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

Overharvesting, also called overexploitation, refers to harvesting something, such as wild medicinal plants, in an excessive or unsustainable manner to a harmful degree. All living organisms require resources to survive, and if we continue to overharvest these resources for extended periods of time it can have irreversible impacts like the destruction or depletion of the resource, as well as the extinction at the population level and even extinction of whole species. Therefore, not only is the resource harvested being threatened, but so are the other species that rely on that resource, and humans can be directly impacted as well.

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 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. Nowadays, you can only fish, shoot deer or birds at certain times of the year. The season when they mate, reproduce and lay eggs or have the young are protected. Areas of especial 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 why the world loses forests is that some people want the land for other purposes. A few people gain, but everyone shares the cost. This is called the tragedy of the commons.

Don’t worry! There’s plenty of fish in the sea… Have you ever come across this phrase? Because you should definitely worry, and here’s why.

Overfishing occurs when more fish are caught than the population can replace through natural reproduction. It is a profitable practice, but it has serious consequences if it isn’t practiced sustainably. It not only affects the balance of life in the oceans, but also the social and economic well-being of the coastal communities who depend on fish to live.

In the Arabian Gulf, before oil was discovered, fishing and pearl diving were vital economic activities to the people and communities and were key components of the UAE’s heritage. But the overharvesting of natural pearl beds led to its decline. Additionally, although fishing is still a major industry, some of the UAE’s most popular fish, like the hammour, shaari and kanaad are about to vanish from the sea! Extensive overfishing has led some populations to become critically endangered and the mentioned species have been overexploited up to FIVE times the sustainable limit (Gulf News, 2016)!