Conservation
Nirah will promote awareness and understanding of the vital role freshwater plays in our lives, and the pressing need to conserve it.
By providing a sanctuary for an unparalleled range of freshwater fish, amphibians, and reptiles, we hope to inspire a wider appreciation of the earth’s biodiversity and an understanding of what will be required to conserve it.
Using revenue generated by visitors to our site, the Nirah Conservation Trust will partner with global and local conservation organisations on a range of outreach initiatives that will make a real and lasting difference to threatened freshwater habitats around the world.
In addition, Nirah will showcase the collection and recycling of freshwater through natural filtration techniques.
Biodiversity
Freshwater ecosystems are amongst the most threatened in the world.
Amongst all the water on planet earth, only 3% is fresh. Over 99% of that freshwater, however, is locked up in icecaps and glaciers, and the tiny amount that is left over is now under increasing pressure due to an expanding population, industrial development, and global warming.
This situation has severe implications for the earth’s biodiversity. There are myriad species of fish, amphibians and reptiles that are wholly reliant upon freshwater, many of them as yet unidentified let alone understood. The potential loss to our stock of human knowledge is unimaginable.
For example, for every new or existing disease there is usually one species that has mastered it; as biodiversity is diminished, so is medical science. We will need to act soon to prevent widescale, irreversible losses of this nature.
What’s more, many scientists now believe that in all ecosystems, a few keystone species hold everything together; once these key species are destroyed, the system collapses, leading to the extinction of all the other species in it too. The problem is that in nearly all instances, no-one is sure which are the crucial species.
Around one quarter of the world’s 12,000 identified freshwater species (which account for one half of all fish species) are now classified as extinct, endangered or under threat – a higher rate than for rainforest species. Yet not one group or conservation body around the globe is currently focussing on this situation.
For all these reasons, Nirah will concentrate solely on freshwater fish, amphibian and reptile species. Research into this field is simply not being done on a scale commensurate with the need; Nirah intends to remedy this.
