Activities in cities to lower the pressure on species and ecosystems can increase
nature conservation activities, helping the survival of certain species by
reintroduction into the wild, education and information exchange for increasing
the awareness of humans, with the accompanying expenditures. Nevertheless, cities
and urban habitats can focus on only a small fraction of all living biota and habitat
types.
8 Outlook
Even if cities are sparsely vegetated and without untouched nature, and even if cities
have few natural elements, they contain the conditions—a concentration of humans,
buildings, money and short distances—that are the prerequisite for investments both
in species living in urban and species living in non-urban habitats.
The arrangement of natural and semi-natural habitats, green spaces, public parks,
greening activities and plantations, botanical gardens, zoos and aquariums in cities:
all these can be an important aid for wildlife in the cities and species conservation
projects outside the cities. Furthermore, natural evolution can progress even in
artificial environments at the interface between natural and cultural processes if
certain requirements of the related species and environmental conditions are
respected.
At global scales, botanical gardens, aquariums and zoos in collaboration with
universities and nature conservation institutions have now developed ambitious
programmes and activities in the fields of conservation, research and education.
These are increasingly supported by governments, official authorities and private
sponsors via networking, exchange of information, and fund-raising campaigns.
A network of well-equipped and cross-linked botanical gardens, zoos and aquariums could easily enhance their campaigns if they got more money and support by
the public.
Schoolchildren and students should come in contact with nature not only during
holidays or theoretically in the classroom, but also face to face in the vicinity of their
daily life. For more than half of the world population, this immediate vicinity
meanwhile is dominated by buildings and streets, humans, traffic and noise.
Nobody is interested in the extinction of a species. Most people have a strong
affinity to, and are attracted by, flowering plants, butterflies, birdsongs, and bats in
the evening. Thus, activities to enhance the situation for wildlife and rare species in
cities might be a win-win situation for both humans and other species living there.
Botanical gardens, zoos and aquariums enable visitors to see rare species that
only few people have seen in their natural habitat. Politicians and inhabitants in
urban centres have the potential to intensify the relationship between man and
biosphere via head, hand and heart. It is a small step to see urban habitats not only
as living-room, but also as space for arts or socio-economic problems of humans.
Consider the following possibility which is not unrealistic. A rare bird species,
one of the critically endangered species, is living with a small and declining
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J. Jansen and C. Hobohm
nature conservation activities, helping the survival of certain species by
reintroduction into the wild, education and information exchange for increasing
the awareness of humans, with the accompanying expenditures. Nevertheless, cities
and urban habitats can focus on only a small fraction of all living biota and habitat
types.
8 Outlook
Even if cities are sparsely vegetated and without untouched nature, and even if cities
have few natural elements, they contain the conditions—a concentration of humans,
buildings, money and short distances—that are the prerequisite for investments both
in species living in urban and species living in non-urban habitats.
The arrangement of natural and semi-natural habitats, green spaces, public parks,
greening activities and plantations, botanical gardens, zoos and aquariums in cities:
all these can be an important aid for wildlife in the cities and species conservation
projects outside the cities. Furthermore, natural evolution can progress even in
artificial environments at the interface between natural and cultural processes if
certain requirements of the related species and environmental conditions are
respected.
At global scales, botanical gardens, aquariums and zoos in collaboration with
universities and nature conservation institutions have now developed ambitious
programmes and activities in the fields of conservation, research and education.
These are increasingly supported by governments, official authorities and private
sponsors via networking, exchange of information, and fund-raising campaigns.
A network of well-equipped and cross-linked botanical gardens, zoos and aquariums could easily enhance their campaigns if they got more money and support by
the public.
Schoolchildren and students should come in contact with nature not only during
holidays or theoretically in the classroom, but also face to face in the vicinity of their
daily life. For more than half of the world population, this immediate vicinity
meanwhile is dominated by buildings and streets, humans, traffic and noise.
Nobody is interested in the extinction of a species. Most people have a strong
affinity to, and are attracted by, flowering plants, butterflies, birdsongs, and bats in
the evening. Thus, activities to enhance the situation for wildlife and rare species in
cities might be a win-win situation for both humans and other species living there.
Botanical gardens, zoos and aquariums enable visitors to see rare species that
only few people have seen in their natural habitat. Politicians and inhabitants in
urban centres have the potential to intensify the relationship between man and
biosphere via head, hand and heart. It is a small step to see urban habitats not only
as living-room, but also as space for arts or socio-economic problems of humans.
Consider the following possibility which is not unrealistic. A rare bird species,
one of the critically endangered species, is living with a small and declining
440
J. Jansen and C. Hobohm