Teaching Ecology Newsletter

10

What’s Inside ?

• From standing in to standing down, • Fuelling ecological disaster, • Illegal wildlife trade.

Issue 37, Winter 2008 www.britishecologicalsociety.org

Teaching Ecology Newsletter

I n May this year I had the privilege of presiding over

the BES ‘Starting from Scratch’ workshop at the National Science Learning Centre at York. Over 35 people, many BES members, gathered together to do some blue-sky thinking and to consider how to re-think ecological education. We had excellent input from David Raffaelli, BES Vice-President, John Grace, former BES President, Steve Tilling, of the Field Studies Council, and ETCC member and teacher educator, Ros Roberts. It was heady stuff and exciting to be there. The invited speakers were followed by a workshop where everyone was allowed to throw pragmatism to the wind and say where they would really start from scratch if they had the opportunity. It was exhilarating but also a little frightening as all sorts of genies sprang out of the bottle. Some genies I had met before – does ecology belong in geography as much as, or more than it does in Science? Is ecology as it is taught in school a waste of time that hasn’t made sense since the 1920s? What is the difference between ecology and environmental education? Is the ecology we teach out of touch with cutting edge global ecological science? Is academic ecology out of touch with public perception? Can you be a real ecologist without wanting to identify species? Some of the genies were new as we tried to

dissect out the ecological thinking in pyramids of numbers, sand dune succession and (everybody’s favourite) the Law of Limiting Factors. It was a much needed liberating experience. But only the beginning……… When we have analysed the outcome of the discussions had chance to discuss where we go next (at the BES Annual meeting at Imperial College, London in September 2008) we shall produce a more detailed account. But on this occasion, as my maximum term as Chair of ETCC comes to an end, I could not help reflecting on how far we

From standing in to standing down

T N E

10 Teaching Ecology Newsletter

About the Teaching Ecology Newsletter (TEN)

The original purpose of TEN was to help ecologists teaching around the country to keep in touch with each other and with what the society was doing in education, and to provide a forum for debate. These remain its functions and we welcome the contributions of any TEN reader, whether they take the form of a very short note, a letter, a book review or a longer article.

Submitting a Contribution

We will accept material in any form but a text file attached to an email is preferable. Illustrations, pictures or clip art are also welcome. Please make sure there are no copyright problems with anything you submit for inclusion in TEN. Any sec-ondary source material should be properly acknowledged and the author’s permission obtained if necessary. The editor reserves the right to make modifications to material submitted in the interests of overall consistency, although we would normally get back to you in the case of major changes.

Tel: 020 8871 9797

Fax: 020 8871 9779

[email protected]

www.britishecologicalsociety.org

BES Head Office:

British Ecological Society

26, Blades Court

Deodar Road

Putney

London

SW15 2NU

About the BES

The British Ecological Society is the oldest ecological society in the world and Sir Arthur Tansley was its first president. The BES has a worldwide membership of over 4000 ecologists, produces four internationally respected scientific journals and organizes meetings and symposia at both national and international levels.

The Education, Training and Careers Committee (ETCC) is a formal committee of the British Ecological Society, which administers an educational budget, has a growing number of educational initiatives, and advises the council on matters of educational policy.

You don’t have to be a member of the BES to receive TEN, but we hope you might want to join and play a full part in the Society once you start to get involved.

The British Ecological Society is a limited company, registered in England No 1522897 and a registered charity No 281213. Vat registration No 199992863. Information and advice given to members by, or on behalf of the society, is given on the basis that no liability attaches to the society, its Council Members, or representatives in respect thereof. Views expressed in this newsletter are not necessarily those of the society.

T N E

Teaching Ecology Newsletter 10

In this Issue From standing in to standing down Front page

4-7

Editorial 3

Research as a Means to Improve Students’ Understanding of Evolu-tion by Natural Selection in an Un-dergraduate Introductory Biology Course.

8

Action to reverse the decline in sci-ence education

9

Trends in recruitment to secondary biology teaching - Ecology in De-cline?

10

Schools outreach in the New forest National Park

11

Fuelling ecological disaster 12

Illegal Wildlife trade 15

Education for a greener future 17

Ecology hits the headlines 18

Book Review: Invasion Ecology 19

As David steps down as chair of the ETCC, those of us remaining prepare to move forward yet further in promoting ecology as widely as we can. Finding a suitable and energetic replacement for David has been hard work, but we will have John Lee, one time president of the BES as interim chair for 2008/9 and then stepping into the enormous gap left by David will be Libby John, a committed member of the BES, passionate ecologist and strong supporter of ecological education. She will take on the role at the BES annual meeting in September 2009. This issue of the Teaching Ecology Newsletter is issued on the 20th anniversary of the very first is-sue and it will also sadly be the last. As the activities of the society have increased, it has become harder to find the time to put together the newsletter with the same volume of content as in previous years. Hopefully it is a good sign that we spend more time working directly with teachers, with other organisations on promoting ecological and environmental sciences in joint projects and nibbling away at Westminster on the importance of ecology in education. Far more prosaically production costs have also doubled making the newsletter in its current format unsustainable. However we recognise that the newsletter has played an essential role for many teachers and it hasn’t gone unnoticed that there has been a good gap between this and the previous issue. As the society takes its new website live around mid February 2009 we have ensured that there will be a space for relevant and up to date articles relating to ecological education. Those of you wishing to contribute to this body articles, resources and support may continue to do so at [email protected]

Editorial

T N E


Now in its 20th year, the changing face of TEG news from January 1988, August 1988, 1997, 1998, to TEN in 2003

T N E


have come since the day at Cambridge in (I think) 1988 when I found myself, rather unexpectedly, secretary of the rebellious Teaching Ecology Group (which was soon to became know as TEG). My predecessor, Phil Sanderson, had been unable to attend to chair the evening meeting of TEG and I had naively accepted the privilege of ‘standing in’ for him. Twenty years on I at last see the prospect of escape. I am not, of course, claiming that the progress we have made in moving education towards centre-stage within the BES is all down to me. A lot of good folk have made important contributions but I know I have played a part in the process. I may sometimes have seemed to be a rebellious member of the BES but I have grown very fond of it. I believe that the BES exists to ensure that there is a future for ecology and that it continues to attract talented young people to be the ecologists of tomorrow. If it fails to live up to this awesome responsibility ecology will decline. And it will decline unless the Society continues to see education as one of the key places where the struggle for survival will be won or lost. Back in 1988 there had been some important developments stemming from a meeting in Leeds which took place in the 1970s – before my time as an active BES member. There was important work being done producing the ‘red books’ on ecology in the National Curriculum by Monica Hale, Chris Workman and Phil Sanderson. David Harding, secretary of ETCC, organised an exciting event about ecology within the newly invented national curriculum at the University of Keele. He invited me to give the final ‘go back and prepare for government’ speech and perhaps that is where he gave me his mantle. But as the Gang of Four (Alison Gimmingham, Jim Kent, Jane Still and myself) met conspiratorially in a stair-well in Lady Margaret Hall in 1988 we discussed the state of education within BES and concluded that yet more needed to be done. There were plenty of people passionate about teaching ecology within the Society but they often worked in isolation (at least as ecology educators) and many were unable to attend the An-nual Meeting. So we decided to have what became

known as TEGnews and agreed to take turns in editing it. Years later I was still doing it. But then I never was very good at saying ‘no’. The first edition was one sheet of A4 photocopied at an estate agent’s in Wakefield, but it grew rapidly and almost began to look like a Teaching Ecology Journal. There were really seminal articles like Oliver Rackham’s ‘on teaching ecological fallacy’ and Tim King, who, despite being a committed field ecologist himself, bravely argued that we should ‘forget the field’ and teach ecology through weighing stick insects droppings in the laboratory if we wanted to teach ecology as experimental science.. As secretary of the anarchistic and iconoclastic Teaching Ecology Group I gained a seat on ETTC (then known ECC) chaired by John Crothers, from Nettlecombe Court FSC Centre. As an outstanding teacher of field ecology it was always a joy to hear him in action in the education session at the Annual meeting. We once had a TEG meeting at Nettlecombe where he entertained us in baronial style. My wife once observed that, at one point, it was a case of ‘le TEG, c’est moi’ although I see myself as nothing more than a catalyst in something that was gathering momentum all by itself. What actually was TEG? Was it the growing extended family of people who read and contributed to TEGnews or was it those who attended the Education session at the Annual Meeting – or was it the small core group of activists who met from time to time? Or was it a just a figment of our imagination which existed because we imagined it into existence? Whatever it was educational interest in the Society slowly developed. At one point I retired from TEG and handed it over to Sue Barker but somehow I found myself secretary of ETCC when Chris Workman, after years of loyal service, stepped down. I stood for BES Council several times but one cold and frosty December evening in the great Hall of Birmingham University I was amazed to be elected as Council member and trustee of the noble Society – because, despite being a mere school teacher and a bit of a rebel, enough members of BES had voted for me. In those days BES Annual meeting was just before the festive season and there was a warm glow of Christmas trees and meeting old friends. My

T N E


election added to the magic. The group of TEG activists cut a higher profile. There was a big teaching ecology event in Leicester organised by Chris Workman in 1990 or 1991. Then there were two successful LifeScience 2000 events at Warwick University (somewhat before 2000) where we provided a focus not only for ecology but for biology in general at a time when the growth of so-called Balanced Science meant that biology needed to be put back on the agenda. Providers of biological teaching ideas and equipment flocked to the banner but the best bit was ‘Biology After Dark’ where Noel Jackson exuded enthusiasm for nocturnal creepy crawlies, Anthony Campbell turned up with a car full of Welsh glow-worms, Laura Rogers with bioluminescent bacteria and hungry bats skimmed over open water on the leafy Warwick campus. The focus of education tended to shift from TEG to the more respectable and formal ETCC – particularly as more TEG members were co-opted. Under the chairmanship of David Shirley, an environmental advisor working for Hertfordshire County Council, education expanded. Our first curriculum project gave rise to what was then the very innovative Brine Shrimp book developed by Michael Dockery (of ASAB). This was followed by an equally innovative project led by Susan Barker which produced a primary ecology book on the theme of food chains. We had these nearly finished for a year or two but it needed ETCC member Margaret Palmer to use her outstanding editorial skills to finally kick them into touch. She also has played a key role in editing two editions of the Careers booklet and our first two ecology posters. These showed young people and teachers, and other members of the public, what ecology is in terms of what ecologists do. It was a whole Society activity where members provided photographs and short accounts of their research and Margaret edited them all to a common, easily understood, format. Chris and Bill Stotesbury (of ‘the Book on the Wall Company’) turned it all into a poster. Margaret also edits the peer-reviewed Practical Compendium of undergraduate teaching material. This is so forward looking it hasn’t taken off – yet! Paul Ganderton, the TEGnews ‘bookworm’ took

over editing the publication from me until he went to live in Australia when Aidan, one of my sons, took over as production editor. Aidan also produced the first education pages of the BES website on the free website that went with my internet provider. When the BES site, which didn’t used to be as user-friendly as it is now, was up-graded these pages were merged with it. We started to have a stall at ASE around 1990. The first stand was very amateurish and we didn’t really have much to put on it. But as years have gone by the whole thing has come to look more and more vibrant and professional and we have increasingly engaged with teachers and other educators. My time as an elected Council member came and went but just about the time I was about to stand down, the BES reorganised its structure and existing secretaries of committees automatically became chairs. So in 1999, through an accident of history, I became Chair of ETCC and I was back on Council and a trustee again. I had the privilege of attending the annual meeting of ESA in Snowbird Utah where I met members of the very talented and innovative ESA education group. In 2006 three of these, Mike Mappin, Bruce Grant and Carol Brewer came to BES Annual Meeting in Oxford and took part in our thematic symposium on education. Bruce was again an invited speaker in the Starting from Scratch session at the BES 2008 annual meeting. In 2001 I spent three months in hospital and when I emerged I took early retirement from full-time teaching. But BES would not let me go and I was given a special dispensation by my doctor to leave my hospital bed to chair ETCC – which came north to Wakefield. At a time when I wasn’t sure what the future held for me I was very touched by this and it was important for me in getting going again. We met a second time in Wakefield – in Walton Hall on an island in a lake, once the home of Charles Waterton, a contemporary of Darwin, and a great natural historian with a liking for South American rainforests. One of his ancestors married Alice Slingsby in the early 17th Century. It was at this historic meeting that the need for a BES education officer re-surfaced. We all agreed ‘why not?’ The idea had been put to Council before – but

T N E


without success. But this time at a Council meeting in York – like a dream - it went through unop-posed. And so we appointed Debbie and what we did and continues to expand exponentially. We had begun to develop a long-term strategy by the time we made the proposal for an education officer. In recent years we have developed this further as the vision expanded. Now, thanks to Karen’s boundless energy and increasing input from ETCC members, we have a developing outreach programme, a school grounds initiative built around our most recent poster (on ponds), increasing involvement with other organisations and parliamentary engagement, the Starting from Scratch initiative, a cpd initiative for teachers called Learning Expeditions in Ecology being developed with the National Science Learning Centre at York, and big plans for the BES centenary year. Work also needs doing on the education pages of the BES website. We are now limited not so much by the sky but mainly by the fact that we have only one education officer and by how much time busy ETCC members can spare. To reach the sky we need at least one other education officer. I’m standing down as Chair of ETCC simply because I have served the maximum of three terms of three years permitted by the constitution. I am retiring not only from being Chair of ETCC but from being a Trustee, a member of Council, of

Management Board, of Finance Board and of Grants Committee. As I have observed above (somewhere) I recognise that the evolution of BES educational activity is thanks to the work of a lot of people and that I have been little more than a catalyst who happened to be in the right place at the right time. But I’ve enjoyed being a catalyst and I was very honoured to receive the BES Award, in 2006, for service to the Society. I was also honoured in 2006 to be amongst the BES party who attended the science day at Buckingham Palace hosted by Her Majesty the Queen in person. So as, like Bilbo Baggins, I sail with the elves into the west, beyond the sundering sea, I wish those who remain in Middle Earth, including all TEGnews and TEN readers, every success in the future. Keep up the good work (as they used to say on school reports). Dr David Slingsby stood down as Chair of the BES Education, Training and careers committee in September 2008.

T N E


This talk described my use of evidence-based “scientific teaching,” also caller practitioner research, to improve my undergraduate students’ understanding of evolution by natural selection. Practitioner research represents a set of new applications of a well-known teacher*researcher paradigm in which faculty apply the scientific method to pose and test hypotheses based on cognitive learning theories about the effects of curriculum and instruction on student learning. My talk presented my challenges to, and limited successes with, using evidence-based "scientific teaching,” also referred to as “practitioner research” (with pre-, mid-, and post-tests), to dislodge and correct student misconceptions about evolution by natural selection and scientific epistemology. At Widener University, which is a 4-year private primarily undergraduate institution in metropolitan Philadelphia, PA, where I teach the fall freshman course in Evolutionary Ecology Bio161, I have been using standardized assessment

instrumentation for the past 7 years (multiple choice and essay based). For fall 2006, I made an extensive set of course revisions (both content and pedagogy) in response to results of 2000-2005 assessment data. Data from fall 2006 indicate significant improvements in the effectiveness of my teaching (curriculum and instruction) on student learning of core concepts of ecology and evolution. However, my efforts were much less successful at displacing students’ misconceptions regarding their scientific epis-temology, several misconceptions of which appear to be tenacious constructs to dislodge. I enjoin that practitioner research methods are highly effective means to test hypotheses about the effectiveness of course revisions on student learning. In addition, besides being more fun, data indicate that these efforts improved my students’ l earning. This project is part of a new “Practitioner Research” initiative of ESA’s Teaching Issues and Experiments in Ecology (TIEE, http://tiee.ecoed.net).

Practitioner Research as a Means to Improve Students’ Understand-ing of Evolution by Natural Selection in an Undergraduate Introduc-tory Biology Course.

By Bruce Grant

In June 2008 Ofsted published a report titled “Success in Science”, evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of science in primary and secondary education between 2004- 2007. The key findings included Overall from 2004-2007, test and public examination scores in science had not changed significantly across the keystages However those schools with the highest or most rapidly improving standards place scientific enquiry at the core of their teaching. Pupils in such science lessons were enthusiastic and more confident in their skills to plan, conduct, present and evaluate evidence. The report highlights that effective practical work requires detailed planning and additional curriculum time but that it results in better learning and motivation in pupils. The report also confirmed that too many teachers are mainly concerned with meeting exami-nation requirements and goes onto to say that rigid adher-ence to content of the national curriculum does not allow

teachers to respond to pupils increasing interest in envi-ronmental matters, such as global warming and climate change. Additionally in the best science departments it is usually the case that teachers are teaching their own spe-cialisms. Worryingly In 2005 accommodation remained unsatisfac-tory in a quarter of schools and that while many schools had datalogging equipment available it was rarely used in practical work but interestingly that it was more likely to be used outside the classroom A copy of the report can accessed at http://www.bsf.ac.uk/edu/resources/V09_Success_in_science%20(2).pdf.

Success in Science At all key stages, the most stimulating teaching and most enthusiastic learning occur when teachers encourage their pupils to come up with ideas and sug-gestions and, in consultation with their teacher, to plan, conduct, record and evaluate their own investigations

http://tiee.ecoed.net

T N E


Over the last twenty years student numbers have decreased in mathemat-ics and the physical sciences. Initia-tives aimed at engaging students may have contributed to some recent in-creases, but there is a long way to go to reach former levels and alleviate skills shortages in these areas. Prob-lems appear less severe in biology prior to university, but undergraduate numbers have fallen and the situation must be carefully monitored. The decline in students taking three separate sciences at 14-16 years of age followed the introduction of double (combined) science GCSEs in England in 1990. Now most students do not have the option to take three science GCSEs, offered in just 26% of compre-hensive schools that are not science-specialised and 58% of those that are. From next year, all students achieving a certain level will be entitled to study three sciences although CaSE contin-ues to campaign to make sure that they can do so in their own schools. Uptake of A level sciences should im-prove following these measures, and could be further enhanced if the Gov-ernment would acknowledge the evi-dence that some subjects (including the sciences) are more difficult than others and raise all A levels to the same standard. CaSE has been campaigning for stu-dents to be taught by teachers quali-fied in each science subject. A quarter of all English schools lack a physics teacher and a sixth do not have a

chemist. Furthermore, only 76% of mathematics teachers are specialists. Subject-specific goals should be set for teacher training. Headteachers should be encouraged to increase remunera-tion and provide cover for teachers who are retraining; they could be moti-vated to do so by including presence of specialist teachers in the schools ac-countability framework. The situation is less severe in Scotland where all teachers are meant to be specialised in the science that they teach, although this is not always quite true. During a period in which declining stu-dent numbers and funding resulted in the closure or merger of many physics and chemistry departments, biology suffered smaller losses of students. It is important to examine the statistics closely, however, as the much cited recent increases in biological sciences are mostly in psychology and sports science. CaSE campaigned hard to cor-rect an error in the funding formula that saw the rate of funding of labora-tory compared to library based sub-jects drop precipitously from 2 to 1.7. While we anxiously wait for policies earlier in the system to come into place and have impact, it may be time to consider more radical solutions to encourage undergraduates to pursue subjects in which skill shortages exist. To find out more about CaSE, com-ment or join please see: www.sciencecampaign.org.uk

Action to reverse the decline in science education By Dr Hilary Leevers, Assistant Director, Campaign for Science & Engineering (CaSE)

T N E


Nicky Souter from the Department of Cur-ricular Studies at the University of Strath-clyde presented his talk in the context of the value of teachers’ subject knowl-edge. He explained that this was essential in providing appropriate scientific terms and language; pedagogical insight; con-cept clarification; as well as appropriate insight to subject knowledge. Deficits in subject knowledge can have an effect on the growth of the subject as well as the entire learning experience. He explained that sciences were popular throughout the Scottish curriculum in terms of the presentations at national ex-aminations and that biology was the third most popular subject. He outlined that entrance to PGDE Secon-dary programmes (equivalent to PGCES) in Scotland must conform to the annually published “Memorandum on Entry to the Teaching Profession” which specifies the level of undergraduate study and that it must have been “relevant to the teaching qualification”. Consequently science teachers in Scotland must be qualified in a cognate discipline. Application through www.gttr.ac.uk is followed by screening for degree suitability and then inter-views. A wide range of data is available from the application forms that had been submitted to one University’s PGDE Sec-ondary programme on 3 sessions relating to entry in 2005, -06 and -07. He found that the range of first degree subjects is as diverse as the nature of the subject. The 264 applications included 58 named pathways. Zoology (23) was most frequent followed by Biology (21). While the content of the degrees is difficult to analyse from titles alone it appears that (28.4%) are derived from ‘field’ disci-

plines. This analysis might be inappropri-ately optimistic since, for example zoology could range from genuine ecological stud-ies to ones that are more akin to neuro-physiology – and might include little ‘deep study’ of environmental science. A more pessimistic analysis shows that 10 appli-cants possessed named degrees in Ecol-ogy or Environmental Biology (3.8%). Only 3 of those were successful (1.3%) in gaining places on the pro-gramme. In terms of subject knowledge the implica-tions for future biology departments, classes and curricula runs the risk of be-coming progressively less environmentally focused. The origins of the subject had been a powerful legacy and he agreed with David Slingsby’s (1) analysis that ad-ditional content, brought about by the growth of the subject, had been added but was critical of the “haphazard way that material was taken out.” Slingsby argued that syllabus revision has not been matched by a revising the overall philoso-phy. Curriculum reconstruction, currently underway in Scotland might miss the op-portunity to redefine the range and extent of the subject as well as signalling that in-terdisciplinary approaches involving geog-raphy departments which might provide one way forward. He concluded that children’s concern about climate change might extend the popularity of ecologically based under-graduate programmes. This could in-crease the numbers entering the teaching force from ecological backgrounds and feed into future children’s learning. Slingsby D., Biological education: has it gone anywhere since 1875? Biologist (53) 6, December 2006, 283-284

Trends in recruitment to secondary biology teaching - Ecology in Decline? By Nicky Souter

http://www.gttr.ac.uk/

T N E


Following on from the successful schools out-reach projects that ran in the North West and Bradford areas in 2006, 2007 respectively, this year the BES focussed on schools in Hampshire. The project was led by Frank Fearn, a BES edu-cation committee member and Dave Whittle of the Hampshire Inspection and Advisory Service (HIAS). The project was fully supported by The New Forest National Park and Texas Instruments, both organizations providing financial support, equipment and staff time to work with teachers and students. Unlike previous years, there was a greater focus on developing cross curricular links with maths, actively engaging maths departments in the pro-ject. Ecological fieldwork is often criticised for not being rigorous but involving maths teachers in the planning of data collection and seeking their advice on how data could be used was bene-ficial in determining appropriate activities. If the Maths teachers learn a little science and taxon-omy in the process then the benefits are even greater One school opted to use the project as a student leadership/mentorship programme, with students

involved in more planning stages, site visits, and development of teaching and learning activities and included in staff training sessions on data logging equipment (thereby proving that the younger generation can understand such equip-ment so much faster than the rest of us mere adults). It’s a worthy side note for any science department looking to provide staff training on data logging equipment- Go straight to the kids! Hounsdown school provides a model for how teachers and students can work together to de-velop a, entirely student centred project that of-fered students not just the opportunity to gain confidence in science and field skills but in un-derstanding the learning process and in communi-cating such knowledge and skills to their peers. The success of the Hampshire project in 2008 has encouraged the BES to put forward a proposal for a second phase whereby a greater number of Hampshire schools will be partnered with local nature reserves, parks and field centres to further develop the student centred approach to develop-ing fieldwork. The project will be visited by Greg Barker, Shadow MP for Climate Change in spring (page 17 for further details)

Schools Outreach in the New Forest National Park

T N E


I n the race to discover a green alternative to conventional fuels and thus reduce carbon emissions the advent of biofuels was hailed as an ecological panacea. Biofuels are derived from biomass, commonly through the liquid conversion of plant matter to vegetable oil based biodiesels, or ethanol, distilled in the fermentation of vegetable crops.

In contrast to alternatives the use of plant based fuel promised to provide a renewable source of energy that was both sustainable and carbon‐neutral, since the carbon emitted upon combustion was balanced by that taken up from the atmosphere in the process of photosynthesis. It seemed as though biofuels offered an ideal solution to the rising global demand for energy; not only lessening reliance on non‐renewable resources and alleviating fears of peak oil, but presenting a way to promote rural development, reduce greenhouse gases and miti‐gate global warming. However, far from biofuels much hyped status as the future poster child of global responsibility, the rush to invest in biofuels has induced a negative ripple effect with disastrous implications for both the world’s economy and ecology. The rising demand for energy crops is widely regarded as a key factor driving worldwide food shortages and has been criticised for

inadvertently encouraging developing nations to convert vast areas of virgin rainforest into lucrative plantations. Moreover, recent studies report that instead of reducing noxious gases biofuels may actually cause more harm to the environment than traditional alternatives since previous calculations have failed to account for the full emission costs involved in production; for instance, from energy required to power farm machinery and in transportation of the product, long before it’s eventual combustion (Fargione et al., 2008; Searchinger et al., 2008). Over the last decade the market for bioenergy has become increasingly political, driven by the United States, in their desire to become independent of oil‐producing nations, and European legislation, which aims to meet emission targets proposed at the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. President Bush has set his sights on a future where 15% of American cars run on biofuels by 2017 and just last year the European Union increased and extended biofuel targets from 5.75 per cent to ten per cent by 2010. In order to meet targets the British government has issued a directive increasing the biofuel content of all petrol and diesel sold in the UK. Since April suppliers have been legally required to include a mandatory 2.5 per cent of biofuel and this is set to rise to a further five per cent by 2010. However, policy mak‐ers have been urged to review such initiatives amid fears that production targets exceed the capacity of available land, diverting agricultural production away from food crops and promoting the conversion of tropical forests. Campaigners are pressing the government to impose a moratorium on the use of biofuels until the impacts are fully understood, and until more rigorous restrictions have been put in place limiting the importation of agrofuels to those that have been sustainably sourced. If permitted to continue unchecked, they warn, the scramble for clean, green energy by first world nations hungry for fuel may threaten global food security, accelerate climate change and

Fuelling Ecological Disaster By Tallulah Bygraves

T N E


promote the loss of biodiversity, fuelling not only the world’s cars but ecological disaster. Food vs. Fuel The World Bank and the United Nations have both voiced their concern following a series of reports attributing escalating food prices to the expansion of the biofuel market (OECD‐FAO Agricultural Outlook: 2008‐2017). Farmers across the world are hurrying to grow maize, oil seed rape, sugar cane, soybean and palm oil, so that they may benefit from government subsidies and funds from western financers keen to invest. But this has meant replacing land used to grow food crops and has led to significant reductions in food production. In the US, maize has emerged as the latest energy crop and future projections estimate that production must treble over the next decade in order to meet demand. American farmers are under pressure to produce enough corn to meet targets and can gener‐ate greater profits from converting maize to fuel than by farming to produce human or animal food. The affect of this shift has caused global corn prices to double in ten months, whilst other cereal staples such as wheat and rice have risen by 130 and 74 per cent respectively (Bloomberg, March 2008). The price of meat and dairy has also been affected as live‐stock are largely fed on grain. As a result millions of the world’s most vulnerable people are facing starvation. By April of this year food crises had been announced in 36 countries, provoking riots throughout the third world. Crowds of hungry demonstrators from Haiti to the Philippines have taken part in protests to draw the world’s attention to their plight and governments have begun to negotiate secretive barter arrangements as the price

of agricultural commodities reach record heights. Land that is not used to grow agrofuels is desperately needed to cultivate crops for human consumption further promoting the destruction and fragmentation of pristine rainforests and tropical savannahs. Environmentalists argue that increased grain prices are currently driving environmental degradation across the tropics and warn that poverty and famine will only serve to exacerbate biodiversity loss by increasing the local exploitation of natural resources such as timber extraction and the trade in wild animals as bush meat. Deforestation Diesel The biofuel industry is heavily subsidised by US and European governments and dominated by a number of western multinational corporations. Investment is largely concentrated in tropical countries where biofuels can be manufactured more cheaply, however production often occurs at the expense of natural ecosystems and species survival. Two of the major biofuel crops include palm oil, which is harvested in Indonesia, and soy oil, mainly grown in South America. Both crops are responsible for the large scale destruction of forested land and further stimulation of these markets is resulting in severe losses to some of the world’s richest ecological areas; including the Cerrado and Amazon eco‐regions of Brazil and the rainforest and peatlands of Borneo and Sumatra. The biofuel boom has already been responsible for the extinction of the Alagoas curassow, a large bird indigenous to north‐eastern Brazil, and threatens countless other endangered species, amongst them Asia’s only great ape, the orangutan. As jungles are rapidly replaced by palm oil plantations the apes are starved, burned, hunted and snared by plantation workers leaving hundreds of orangutan infants orphaned and destitute. Leading conservationists have identified palm oil as the greatest threat to orangutan survival and predict that species may go extinct within the next ten years (Buckland, 2005).

T N E


The orangutan is a keystone species responsible for seed dispersal and plant regeneration and therefore their loss may threaten the integrity of the ecosystem as a whole with devastating effects upon remaining wildlife. In the short‐term the conversion of forest to agricultural land needlessly erodes top soil, making the area more vulnerable to flash flooding and desertification, and releases high levels of sequestered carbon dioxide previously stored in soils and native vegetation, particularly if forests are set alight to speed up conversion to arable land. The bitter irony of clearing pristine rainforest to make way for renewable energy crops is put into context by figures which estimate that tropical forest clearance is responsible for more than twenty per cent of global net carbon; explaining Indonesia’s place as one of the world’s largest carbon emitters. What’s more, nitrates from fertilisers used to increase crop yields react with the soil to produce nitrous oxide, contributing further to greenhouse gases, and there are con‐cerns that phosphorous and other finite minerals essential to biotic growth are being depleted by intensive farming methods which may adversely affect the long‐term fertility of the soil (Crutzen et al., 2007). The Future of Biofuels In light of recent evidence against current fuel crops many are looking to second generation biofuels to solve the carbon crisis. Second generation biofuels, distilled from waste biomass or from non‐food perennials grown on marginal

land, avoid concerns over land use and food production. In the tropics jatropha (Jatropha spp.), a genus of succulents, has been hailed as the new‐est sustainable energy source, and in the west plans abound to produce switch grass and giant reed for use in transport fuels. However, there are concerns that the production of such species could prove risky since many of these newer crops are known as major invasive alien species, with high potential to escape plantations, overrun natural land and out‐compete native varieties, potentially creating economic and ecological havoc (Raghu et al., 2006). If the failings of the biofuel boom teach us anything it is the importance of a precautionary approach to renewable energy solutions, highlighting the importance of understanding ecology, and the necessity of evaluating the potential global ramifications of a hastily imple‐mented environmental policy.

References Buckland, H. 2005. The oil for ape scandal: How palm oil is threatening the orangutan. Friends of the Earth Trust. Crutzen, J., Mosier, A. R., Smith, K. A. and Winiwarter, W. 2008. N2O release from agro-biofuel production negates global warming reduction by replacing fossil fuels. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics. 8: 389-395. Fargione, J., Hill, H., Tilman, D., Polasky, S and Hawthorne, P. 2008. Land Clearing and the Biofuel Carbon Debt. Science. 319: 1235-1238 OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook: 2008 – 2017. Preliminary Edition. http://www.agri-outlook.org/dataoecd/54/15/40715381.pdf Raghu, S., Anderson, R.C., Daehler, C.C., Davis, A.S., Wiedenmann, R.N., Simberloff, D. and Mack, R.N. 2006. Adding biofuels to the invasive species fire? Science 313: 1742. Searchinger, T., Heimlich, R., Houghton, R. A., Dong, F., Elobeid, A., Fabiosa, J., Tokgoz, S., Hayes, D and Yu, T. 2008. Use of U.S Croplands for biofuels Increases Greenhouse Gases Through Emissions from Land Use Change. Science. 319: 1238-1240.

http://www.agri-outlook.org/dataoecd/54/15/40715381.pdf

T N E


Every year hundreds of millions of animal and plant species are traded illegally and/or in an unsustainable way. Species population has declined by an average of 40% between 1970 and 2000, with wildlife trade as the second biggest threat to species survival rates after habitat destruction. International trade in wildlife threatens biodiversity because it can result in habitat destruction, overexploitation of wildlife, and increase the spread of invasive alien species (Gerson et al 2008). In an attempt to regulate international commerce in animal and plant species 85 countries in 1973 (including the UK) entered into the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, commonly know as CITES. Despite its good intentions, difficulty in the enforcement of its provisions has undermined CITES, enabling the continuation of illegal trade to occur on a global level (Fitzgerald 1989). The global illicit wildlife trade is now worth more than six billion pounds a year, making it the world’s third principal source of criminal earnings after drug trafficking and the arms trade (www.cites.org). Environmental crime is a growing source of income for international gangs attracted by the margins of up to 700% profit on illegal items such as tiger skins (www.eia-international.org). Since wildlife trade can be highly lucrative with substantial profits, many people become involved in the business (Roe et al 2002). The Environ-mental Investigation Agency believes a network of environmental crime rings is thriving in the developing world. There are many reasons driving unsustainable wild-life trade. Although a global issue, Southeast Asia is both the centre for the consumption of wildlife products as well as being a key supplier to external markets. Within this region wealth appears to be a strong driver of illegal and unsustainable wildlife trade and not poverty, as most people would assume. High and rising demand of increasingly large and affluent urban populations are the main drivers of the wildlife trade. Rapid economic

growth and infrastructure expansion are also having significant impact because they are increasing access to wildlife habitats and markets (www.traffic.org). The wildlife trade in Southeast Asia involves wide and complex marketing networks and engages a diverse range of participants. A complex array of socio-economic factors shape people’s participation in the wildlife trade as harvesters, traders, wholesalers and retailers (Rao and McGowan 2002). This includes the nature and scope of livelihood resources open to them, their needs for cash, the normative and regulatory frameworks that govern their actions, market access, opportunities to harvest and trade in wildlife, and the availability of wildlife resources themselves. Wildlife consumption, in turn, is heavily influenced by socio-economic factors such as people’s tastes, aspirations and perceived needs, as well as their relative affluence or poverty and purchasing power (www.traffic.org). With an increase in human population comes an increase in the demand for wild animal and plants and the products made from them. The number of SE Asian species being categorized as threatened on the IUCN Red List is extensive and growing. Illegal and unsustainable wildlife trade can directly threaten the continued existence of many species in the wild. Well publicized examples are the poaching of tigers for their skins and elephants for ivory. However, numerous other lesser-known species such as toothfish, marine turtles, pangolins and timber trees face the same direct threats. Furthermore, illegal and unsustainable wildlife trade also affects the livelihoods of millions of people, especially the world’s poorest, who are dependent on local wild animals for meat and local trees and plants for fuel and medicine (www.panda.org). One of the most notable problems associated with the wildlife trade is that it can cause overexploitation and threaten the survival of a

Illegal Wildlife Trade: Driving Factors and the Implications for Wildlife

by Claudia Amphlett

T N E


species. For example, in October 2008 the IUCN changed the status of the Malayan and Chinese pangolins, Manis javanica and M. pentadactyla respectively, from near-threatened to endangered owing to the dramatic decline in population numbers (www.iucn.org). Chinese pangolins were once the primary target of smugglers but because population density is so low the smugglers have switched to the Malayan pangolin. This notoriously shy mammal is largely caught by smugglers in Malaysia and Indonesia then shipped back to the black market in China where they are eaten or used in traditional medicine (www.traffic.org). Pangolin scales are a popular herbal remedy in China, Vietnam and Korea. The scales are believed to cure toxins, inflammation and rheumatic pain and are also used as an aphrodisiac. Furthermore, pangolins are also stuffed and sold for decoration. There have been approximately 24 incidents of pangolin confiscations or smuggler arrests in the past year (2008). This makes the pangolin the most commonly confiscated mammal in seizures of illegally traded animals in Southeast Asia (www.traffic.org). One of the difficulties facing pangolin conservation is the limited data available for the species. Due to the lack of detailed studies, it is not fully understood how pangolins impact on their natural habitat. An obvious inference will be the impact on ant and termite populations. This in turn may affect the rate of nutrient recycling and consequently have considerable implications for all trophic levels (www.mongabay.com). In addition to overexploiting species, China’s traditional medicine trade has had devastating effects on wildlife and disturbingly is still rapidly growing. Chinese traditional medicine trade has grown at an annual rate of 10% since 2003. Most exports, worth approximately USD687 million go to Asia, but Europe (USD162 million) and North America (USD144 million) are increasingly important markets. Over-harvesting and poor management of resources are ominous threats and there are currently no standards to ensure the sustainable collection of wild medicinal plants (www.traffic.org). Tiger populations have suffered greatly largely in part to China’s medicine market. The most common factor driving the harvesting of Tigers is the use of bones and other body parts in traditional medicine, especially in China. During the 1960s approximately

300 individuals were removed from the wild in China, specifically for the Chinese medicine industry. The following decades saw a decline in harvesting numbers owing to depletion in population density of wild Tigers (Nowell 2000). The most traditional form of tiger medicine is dried, fried bone ground to a powder used in small amounts with other ingredients. (www.traffic.org). This industry had devastating effects on not only china’s tiger population but also other countries such as India. After China acceded to CITES in 1981, no official imports of Tigers were recorded. However, China’s wild tiger population was not sufficient to support the domestic market, suggesting Tigers were being smuggled in from other countries. Large quantities of Tiger bone seizures found in India support this analysis (www.traffic.org). Understanding the factors that influence wildlife trade is essential if steps are to be taken to curb illegal wildlife trade and make the industry sustainable. There is increasing recognition that wildlife trade in Southeast Asia has far reaching ef-fects. Not only is it supplying markets and consum-ers locally and globally, it also has significant delete-rious implications for conservation efforts and development at both local and international levels. The economic and social drivers of the wildlife trade are far more complex than originally believed. An integrated and international effort is required to safeguard and ensure wildlife trade does not threaten wildlife populations any further. References Fitzgerald S. (1989). International Wildlife Trade: Whose business is it? World Wildlife Fund Gerson H, Cudmore B, Mandrak N.E, Coote L.D, Farr K and Baillar-geon G. (2008). Monitoring International Wildlife Trade with Coded Species Data. Conservation Biology 22: 4-7 Nowell K. (2000) Far From a Cure: The Tiger Trade Revisited. TRAF-FIC International. Cambridge, UK Rao, M. and McGowan, P.J.K. (2002). Wild-Meat use, food security, livelihoods, and conservation. Conservation Biology 16: 580–583 Roe D, Mulliken T, Milledge S, Mremi J, Mosha S. and Grieg-Gran M. (2002). Making a Killing or Making a Living? Wildlife trade, trade controls and rural livelihoods. IIED, London and TRAFFIC. Cambridge, UK www.cites.org www.eia-international.org www.iucn.org www.mongabay.com www.traffic.org

T N E


July 2008 saw the publication and launch of the Conservative Party paper, Root to Branch, an education for a greener future. The paper was published by the education commission, and written by Gregory Barker MP, shadow minister for climate change and the environment. The paper was a long time in development. The BES education officer and pol-icy manger had met with the papers researchers in the summer of 2006 and waited patiently for 2 years to see the end result. Reading this paper gave me the same feeling I get when I tell someone I work for the British Ecological Society and they respond by telling me all about the energy saving light bulbs and the recycling they almost always try to do.

Promisingly, the first two sections of the report highlights the importance of fieldwork in education and the role of practical experiences in enabling young people to engage with the natural world. It lays out the many reasons and evidence for why fieldwork is declining schools and passionately expresses a belief in the importance of fieldwork in inspiring young people to want to care about the environment and then sud-denly……….. produces a set of solutions and examples of good practice that demonstrate little or no link to fieldwork but instead offers examples on school meals, recycling, farm schools and energy consumption The recommendations made in the paper manage to get as far as promoting training for teachers in health and safety and risk management, although they don’t necessarily recommend that this should be in fieldwork, teacher training should also include more modules on environmental best practice, although again, this doesn’t necessarily state fieldwork. The paper recommends that farms and schools should be linked more closely and while I see that farms do provide an opportunity for practical outdoor learning, I might need some convincing they represent an accurate and comprehensive picture of the “natural world” that should take the place of a trip to a stream, hillside, limestone pavement, rocky shore, heathland, sand dune or the many other opportunities that exist. In fact the closest the recommendations get to actively promoting practical outdoor learning in the natural environment is to state that Schools should be encouraged to appoint Climate Change ‘champions’ re-sponsible for new curriculum approaches that involve a greater engagement with the natural world and appreciation of the wider impacts of human activity on the environment. The remaining recommendations focus on travel to/from school and home, meals, energy use.

A copy of the pamphlet can be accessed via http://www.gregorybarker.com/docs/roottobranch.pdf

Education for a greener future? By Karen Devine

It is profoundly worrying…, that when the environment has assumed such importance in our national life, many of our young people are failing to gain a genuine appreciation of the envi-ronment and of key environmental issues. This is in large part due to a lack of direct personal contact and engagement with both local nature and the wider natural world while at school. Nor can appreciation of the environment and sustainable living be pigeon-holed into the oc-casional trip; it needs to inform thinking across the curriculum and throughout our schools. We need a new root to branch approach. Gregory Barker. Root to Branch, education for a greener future 2008.

T N E


Loosing touch with the natural world. An article in the BBC Wildlife magazine August 2008, entitled “Are children losing touch with the wild world?” by Fergus Collins suggests that British school children are becoming disconnected from nature and wild places; preferring to play on computers or go shopping in preference to playing outdoors. Collins carried out a survey involving 700 children aged between nine and 11 from17 schools in Bristol. Its findings reinforced the theory that many children do not spend much time playing in the green outdoors and enjoying wildlife. Furthermore, constraints by many people’s fear of stranger-danger, litigation and obsessive testing in schools, as well as a social shift in people’s values were all noted to contribute towards a failure to engage young people with nature. Phil Burton of the Learning Nature Trust proposes that if you love wildlife as a child then you are more likely to become engaged as an adult. Without this connec-tion he believes it will be harder to get enthused when older. The lack of potential young naturalists to re-place a mature generation of experts could seriously threaten the safeguard of wildlife, according to Oliver Chessman, Chairman of Invertebrate Link. So how do we reconnect children? Engaging the par-ents in family activities is one solution advocated by Nick Baker, Really Wild Show. Another suggestion is to encourage unstructured play in accessible wild spaces. Martin Maudsley sees this as the primary mechanism through which children can connect and bond with the natural world. What's more, research has shown it is a vital part of a child’s social and emo-tional development. Bunny Hugging? Natural England are set to stop intervening in disputes between farmers and their neighbours where rabbits are causing damage to crops. Currently rabbit popula-tions are kept manageable by legislation that ensures landowners must keep rabbit populations down to avoid placing farmers crops at risk. Farmers can ap-ply to Natural England where this duty is not being met for an order to dispatch rabbits. If the order is not

complied with landowner could face criminal proceed-ings. Farmers are concerned that Natural England's decision to no longer enforce this legislation could lead to a population explosion. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article5218977.ece Bees are best Bees have been declared the most invaluable species at the annual Earthwatch debate. The 20,000 species of bee were recognised for their contribution to polli-nation of flowering plants, crops and berry producing plants, not to mention honey production. http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2008/nov/21/wildlife-endangeredspecies Learning to speak Koala? Koala populations are under threat from habitat de-struction. In a novel way to try and prevent popula-tion falls scientists are ear wigging on koala chatter via mobile phones. It is hoped that the recordings will give clues as to how the populations may be best man-aged. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1089163/Call-wild-Scientists-use-mobile-phones-eavesdrop-koala-conversations.html Sea Eagles in Norfolk A joint proposal by Natural England, RSPB and An-glia Waters hopes to reintroduce the Sea England to England after a 200 year absence. The proposal fol-low a successful project in Scotland. The project is awaiting approval and local support following claims that sea eagles were responsible for taking lambs http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/conservationists-plan-to-reintroduce-sea-eagles-to-england-1030328.html Green revolution postponed Economic or Ecological Crisis? Seemingly we worry more about one than the other…………… The ob-server respond to the pre Budget report. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/nov/25/pre-budget-report-economics

Ecology hits the headlines

T N E


This book is an excellent guide to the topic of invasive species. It covers a significant portion of the study and highlights all the key elements. The aim of this text was to provide a broad overview and in this it has suc-ceeded. Although at this stage a little too complex for secondary students and more aimed at undergraduates, it provides a very good foundation for both theoretical and practical ecology. The focus on human impact and management gives the book a far broader appeal and more useful scope than the more usual ecological fo-cus. Definitely a key text in its field. The idea that we could populate the Earth with any species and that this would re-create an 'Eden' some-where goes back to the Acclimatisation Societies of the 19th century. Today, after much (often painful) association with non-native species we recognise invaders for what they are. Whereas this is often to the detriment of the existing ecosystem it does provide us with a way of studying population movements. Whether biomes are the best place to try out experiments is another question altogether but there is now a small but growing band of ecologists who are specialising in this area and invasion ecology is now a distinct topic in its own right. Because this is new, there is the initial problem of getting the terminology right and demonstrating the parameters of the subject. This is the aim of the first chapter here. That there are at least 27 different terms to cover essentially the same thing shows how far we need to go to produce a synthesis that we can agree with. To assist further, this chapter outlines the main process of invasion and gives examples to illustrate this. To be an invader you need to travel so it is no surprise to find this as the topic of chapter two. A distinction is made early on between the route (pathway) and mode (vector) of transport. We get several examples to highlight this basic division. Vectors are further investigated and the key ones (notably sea-based) is described with cases ranging from the slave trade to 19th century commerce. Given this increasing ease of movement it is easy to see how, in chapter three, that the trend in invasion is sharply

upward. Wherever you look, and examples here span the globe, the same trend is seen (suggesting, as others have put it, to a homogenisation of ecology!). This shouldn't be taken to be a blanket increase - temperate zones seem to have more than their fair share (due presumably to the greater amount of trade). Chapter four turns to the invader itself and shows the parameters needed to be successful. It's not just a question of being tough you also need the reception to be agreeable. As chapter five notes, the best places are those where disturbance has taken place e.g. fire, agriculture and, these days, global warming. Once the non-native has reached a suitable abiotic environment it needs to establish against the resident biota. Although the title of chapter six suggests this is simple, the real picture, as we see, is far from obvious with no strong evidence for any particular model of success. One is left with the impression that multiple causes are needed for success or failure. Once the population becomes established there's a need to see where it spreads. For plants this might be simple but for animals it's far harder and so a key weapon is mathematical modelling. As outlined in chapter seven we do get some idea of rate and direction of spread. Non-native species are just native species elsewhere so it should be possible to study them using standard ecological concepts. This is the work of chapter 8 which describes the population models, dispersal patterns and biotic interactions we can see in non-native organisms. All this invading must have an effect on the resident ecology and chapter 9 highlights some of the key findings such as extinction and predation. Chapter 10 takes this one stage further to include human reactions to invaders and how I mpacts can be measured and therefore addressed. Chapter 11 complements this by looking at invasion for the invaders perspective and describing the possibilities of invaders evolving in their new habitat. Finally, we look at assessing the risks and seeing how we can deal with the invaders (if indeed it is cost-effective to do so). Paul Ganderton regularly reviews ecology and environmental texts. A full list of his reviews can be found at: http://users.bigpond.net.au/paul_ganderton/index.htm

Book Review: Invasion ecology By Paul Ganderton

Book Review: Invasion Ecology Author(s): Julie L Lockwood, Martha F Hoopes and Michael P Marchetti Date of Publication: 2007 Publisher: Blackwell Publishing Pages:vii + 304 ISBN: 978 1 4051 1418 9 Price:£ 32.99

Teaching Ecology Newsletter

Documents

Transcript of Teaching Ecology Newsletter