Over-harvesting

Over-harvesting means taking more from the land (or sea) than it can replace. It includes extreme farming, grazing, fishing, and using fresh water.

Atlantic cod stocks were severely overexploited in the 1970s and 1980s. That led to their abrupt collapse in 1992.^[1]

Over-harvesting is harmful in the long term. Forests or wetlands are hard to replace. Damage to nature hurts animals and humans. Most wetlands are damaged by overuse as a source of drinking water, and they are sometimes drained to make farmland or land for building. A thriving and diverse ecosystem is destroyed.

Over-harvesting also applies to animals. Population numbers may drop as a result, and species may become extinct. Overfishing is a typical example. Fishing and the shooting of deer or birds are now legal at only certain times of the year. The season in which they mate, reproduce. and lay eggs or have the young are protected. Areas of special natural beauty or scientific interest are also protected. Now, in the United Kingdom, it is illegal to take bird eggs.

One thing which acts against conservation is the overpopulation of the world. The greatest single reason for the world ri lose forests is that some people want the land for other purposes. A few people gain, but everyone shares the cost. That is called the tragedy of the commons.