Habitat loss
Also called: Habitat destruction · Topic: Biodiversity and its Conservation · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 14 "Biodiversity and Conservation"
Meaning
Habitat loss is the destruction of the natural home of plants and animals. Forests and grasslands are cleared, or broken into small, separate patches (fragmentation), to make way for farms, logging, mining, settlements and roads. Without enough habitat, species lose food, shelter and breeding sites. Small, cut-off patches also leave populations too small and isolated to survive. Habitat loss is the biggest cause of biodiversity loss. IPBES (2019) ranks land and sea use change as the top driver.
Example
In Madagascar, an island off south-east Africa, forests are cleared for food, firewood and farmland. This threatens lemurs and many other species that live nowhere else.
Don't confuse with
- Poaching: kills the animals themselves, for horns, tusks, hides or bones. Habitat loss destroys the place they live in.
Related concepts
- Loss of biodiversity
- Exotic species
- Invasive alien species
- Poaching
- Overfishing
- Extinction
- IPBES
- Living Planet Report