Convention on Biological Diversity

More documents

Recommendations

Info

130 COUNTRY STUDY FOR BIODIVERSITY OF THE REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA 7.2. Direct causes of biodiversity loss The direct causes of biodiversity loss are many and varied. Most of them are common to all types of biodiversity, while some are specific to either flora, fauna or ecosystems: • Inadequate management of the waters of aquatic ecosystems. • Drainage of marshes and swamps. • Construction of hydropower reservoirs in river gorges. • Lack of water treatment plants (for riverine and lake ecosystems). • Mine excavations and other geological works. • Construction of ski lifts, transmission lines, television transmitters and other antenna systems. • Loss of habitats (or their parts) during unplanned expansion of urban centres, weekend settlements and tourist-recreation zones. • Modification of habitats. • Fragmentation of habitats, due mainly to traffic infrastructure, where highways intersect habitats that are important as vertebrate corridors (particularly for large mammals). When aquatic habitats are artificially fragmented, recommendations for maintaining ecological minimum flows in watercourses are not followed. • Destruction of areas with natural vegetation (halophytes and meadows). • Uncontrolled destruction of forests through forest fires, through clearing, in order to provide building land, for the construction of roads and railroads, for the expansion of tourist settlements and through forest desiccation. • Uncontrolled collection of medicinal plants and wild animals. • Illegal collection of rare plants (especially endemic plants) by professional and commercial collectors, illegal collection of birds’ eggs, certain species of butterflies etc. 7.3. Underlying causes of biodiversity loss The basic factors which have led to the current unfavourable state of the environment in the Republic of Macedonia in all of its spheres, including biodiversity, include general historical processes, a bad socioeconomic situation, an unstable political situation, inadequate spatial planning and inappropriate land use. In the desire to accomplish economic development at any cost, a general trend toward the erosion of moral and traditional societal values can be observed, neglecting the principle of sustainable development. Instead, natural resources are used beyond the limits of their sustainability, which produces a real threat of extinction for endangered plant and animal species and varieties, and thus impinges upon traditional rural landscapes. Aiding in this process is the poor awareness by the citizens of Macedonia of the issues surrounding the conservation of national biological resources and the possibilities for their sustainable use. This situation is especially felt within biological communities (wild plants and animals). On the one hand, the State has not developed legal regulations to facilitate the sustainability of populations. On the other, in a rush to achieve quick profits (often by people living at the bare subsistence level), wild species are collected uncontrollably and without any care for their normal reproduction or for environmental impacts resulting from their disappearance.
COUNTRY STUDY FOR BIODIVERSITY OF THE REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA Several basic reasons for the permanent loss of biological diversity can be distinguished: • A low level of education and a lack of information, especially in rural areas, which has contributed to a low awareness in the general population of the relationship between human activities and the environment, the sustainable use of biological resources and the sustainable transfer of biotechnology; • Reduced and unstable economic power of the State, in addition to the military actions that have been rocking the region for a long period of time; • Growing poverty, which does not recognise the principles of sustainable development, is manifesting itself through illegal forest and other resource overuse, hunting and fishing overuse, non-sustainable development of agriculture etc.; • Inadequate and incomplete legislation which fails to clarify duties or avoid the overlap of responsibilities and competencies within the agencies responsible for enforcement; • Non-compliance with existing regulations; • Lack of spatial planning regulations for areas with special natural values; • Uncontrolled urbanisation, deagrarianisation (in the traditional sense) and industrialisation are the main processes that disturb the environmental balance (considering the cumulative effects of pollution); • The continual process of migration of the population from villages to towns. Increased concentrations of people in urban centres represent a growing problem not only from a global, socioeconomic aspect but also from a spatial aspect; • Stagnation of the economy and use of outdated technologies, poor quality of energy sources resulting from low economic power and lack of treatment of wastewater and waste gases, which leads to deterioration of the air, soil, surface water and groundwater quality; • Outdated spatial planning with insufficient continuity, improper land use changes, construction of infrastructure systems and previous agricultural conversion; • The process of earning a profit under highly competitive market conditions, the permanent trend toward globalisation and the favouring of newer, more profitable varieties which have fully supplanted the indigenous, low producing and/or less profitable genetic types. 7.4. Key sectors affecting biodiversity On the basis of the analysis of data in Section 5., a preliminary ranking of the main economic sectors can be made in accordance with their effect on biodiversity: • Agriculture was particularly adversely affected in the decades after World War II. Most of the marshes and swamps were drained, and arable land was expanded into other natural habitats without regard for their importance. Another serious threat to biodiversity was the enlargement of agricultural land surfaces during the period of nationalisation, when the areas of natural vegetation at the edges of cultivated fields were destroyed. This, in turn, led to a loss of important biocorridors. In more recent times, the reduction of agricultural activities in rural (especially hilly) areas has contributed to the full degradation of the centuries-old appearance of the Macedonian landscape. 131
Page 1 and 2:
Country Study for Biodiversity of t
Page 3 and 4:
This study was based upon scientifi
Page 5 and 6:
• Branislava Mihajlova, M.Sc., Mu
Page 7 and 8:
FOREWORD...........................
Page 9 and 10:
4.2.1.4. Medicinal use ............
Page 11:
6.4.1. Biodiversity inventory and m
Page 14 and 15:
14 COUNTRY STUDY FOR BIODIVERSITY O
Page 16 and 17:
Page 18 and 19:
Page 20 and 21:
Page 22 and 23:
Page 24 and 25:
Page 26 and 27:
Page 28 and 29:
Page 30 and 31:
Page 32 and 33:
Page 34 and 35:
Page 36 and 37:
Page 38 and 39:
Page 40 and 41:
Page 42 and 43:
Page 44 and 45:
Page 46 and 47:
Page 48 and 49:
Page 50 and 51:
Page 52 and 53:
Page 54 and 55:
Page 56 and 57:
Page 58 and 59:
Page 60 and 61:
Page 62 and 63:
Page 64 and 65:
Page 66 and 67:
Page 68 and 69:
Page 70 and 71:
Page 72 and 73:
Page 74 and 75:
Page 76 and 77:
Page 78 and 79:
Page 80 and 81: 80 COUNTRY STUDY FOR BIODIVERSITY O
Page 100 and 101: 100 COUNTRY STUDY FOR BIODIVERSITY
Page 120 and 121: 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 120
Page 142 and 143: Phylum Porifera 142 COUNTRY STUDY F
Page 146 and 147: Phylum Annelida 146 COUNTRY STUDY F
Page 180 and 181:
180 COUNTRY STUDY FOR BIODIVERSITY
Page 182 and 183:
Page 184 and 185:
Page 186 and 187:
Page 188 and 189:
Page 190 and 191:
Page 192 and 193:
Page 194 and 195:
Page 196 and 197:
Cekova, M., 1990. Epifitskata i leg
Page 198 and 199:
Georgevitch, P.,1910. Desmidiaceen
Page 200 and 201:
Jakovljevic, S., 1936. Makrofitska
Page 202 and 203:
Klie, W., 1941. Süßwasserostracod
Page 204 and 205:
Maggioni L., Spellman O., compilers
Page 206 and 207:
Mikulic F., 1961. Nove Candona vrst
Page 208 and 209:
Petkovski, T., 1993. Taxonomic Revi
Page 210 and 211:
Sapkarev, J., 1987. Endemicna fauna
Page 212 and 213:
Stojanov, P., 1982b. Dijatomejskata
show all

English - Convention on Biological Diversity

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?