What must be done to protect New Zealand’s wildlife

There is oftentimes said ab out protect aboriginal species all around the reality and immature Zealand is no exception. In new-sprung(prenominal) Zealand we ar facing challenges of our own when it comes to protecting and conserving our immanent species. This challenges race from oil spills to mood change to over-harvesting (in particular whale hunting).It is common cosmos that more needs to be done to protect our native New Zealand species. And this needs corporal effort from each and every one of us to protect our native species-the government, NGOs and citizens.in my essay I lead be emphasising on what we place do as individuals to contribute to protecting and conserving the native species and these includes reduction our carbon footfall, considering our lifestyle and lastly speaking out. I go out then conclude by emphasising these points.Brief BackgroundDue to its prospicient geological isolation since breaking away from the supercontinent Gondwana about 80 gazill ion course of instructions ago, New Zealands plant and animal life has highly-developed down a unique evolutionary path. Many of our native plants and animals ar endemic that is, found nowhere else in the worldly concern. The level of endemism among New Zealand plants and animals is one of the highest in the world. The tuatara, moa, kiwi, kokako, saddleback, huia, kakapo, native frogs and giant carnivorous land snails argon just some of the species that ar uniquely New Zealand. This isolation in the absence of mammalian predators for millions of years in like manner meant that many of our native species were about defenceless(prenominal) against attack for example, many of our native birds like the kiwi are flightless and nest on the ground.When humans first Maori and then European settlers arrived in New Zealand, introduced mammals came with them rats, possums, stoats, ferrets, weasels, deer, pigs, mice, cats, dogs and others. These introduced species quickly took a heav y toll as they preyed and browsed on New Zealands largely defenceless native species, or competed with them. Human activities such as felling and burning vegetation and draining wetlands in any case destroyed much of the native species habitats.Native species such as the moa, huia, and the worlds largest-ever eagle, the Haasts eagle, the South Island kokako and many others became extinct. Many more, such as the Takahe, the Kakapo and the long-tailed bat were radically reduced in number and remain dangerously close to extinction today.Against this backdrop, the protection of our native species becomes ever more urgent. consequently this brings me to my emphasis on what we can do as individuals to protect our native species. Protection of our native species doesnt sole(prenominal) mean big campaigns by organization such as green peace o world wildlife fund. It also concerns us as individuals to contribute in our own dwar tilt ways in protecting our native species. Unfortunately, w e as individuals dont realise these. Therefore, there are three things that I believe we can do to help in protecting our native species. They are reducing our carbon footprint, considering our lifestyles and last of all speaking out.Reduce our carbon footprintEach and every one of us can help survive the planet from runaway climate change. Carbon emissions film been scientifically be to be one of the main contributors to global warming. And as individuals, we think that release of carbon to the atmosphere is mainly done by factories of all sorts without realising that we also contribute to that. Therefore I believe that we have a tariff to ensure that we minimise this. So this is how it can be done.Ever wondered how much difference your small actions really make? If every New Zealand mansion took these three simple actions, it could have a big impact. First of all, go car-free one day a week. Transport is a major contributor to New Zealands emissions (20%). If everyone in Ne w Zealand who currently drives to work were to walk, cycle or take public transport on just one day per week, it would save up to 114,000 tonnes of CO2 resembling per year (Landcare Re searchs carboNZero Programme Dec 2008).Secondly, we essential switch our bulbs. If every household swapped their stay old-style light bulbs for new energy efficient ones, this could save up to 0.6 one million million kWh of electricity or 106,800 tonnes of CO2 equivalent per year (Landcare Researchs carboNZero Programme in declination 2008)Thirdly, we must turn un-needed appliances off at the wall. When not in use things like heated towels rails and appliances on standby account for almost 1 billion kWh of electricity per year or 165,700 tonnes of CO2 equivalent (Landcare Researchs carboNZero Programme in December 2008). If every household simply turned these off, we could make a big saving.So if all of the above actions are taken, it all adds up to us as individually contributing to reducing carb on emissions. gibe to Landcare research, the combined impact of these actions would be an emissions reduction of 386,500 tonnes CO2 equivalent per year. This is equivalent to over 839,000 car journeys from Kaitaia to Invercargill (Landcare Researchs carboNZero Programme in December 2008).Figures are based on work by Landcare Researchs carboNZero Programme in December 2008 commissioned by WWF-New Zealand.Consider our lifestyleHave we ever wondered how our lifestyles can contribute to carbon emissions which impact on the environment? In our pursuit of pleasure, enjoyment and expensive lifestyle we have become careless-careless in the sense that we are consuming things that we dont really need. Carbon emissions are created by oversupply the more immobilize you buy, use, feature and throw away the more youre contributing to climate change. Did we ever known that? I guess no.Take a look at what we really need. put forward we cut down on anything? By eating meat and animal products our carbon footprint will be higher than on a vege diet. Can we eat less meat? Garbage emits methane a greenhouse bobble as it breaks down. Can we reduce our waste? Clothes, furniture, electrical goods everything really takes resources to produce and contributes to greenhouse gas emissions as it is moved around the planet. Can you buy less stuff and local stuff instead? Or above all consume only stuff that we really need.You can help Speak outThe last thing we can do is speak out. There are begs made by organizations such as Greenpeace and World Wildlife Fund (WWF) to the government. The beat out we can do to help is to sign up. One such petition is the Forest & Birds petition. You can help by signing Forest & Birds petition to save sea lions.In this petition, WWF is calling on the New Zealand Government to immediately take the adjacent action1. Determine the relative importance of the threats facing the sea lions.2. order the Department of Conservations Sea Lion Spe cies Management Plan. (The revised plan should lead clear, time-bound actions to address the main threats identified in the comparative sound judgment.)3. Develop an improve population object lesson to guide sea lion mortality sees. (The model should address the flaws in the current model and also consider the offspring of food competition and epidemics.)4. Set a precautionary mortality limit for sea lions in the squid fishery. (This limit should be based on the improved population model and on a conservative assessment of the effectiveness of sea lion exclusion devices.)5. Set an explicit sea lion mortality limit in the Campbell southern blue colour fishing.6. Set precautionary allocations of squid and other southern ocean fish stocks. (These allocations should be ecologically based and explicitly considers direct and indirect do of fishing on sea lions.)The numbers of sea lion pups are in freefall estimates from the Department of Conservation show pup production has h alved since 1998. So we can play our part by signing the petition.ConclusionTo conclude, we must know that protecting native New Zealand species does not concern only the government or organizations such as WWF. It also concerns us as individuals to contribute in our own small ways. We need a collective effort to protect New Zealands native species.