The current brouhaha about climate change and its impact have gained enough scientific support not to be ignored anymore. Time is running out so fast that by the time any new facts appear in the media, enough damage is already done to our nature. The damaging impact has been assessed, quite modestly, with advances in scientific tools and precision in measurements and data analysis. The available information has helped planners and policymakers, the world over, to set, calibrate and implement the policy tools to mitigate the damage and action to avoid adverse impacts in the future. Any policy implementation is, however, not done in a vacuum and, therefore, the success of such actions warrants strong participation from the common man on the ground. For this to happen, enough debate and discussions in public fora should precede field execution of the desired actions. While discussions on scientific platforms are an integral part of this exercise, such discussions either don’t occur on public platforms to sensitize the common man or discussions occur without much understanding by the common man of the issue.
To begin with, let’s ponder deep inside if climate change can be handled without addressing nature degradation? Another dimension of this debate could be whether the former precedes the latter or vice versa? And what if we don’t address any of the two? What is the worth of the benefit lost by ignoring the damage to nature?
One very obvious tool to abate climate change impact is nature itself which is so omnipresent every moment we live. Sympathizing nature and its dimensions, so deeply ingrained in our survival, are the coolest approaches, to begin with. This is a cost-effective weapon to address climate change. Understanding the ecosystem supporting our lives and maintaining the diversity existing in it is the natural approach to mitigate the effects of climate degradation associated with the development path, nations currently pursue. The diversity, in particular plant diversity, can break down the climate chaos and help restore nature, which itself is affected by climate change. This narrative attempts to take the debate further for the masses by bringing to her common sense the worth of ecosystem service by conserving nature.
There are numerous benefits that plant diversity provides for our survival if we maintain the ecosystem around us.
To give an illustration of the value of one of the benefits, the plant diversity storage service value of the ecosystem has been roughly estimated as Rs 3,92,167 per specie at 2019-20 prices. This means the expenditure on acquiring and maintaining a plant specie, in living conditions, in an Indian botanical garden is about Rs 3.92 lakh. This can be interpreted as the cost of biodiversity support saved by just maintaining the ecosystem and is provided by the nature spontaneously in perpetuity.
To further elaborate the estimation of value, the cost of acquisition and maintenance of plant diversity in living conditions in an Indian botanical garden is attempted here from a literature survey. Secondary data from the Annual Report, 2018-19 of the Botanical Survey of India has been used. The components of cost include the cost of acquisition, the cost of maintenance including the physical infrastructure, and the cost of human resources. The cost of specimen collection is estimated from the expenditure incurred on tour to different places for specimen collection and includes, among others, the expenses of car rental, driver allowances, food, and accommodation. The Annual Report, 2018-19 of the Botanical Survey of India shows 24 germplasm collection tours were conducted during 2018-19 for the collection of 680 live specimens for the botanical garden. Considering markets rates of vehicle rental, food, and accommodation, the cost of acquisition of one native specimen works to be Rs 551. The cost associated with maintenance including the physical infrastructure was assessed in terms of establishing a nursery with an irrigation system in the Indian context. For this, data from the NABARD estimate (unit capitalized cost up to 3 years) for 10,000 plants is used in absence of actual data from a botanical garden. The maintenance cost of a plant works out to be Rs 23. The human resource cost includes the monthly remuneration of Scientists, botanists, assistants, and gardeners to maintain a total of 490 species in the botanical garden of the Botanical Survey of India (BSI). The cost is estimated at Rs 7269 per specie. Summing the three gives an approximation of Rs 7843 as the cost of acquiring and maintaining a specie in living conditions in a botanical garden in India. The minimum number of individuals required in a population to support the conservation of genetic diversity is suggested as 50. Multiplying the cost of acquiring and maintaining a specie with this works out to be Rs 392167 per specie. The higher the number of plant species maintained in the ecosystem, the higher the biodiversity storage value of the ecosystem.
Nature spontaneously provides this invaluable service to humankind, if we care for nature to sustain the biodiversity. This is the lower estimate done from the available data at market prices. The availability of more precise data from the botanical garden of BSI would give a better estimate. The bottom line of presenting this exercise is sensitizing the common man about the worth of the benefits of nature to encourage her to join the campaign and ensure her unending support for nature.
It is high time we enlist the masses in the debate on the conservation value of nature and the ecosystem, we are part of, by doing simple arithmetic on the value of numerous ecosystem services lost by not protecting nature. The various campaigns run to save nature wouldn’t succeed if we don’t let the common man lead this campaign from the front.
Looking forward to hearing from you,
Vinod Pande