A new research found that conservation of sanctuaries that protect all the species from hunting and deforestation, reservoir islands which are created by large dams across the world leads to loss of many species every year.
“We found a devastating reduction in species over time in the majority of reservoir islands we studied. On average, islands have 35 percent fewer species than nearby mainland sites. One South American bird community suffered as much as 87 percent loss of species on reservoir islands,” said lead study author Isabel Jones from the University of Stirling in Scotland.
“No matter where the dam is located, the island size, or which species are present, there is sustained loss of species, with many in existing dams still potentially facing extinction,” Jones noted.
In this research, the conservation experts observed many birds, mammals amphibians, reptiles, invertebrates and plants on 200 islands under large dams including Brazil`s Balbina reservoir and China`s Thousand island lake which covered changes in species richness.
50,000 dams globally that are including the bio-diverse regions such as Amazon basin and other dams with energy demands the researchers believe more needs are done to account the long-term loss of species on reservoir islands.
“Current practices to minimise the detrimental impacts of major hydroelectric dams include tropical forest set-asides, but this is a mirage if the remaining terrestrial biota becomes stranded in small islands — this needs to be taken into account in new infrastructure developments,” co-author of the research Carlos Peres, professor at University of East Anglia in Norwich, England, added.
“Strong environmental licensing should be put in place to assess species losses versus the amount of hydropower output to even-up the biodiversity balance sheet,” Peres said.