A mixed approach at Higher Level: The same statement as SL, with different examples: Project Tiger, humpback whales, the southern cassowary and the Iberian lynx. At HL, expect a [9] weighing habitat against species conservation.
Practise this as you read
- Explain how a flagship or keystone species justifies protecting a whole habitat.
- Judge when a species needs its own measures as well as its habitat.
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Save the species and its home: Sometimes both the habitat and particular species are protected together. A flagship species or a keystone species is used to justify protecting the whole landscape it lives in.
The points to remember
- A mixed approach protects both a habitat and particular species in it.
- It usually uses a flagship or keystone species to justify protecting intact habitats and landscapes.
- In situ measures can focus on one species, while reserves protect its whole habitat.
- Species measures raise numbers; habitat measures give them somewhere to live.
Remember it as: The species opens the wallet; the habitat keeps it alive.
Real example: Project Tiger began in India in 1973 with 9 reserves; there are now more than 50. The tiger is the reason for each reserve, but the reserve protects the whole forest. Wild tigers were estimated at about 1,400 in 2006 and about 3,700 in 2022.
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A flagship species is chosen for how people feel about it, not for its role in the ecosystem. Papers ask you to outline its role, give an advantage of using it, or pick the best one from a list of species.
The points to remember
- A flagship species is popular and charismatic: the face of a campaign.
- It has wide public appeal: attractive, cute, or closely related to humans.
- It may be a national symbol, or have cultural or spiritual value.
- It is used to raise awareness, educate and raise funds, and can draw ecotourists.
- Protecting it protects its whole habitat and the other species in it.
- Limit: money may go to popular species while less appealing ones are ignored.
Remember it as: Loved, used, protects the rest.
Picking an animal from a list
- Wide public appeal: cute, striking, or a primate like us
- Found only in that country (unique)
- Critically endangered: the most urgent
- Draws ecotourists; good for posters and soft toys
- Its habitat holds many other species
Traps
- Choosing a plant when the question asks for an animal
- 'It is endangered' with no link to support
- Describing its role in the food web (that is a keystone)
- Two reasons that say the same thing
Real example: 'Save the Whales' campaigns in the 1970s used the humpback whale's songs to win public support. In 1986 a ban on commercial whaling began, and humpback numbers in many oceans have since recovered, along with protection for their feeding grounds.
A keystone species justifies a mixed approach for a different reason: it holds the ecosystem together, so it cannot survive, or do its job, unless its habitat is protected too.
The points to remember
- A keystone species has a disproportionate effect on its community.
- Protecting it keeps the food web and the structure of the ecosystem working.
- It needs an intact habitat, so saving it means saving the habitat.
- Keystones may be unpopular (predators, 'pests'), so they are harder to fund than flagships.
- Some species are both: the tiger is a flagship and an apex predator.
Flagship
- Chosen for its appeal to people
- Wins money and support
- Protects its habitat as a result
Keystone
- Chosen for its role in the ecosystem
- Found by scientific study
- Protecting it keeps the food web working
Real example: the southern cassowary, a large flightless bird of Queensland's Wet Tropics, spreads the seeds of many rainforest trees, some of which depend on it. It is listed as endangered in Australia, so protecting it and its rainforest together keeps the forest regrowing.
Keystone or flagship?: 'It controls its prey' alone does not make a keystone: say it is integral to the food web. And 'it is popular' describes a flagship, not a keystone.
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Which approach is best depends on the case. This checklist decides it, and most answers end with a mix: reduce the threats, protect the habitat, keep a back-up population, then release and monitor.
The decision checklist
- How urgent is the risk? Very few left: add a species measure (breeding) at once.
- How much habitat is left, and in what condition? Can the threats be controlled?
- Is there space for a viable population, with enough genetic diversity?
- What will it cost, and do local people support it?
- Species measures alone fail if the habitat is lost; habitat measures alone may be too slow.
- A species raised in captivity survives only if its habitat is conserved and restored.
Back-up
- Captive breeding centres from 2005, when about 94 were left (2002).
Threats
- Tunnels under roads cut road deaths; rabbits were restocked.
Habitat
- Landowners were paid to keep the scrub; hundreds of lynx released.
Result
- About 2,000 by 2023; moved to Vulnerable in 2024.
Habitat or species first? The [9] answer: Give named examples of both, with where each fails. Conclude: it depends on the threats and how few are left, but a species raised by species methods cannot survive in the wild unless its habitat is kept.
How this comes up: Paper 2, Section B (c) [9]: discuss habitat against species conservation, with named examples and a conclusion supported by them.
A conservation charity has money for one campaign: a flagship species, or the habitat it shares with thousands of other species.
Using examples, discuss whether conservation money is better spent on a flagship species or on protecting its whole habitat.
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