Vol. 4 No. 1 (2019): Biodiversity
Invited Articles

A tale of two islands. The reality of large-scale extinction in the early stages of the Anthropocene: a lack of awareness and appropriate action

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  • Fred Naggs
Fred Naggs
The Natural History Museum
Bio
This image of the cover of this issue of The Journal of Population and Sustainability has the title in block letters on a grey-green background.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3197/jps.2019.4.1.15

Published 2019-12-01

Keywords

  • Sumatra,
  • Madagascar,
  • conservation,
  • sustainable development,
  • land snails,
  • cryo-banking
    • ...More
    Less

How to Cite

Naggs, Fred. 2019. “A Tale of Two Islands. The Reality of Large-Scale Extinction in the Early Stages of the Anthropocene: A Lack of Awareness and Appropriate Action”. The Journal of Population and Sustainability 4 (1):15–42. https://doi.org/10.3197/jps.2019.4.1.15.

Copyright (c) 2019 Fred Naggs

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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Abstract

The endemic biotas of oceanic islands were vulnerable and many have been lost. The more ancient, complex and dynamic biotas of continents were more resilient but are now being obliterated. Sumatra and Madagascar are large continental plate islands with very different histories and biotas that exemplify the situation on continental land masses. Both tropical islands have suffered massive habitat loss and species extinction from human population pressure, Sumatra mostly from global and Madagascar from local pressure. Snails demonstrate the complex history of faunal origins as illustrated by the relationships between Madagascan, Indian and southeast Asian snail faunas and their plate tectonic geological history. Snails also reveal our limited knowledge of the details but not the scope of extinctions through habitat loss. International agencies are failing to address the root causes of natural habitat loss and consequent extinctions, which are overpopulation and an economic system based on perpetual growth. The fallacy of sustainable development and the limitations of current conservation practice are addressed. Recognition that we cannot stop extinctions in the immediate future demands a new, supplementary approach to conservation based on advances in molecular technology.

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