CONSERVATION

Conservation means preservation and protection of our marvellous earth but which we may lose 'tomorrow' unless more people take an interest in them.

The problem of conservation in the world has arisen because people are using the world's natural resources in greater quantity and variety than at any time before. As the world's population grows, and as more people live at a higher standard, there is a greater demand for resources, but these resources must be "conserved" so there will be enough for the future.

The MTVCA aim is to preserve wildlife and habitats as well as the use of all natural resources in their small corner of the world.

There are 3 basic types of resource:

• 1. Renewable resources.
  Farmland, forests, water and grazing land, even while they are being used, can be improved and renewed through good farming practices. This would include protection from erosion, irrigation, and fertilization.
• 2. Non-renewable resources.
  These are used up once they are taken from the earth. These include coal, natural gas and oil and someday the planet will have exceeded the supply.
• 3. Natural resources
  For example, climate, solar and wind energy and oceans cannot be increased, decreased, or damaged by man. But man CAN destroy the beauty of all of these things and cause damage to the creatures, which inhabit the oceans and shorelines.

Drawbacks to conservation

Bad Farming methods

• Use of chemicals on the land
• Effects of felling trees and uprooting hedges

"Recreation"

• Killing animals and plants (e.g. plant collection, over fishing, over hunting, egg collecting, insect collecting).
• Blood sports (e.g. fox hunting, badger baiting, hare coursing, wildfowling, game bird shooting).
• Accidental killing of plants and animals (e.g. careless fire lighters and campers, flower pickers, litter spreading etc.).

Industrialisation

• Building houses, factories, towns, cities and roads.
• Disposing of the by-products of industry such as slag heaps, waste heaps, air and water pollution, dangerous chemicals and nuclear waste.
• Using renewable materials (e.g. trees for making paper, crops, animals for food etc.).
• Using non-renewable resources (e.g. minerals, coal and oil).

How can we help conservation?

• By making laws
• Giving protection to animals, plant species and habitat.
• By finding alternative Energy
• Finding alternative resources to replace coal and oil etc.
• By restoration
• Restoring the countryside from being used as waste tips.
• By preservation
• By having nature Reserves and Zoos preserve rare animal species.
• By recycling materials
• Reprocessing unwanted products e.g. newspapers, scrap metals, glass and sewage etc. Many local Councils have organised schemes to help do this.
• By education
• Making more people aware of the need to protect and preserve the environment through whatever means available.

The work of MTVCA is concerned with all of the above to help protect the wildlife and wild lands and to help and work alongside any person or group who have the same goals.