Importance of Maintaining Ecosystem

Importance of Maintaining Ecosystem (Different Habitats) in Tea Garden
Tea gardens are natural sources of immense biodiversity on this earth. However, due to the increasing demand of quality tea, more forestlands are being encroached quite rapidly. This leads to the immense loss of the natural green cover resulting in the loss of the natural habitats of several wild animals. Therefore, it becomes the need of the hour to maintain biodiversity or multiple habitats in the tea gardens.

Biodiversity is referred to the diversity of flora and fauna across different scales of life. biodiversity encompasses the diversity of the different types of landscapes in a particular area, the diversity of the different species present in the ecosystem, and the diversity of the individuals within a particular species.

When it comes to maintaining diversity in the tea gardens, it is used to imply to the presence of different plants including grasses, bushes, shrubs and trees. In addition to the different kinds of plants, the presence of the different families of animals that would form the large web of food chain including the herbivores as well as the carnivores insects, spiders, birds, worms, and even some mammals. From each of the families of flora and fauna, the tea planters can include a variety of diversity including the insects that could be colorful, or might use stealth to blend in the garden. The insects could even climb on trees or crawl on the ground. The different morphology of the insects would offer them varied abilities. This would make them successful in fulfilling a specific function in the ecosystem of the tea plantations. The genetic diversity of the tea bushes also tends to have a great impact on the fuller capacities and output of the tea gardens.

What are the Benefits of Maintaining Biodiversity in the Tea Gardens?
The presence of biodiversity imparts proper resilience to the ecosystem in the tea plantations. This implies that the environment is highly efficient in handling the changes in the biodiversity and then going back to its original state. In the tea plantations, the rows of hedgerows are planted. The hedgerows serve the role of a perfect fence against floods. The deep roots of the hedgerows are used for stabilizing the soil and also helps in the prevention of landslides alongside the slopes of the tea gardens. In addition to this, the hedgerows also abound in a variety of insects species that offer greater capabilities to the tea garden for adapting to the threat of the invasive species.

The resilience offered by the biodiversity is highly crucial to maintaining sustainability and proper balance in the tea gardens or any form of agriculture. Several fields and tea gardens are devastated by floods, landslides, heavy rainstorms, frosts, winds and several other natural factors in the absence of proper biodiversity.

The loss of a wheat harvest could be a high loss to several farmers. However, at the same time, the loss of the lush green tea garden cover after being ravaged by the frosts, hailstorms or fungi could be equally detrimental to the years of care and efforts of the tea gardeners. Therefore, it is important to bring about resilience in the tea gardens by the introduction of diverse biodiversity in the tea gardens. The economic security of the tea farmers and gardeners start by bringing proper resilience to the tea gardens and plantations.

As a result of the increased resilience in the tea gardens, the properly managed tea garden does not have the need to be dependent on any form of fungicides or insecticides. The flora and fauna in the balanced and sustainable tea gardens offer the natural protection to the delicate tea plantations. This protection is sufficient in limiting the possible damages caused by the pests and insects to certain acceptable levels. Moreover, all of these techniques are highly ecological and totally free.

Importance of Maintaining Biodiversity in the Tea Plantations and Gardens
In a typical healthy soil, some forms of bacteria are capable of capturing nitrogen from the atmosphere. These bacteria then make use of the atmospheric nitrogen to convert the same into a form of nitrogen that can be utilized by the plants. This form of nitrogen supplied to the plants by the bacteria is vital to the proper growth and nutrition of the plants. Nitrogen is an essential nutrient needed by the plants. Nitrogen is one of the three important elements that are found in the fertilizers that are supplied to the plants for their accelerated growth.

A soil that is fit for life can promote the growth of these friendly bacteria and thus ensure a continuous supply of natural nitrogen to the plants. This is achieved only when the soil is rich with flora and fauna of all sorts. The nitrogen fixing bacteria are hosted on the leguminous plants. This is the reason why these plants require much fewer amounts of nitrogen to grow properly. Therefore, these leguminous plants can be planted in rows adjacent to the tea plants in the tea gardens. The plantation of the leguminous plants is super easy as these can be grown in the vacant spaces, cut or even buried near to the tea plants to welcome the friendly bacteria. This will enrich the natural essential nitrogen into the soil and would provide the much needed nourishment to the tea plants. All of this can be carried out all for free.

The tea gardens with an abundance of biodiversity also have a better chance of offering high-quality tea than the methods of conventional plantations. In several regions across the world, the tea leaves from the natural tea gardens tend to be expensive than the conventional tea plantation. Even the aroma of the tea leaves grown in an environment of rich biodiversity tend to have an intense aroma and the feel of the tea in the mouth is richer.

At Dong Son, we aim to promote the methods of including biodiversity in the tea plantations among the tea farmers. At DOng Son, all the tea plantations come from the highly biodiverse ecosystems and with no use of the harmful pesticides on them. The biodiverse ecosystem is achieved with the help of the plantation of some common trees and plantations like camphor, albizzia, cassias, alder and so more that are native to the particular region. In addition to the provision of benefits to the tea plantations, these trees also support the nearby tea farmers who thrive on the firewood provided by these trees. The trees are ample storehouse of immense natural resources that are of great use to the local communities.

The technique of implanting the mixed plantations in the tea gardens has proved to improve the overall ecology of the surroundings. This technique of maintaining biodiversity has contributed greatly to helping the local communities in multifold ways. These plantations help in the effective conservation of water and also decrease the substantial amount of soil erosion. These also prevent the tea gardens from frequent floods, landslides, rainstorms, strong winds and hailstorms.

In addition to the saving of the tea gardens in the local areas, the tea forests with an abundance of flora and fauna have also become potential means of extra income for the local tea farmers. In all manners, the maintenance of proper biodiversity in the tea plantations proves to be greatly beneficial.