Insect Conservation

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I recently took an ecotheology class and in that class I learned a lot about why Christians need to care about climate change and the other ecological crises our world is going through. This made me understand that the topic of conservation goes beyond just the biology world, but spills into all aspects of our everyday life. 


Conservation is a hot topic in the environmental world today, with climate change coming and temperatures on the rise. As the world changes, populations and species that have adapted to living a certain way are suddenly having to change and accommodate to the new hotter temperatures. They are being displaced and moved out of their long lived homes. Climate change is undoubtedly real, but how to fix it is another question. One way people are approaching climate change is conservation of species that are struggling. The IUCN Red list is one of the ways people are tracking species. This conservation group lists species with a ranking from least concern to totally extinct. These ranking help people know which species need more attention and which ones are stbl for the moment.The IUCN red list recently listed the Migratory Monarch Butterfly as an endangered species in 2021. Even though they have been listed as endangered, in Ilinois, they are not listed as endangered and they are also not listed federally. This means that conservation funds are not being allocated for the monarch, even though the IUCN lists them as endangered. The IUCN lists is merely used as a tool to help make those big decisions in government. 



https://www.clearias.com/iucn-classification-critically-endangered-endangered-and-vulnerable/


There is another nonprofoit conservation group called the Xerces society, but rather than focusing one everything, thy narrow their focus in on invertebrate conservtion. This is more insect focused, but includes all invertebrates as well. Insects are one of the bigger concerns for them, but they also focus other areas such as mollusks and gastropods. The focus on spreading the word, monitoring populations, training other and conservation management of places. 

https://xerces.org

Currently they are running a pledge called “Bring Back the Pollintators” which includes learning four steps before signing that you are committed to doing these for steps. The sour steps include planting pollinator flowers, helping provide nesting sights, avoiding the uses of pesticides and letting others know. Pollinators are a group that is of concern in the insect world, that are suffering due to climate change and habitat loss. Pollinators include the orders hymenoptera, and lepitoptera, and then the less commonly known diptera and coleoptera. All of these insects are vital to our currently way of life and the ecosystems they are involved in. We rely on them for regulating services in our ecosystems, and without the pollinators we would struggle to have enough food. 


https://www.ypsilibrary.org/2020/06/bees/


Why should we care about insects and their conservation? Insects make up the majority of the animal species we have on earth as well as the majority of all species we have total. This is huge in terms of biomass and diversity. Insects provide so many different services that most people do not recongizie. They are a vital food source to most ecosystems, and if we are to lose that food source, our entire ecosystems will start to crash. People tend to think that because insects are so successful there is no need to care for them, but that is so far from the truth. While they are successful, humans are havig massive anthropogenic effects on insects and causing their populaitions to plummet due issues like climate change and habitat loss.


Somethings that people can do on their own to prompte insect conservation can include getting informed. Knowledge is power! And the more one knows about a topic the better than can respond to the issues. People can plant native pollinator gardens to promote the diveirsty of local insects. We can minimize the use of pesticides to help insects thrive rather than struggle to breath. There are so many different things people can do and a simple google search can help you figure out which way works best for you! Insects are the tiny critters that rule the world and without them we would struggle. 




References: 

 

Insect conservation. Insect Conservation - Amateur Entomologists’ Society (AES). (n.d.). https://www.amentsoc.org/insects/conservation/insect.html.

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. (n.d.). https://www.iucnredlist.org/.

The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation. (n.d.). https://xerces.org/.

 

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