Habitat Destruction

Agriculture is responsible for ~70% of global deforestation:

• Cattle ranching (especially Amazon).
• Soy production (~80% feeds animals, not humans).
• Palm oil (in S.E. Asia).
• Rice paddies, plantations.

Urban expansion: cities growing → housing estates, shopping centres, suburbs.

Roads + infrastructure: a road through a forest doesn't just cover the road area — it fragments the forest into smaller patches and gives access for further clearance.

Mining and quarrying: oil sands, copper, sand for concrete — large-area damage.

Reservoir + dam construction: floods river-valley habitats.

Coastal development: tourism, ports, aquaculture — loss of mangroves and coral reefs.

Even when total forest area is preserved, breaking it into SMALL PATCHES is damaging:

• Top predators (jaguars, tigers, eagles) need large territories. Small patches → not enough food → die out.
• Larger species are first to vanish in fragmented landscapes.
• Edges of fragments are dryer, hotter and more exposed than interior — different species community.
• Inbreeding becomes a problem when populations are too small.
• Movement between patches is blocked → no gene flow → fragmented populations.

WILDLIFE CORRIDORS (strips of habitat connecting fragments) can partly fix this — animals can move between patches, populations interbreed, ranges remain viable.

Example: Florida wildlife corridors connect ~7 million hectares of forest, allowing panthers and bears to move and breed. Without corridors, the Florida panther would already be extinct.

Slowing the loss:

• Sustainable certification (FSC for timber; RSPO for palm oil) — encourages forest-friendly production.
• Protected areas (national parks, reserves) — about 17% of land is now protected.
• Indigenous land rights — research shows indigenous-managed forests have far lower deforestation rates.
• Stricter planning rules; environmental impact assessments before development.

Reversing the loss:

• Reforestation (planting trees).
• Rewilding (letting an area return to wild state, sometimes with reintroduction of key species).
• Coral reef restoration (growing coral fragments and replanting).
• Mangrove replanting (also protects coasts from storms).

Famous example: the loss of the Aral Sea (Central Asia) from 1960 to 2010 due to irrigation diversion. The northern part has been partly restored by closing dams; fish have returned. But the southern part is essentially dead — a salt desert.

MYP criterion D: 'Discuss the trade-off between development and habitat protection.' A strong answer specifies a place, identifies stakeholders (farmers, indigenous people, governments, conservation groups), weighs benefits and costs, and proposes a SPECIFIC compromise (e.g. zoning, payments for ecosystem services).