Prague, July 24 (CTK) – Five to 10 percent of insect species, or up to 3,000 of them, have got extinct in Czech territory in the past century and many others are endangered, surviving in rare tiny populations, weekly Respekt writes on Monday, citing data released by entomologists and experts in biodiversity.
The Czechs rejoice at big animals such as the wolf, the lynx and large ungulates returning to local forests, while less visible species have been disappearing. The process amounts to a latent catastrophe that bothers no one except for a narrow group of scientists, Respekt writes.
A lack of data makes it hard to explain the extinction of species and the shrinking of the surviving species’ populations, which have also been registered elsewhere in Europe and North America, Respekt writes.
The EC’s planned ban on the three main types of neonicotinoids, the most widespread pesticides used by farmers, will probably help improve the health of commercially bred bees, bumblebees and other pollinators, but it is unlikely to stop the number of insects from shrinking, Respekt writes.
Citing entomologist Lukas Cizek, it says the present landscape is “desperately homogenised,” even in natural reserves. Its former diversity has shrunk to two types of habitats: arable land, usually in the form of vast fields, and a dense forest. There are almost no other habitats any more, while insects need environmental diversity .
Meadows have been mown intensively and not step by step as was usual in the past. They tend to be a dead landscape with a low diversity of flowers, in which insects have no chance to live, Cizek told the weekly.
The Czech Republic spends enough money on nature protection, Respekt writes, citing experts’ article in the Vesmir scientific journal.
“The situation can be compared with a situation where Czech infant mortality were the same like Pakistan’s in spite of huge state investments in health care…We do not protect nature insufficiently but we protect it wrongly,” the authors wrote.
Cizek said most of the money the Czechs gained from Brussels for biodiversity protection has been spent on different purposes, such as tourist information centres and tourist trails (as if tourists were endangered, not nature), on the reconstruction of weirs and on disputable projects whose effect on biodiversity is uncertain.
Czech nature would rather need sensitive revitalisation including the renewal of natural river beds, ridges, tree alleys and other natural landscape elements, the fight against invasive plants and a new approach to protected areas in order to maintain their park-like character, Cizek said.
Many people may not miss the lost insect species but this is a short-sighted view. Experts know that diversity of species is a factor that directs processes on the Earth. Without it, nature can neither survive satisfactorily nor can it satisfy humans’ needs, Respekt writes.
According to a table accompanying the article, 17 butterfly species have died out in the Czech Republic, another 113 are endangered and 181 are safe. The figures for bees are 146, 370 and 322, respectively and for oil beetles 10, 11 and two, respectively, the table shows.
