HELP TO PROTECT THE ENDANGERED COUNTRYSIDE

 "The fractional part of plants and animals, that we know so well, are dying out very quickly, much quicker than before the arrival of a man. In many cases their extinction is quite catastrophic, whole groups are endangered."

(Edward O.Wilson, from The Diversity of Life)

… From the time life began on the Earth, new kinds of plants and animals appeared and again disappeared. Reason for their extinction were different, some disasters, that happened on the surface of our planet - extensive volcanic activity, collisions with cosmic bodies, changes to the climate - but even so, that these organism were not able to survive the competition of others. Experts are guessing that during these crises, over 95% of different kinds disappeared from the Earth. But every time the life returned back to its original numbers of varieties and even exceeded it. Every time this took tens of millions of years. Then another kind appeared - man.

… The process of extinction continues, but big part in this plays mainly the activities of a man - kind, who spread across the whole surface of the Earth. Excessive and out of control hunting is the oldest demonstration of the power of a man above the animals. In the short history of a man, animals are continually slaughtered for the easy source of food, or for the valued fur or other products from their bodies. Methods of hunting are continually improving, and number of rare animals are threatened with starvation, and also the effort to maintain the traditional way of living in the tropical countries of Africa, Asia, and South America. Hunting here us quite often a traditional form of business and entertainment. Therefore it seems, that it would be sufficient to protect the animals more consistently?

…The direct extinction of animals and plants is also helped by other factors, which add to the dying out of other kinds. It is the destruction of their natural environment and infestation with other foreign kinds. Decreasing of the population in a decreasing natural environment and competition with other foreign kinds reduces their ability to survive. The most visible sign of destruction of the environment is deforestation, changes to the natural grasslands to farming land, drying out of swamps or regulation of rivers. Building of towns, roads and other facilities, that are necessary for the human kind, also causes the reduction in natural sites where plants and animals can live. The natural environment is polluted by different kinds of harmful chemicals, which, if they do not cause direct death to the animals, then they restrict their ability to reproduce and condemn them to slow death by accumulating in their bodies. The animals haven't sufficient amount of space for their undisturbed evolvement. In so doing, each kind that has been extinct endangers many other kinds, that are connected in and out together, some of these were are even unable to identify at present time. For certain this in the end also threatens us the human kind.

… Maybe even the nature would be able to repair these damages, but from our point of view it would take so long, that we, as the animal kind, wouldn't even register it.

Even you can help to save the nature of our planet!

For example, you will not support illegal trade with endangered species of animals and plants, which are protected by international agreement of CITES, a legislation which deals with protection of the natural environment.

Information on MŽP ČR o CITES (Czech)
Official pages of CITES (English)

Do you want to know the mission of the World Organisation for Protection of the Nature, and what they are doing at the moment? Have a look at the up-to-date red list of endangered species.

IUCN (World Organisation for Protection of Nature)
Red book of endangered species