The following infographic, though not exhaustive, outlines 15 crucial, interlinked and intertwined issues that have become critical in the fortunes of rhinos, indeed for all wild species that face the depredations of trafficking and overexploitation. Despite the great divide that the pro/no trade debate has created, the one thing about which all rhino conservationists will agree is that there is no silver bullet, no one thing that above all else will ensure the survival of the species in the wild in Africa and Asia. Instead, the answers lie in a whole range of tactics and strategies that need to be rigorously applied. Only if consistent progress across this broad front is maintained, will the future of rhinos be likely to follow the high road. Failure even in a few areas will create weak links in the conservation chain and rhinos will continue down a very uncertain path.
RHINO ROAD MAP
Most would agree, though, that the moniker of “father of taxonomy” rightly goes to Carl Linnaeus (Carl von Linné) the Swedish botanist who in the mid 1700s created the two-part, or binomial, names for species that we use to this day: the combination of the genus of the organism with a specific epithet or adjective for a more precise classification. The Indian Rhino, for example, is named Rhinoceros (the genus) and unicornis (the specific adjective) which together give us the scientific name for the “rhino with one horn”. It is not unlike having a surname followed by a first name.
But it doesn’t stop there as all living organisms are further organized into ever broader groupings until we encompass all life.
But now the science of taxonomy also includes genetic and biochemical analysis as well. This aspect of taxonomy is known as Cladistics which traces the evolutionary history of organisms back through shared common ancestors using morphological and molecular data to visualize evolutionary history and relationships between species.
But why is it so important to scientifically name as many species as we possibly can? Well, global biodiversity is being lost at an unprecedented rate and some scientists have begun to argue that we are in the middle of a period of mass extinction. There have been other periods of great loss – five such previous episodes are thought to have happened since the planet was born – but this is the first where a single species has played such a destructive role … us.
Urgent decisions are needed to reverse this looming distaster. Protected areas need to be secured, consolidated and expanded to do this and our destructive processes everywhere need to be stopped or at least modified. But how do we do this if we don’t even know and understand the life forms that need protecting and where they live?
How do countries, developed and developing, ensure that they can reap the benefits, in perpetuity, of healthy ecosytems and the services they provide, if they don’t know about elements that make up those ecosystems in the first place? And this is where taxonomy is so vital, for it provides the basic understanding of the species and their lineages that make up the building blocks of the earth’s biodiversity. It is as important for understanding the five surviving rhino species and their lineage as it is for every other living thing.
