conservation and managment

• Conservation is the management of our environment to maintain biodiversity. 
• Organisms have been here longer than us so they have a right to exist is an ethical reason for conservation. 
• Organisms provide genetic resources and ecosystems are more productive when organisms are conserved, benefiting the economy. 
• Conserving genes pools may provide useful products for medicine, biotechnology and management. Maintaining gene pools requires a conservation of diversity through habitat protection. 
• If the environment was unmanaged, natural succession would result in a small range of climax communities. 
• Succession must be managed to maintain a wide variety of plagioclimaxes. 
• Moorland is managed with swaling to kill tree saplings and thick grass/gorse, heather is fire resistant and regrows rapidly. 
• Grasslands are managed with grazing animals to prevent the growth of shrubs and trees whilst allowing grasses to grow. Chalk grasslands in the north and south downs of the UK are very biodiverse. Grasslands can be restored by felling trees. 
• In wetlands Dredgings prevents silt from building up and stops succession from progressing. Water supplies should be kept clean to prevent eutrophication. 
• In woodlands native trees can replace non-native coniferous trees. Trees can be thinned to increase light intensity so promote shrub and flower growth. Coppicing and pollarding are sustainable methods of timber production. 
• Hedgerows are important for maintaining farmland diversity, they are trimmed to prevent succession.