Source: Triumph
This year, 2010 has been set aside as the International Year of Biodiversity. 11-1-2010 witnesses the official launch in Berlin, Germany. It throws up opportunities to increase the tempo of activities towards finding real solutions in protecting the natural environment which forms the bedrock of human existence. This year had been the target set for actualizing a significant reduction in the loss of biodiversity - diversity of life on earth as represented in plant and animal species. The current state of affairs with regard to the global environment has made a mockery of this target. Climate change with its plural environmental consequences seems to have been recognized as the most serious environmental challenge facing humanity today. The World Conservation Union, also known as IUCN, posits that the world is facing a global extinction crisis with potentially devastating effects on the natural environment and vulnerable communities. The body, therefore calls for a stronger Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) to safeguard life on earth in all its forms.
With the stark environmental urgency starring the world in the face, there really should be little room for rhetoric. What is required are concrete actions anchored on realistic and realizable programmes driven by transparency and sincerity of purpose. Conservation without action/funding is tantamount to conversation, so it has been said severally. The maxim guiding serious environmentalism has been; ‘thinking globally and acting locally’. In other words, while appreciating the global import of environmental issues, it behoves all of us to take positive environmental actions in our various localities. Recently world leaders gathered in Copenhagen, Denmark to find ways around the menace of climate change. That was the 15th Conference of the Parties, the United Nations Climate Change Conference. They had come from various corners of the globe brandishing selfish agenda that in themselves appeared more menacing than the climate change in question. They formed impedimenta to the realization of the unity and cohesiveness required to tackle the global environmental challenge.
Humanity forms part and parcel of the global environment. Any attempt at isolating humanity in the global environmental calculations spells nothing but disaster. This brings us to the subject of human ecology. Human ecology is an interdisciplinary applied field that uses a holistic approach to help people solve problems and enhance human potential within their near environments - their clothing, family, home and community. Human ecology explores not only the influence of humans on their environment but also the influence of the environment on human behaviour, and their adaptive strategies as they come to understand those influences better. It is a way of thinking about the world, and a context in which we define our questions and ways to answer those questions.
It should be noted that poverty is the greatest threat to the environment, while environmental degradation occasions and exacerbates poverty more that anything else. A vicious circle, one may say. Humanity have survived for millennia mainly profiting from their interaction with their natural environment. Environmental conservation, therefore should be aimed at moderating this interaction through education, economic empowerment and prevention. That’s the only way man and nature can strike a harmonious coexistence and guarantee sustainable development.
International Year of Biodiversity should be viewed within the context of the current global socio-economic and political dynamics. The age long global trade imbalance has persisted and has even assumed acute proportion with even government-assisted mass plundering of resources of underdeveloped and disadvantaged nations. It will be interesting to know whether there is a difference between the local people of the Niger Delta and the devastated biodiversity of the region. How much have the government and the oil majors set aside this year for the regeneration of the degraded environment which includes biodiversity? It will also be enlightening to know how the Boki and Ejagham rural communities in Cross River State have benefited from the much touted tourism development in the state. Ditto the Masai mara and the Samburu in Kenya, the Korup of Cameroon and the Baniwa and Kuripako of the Amazon Rainforest etc. Or the local communities of Senegal, Mauritania and The Gambia whose aquatic resources are being plundered by major industrial fishing concerns of Europe. The centrality of the human factor in all these issues is indubitable.
It is an established scientific fact that rainforests act as carbon sink to mitigate the scorching effect of global warming. In this era when carbon credit as an issue is already assuming the front burner in international discourse, corners of the globe with tremendous biodiversity deserve special treatment. Global conservation programmes aimed at biodiversity conservation must integrate education and economic empowerment of the locals or what is known in conservation circles as Support Zone Communities. Governments of countries with areas of high conservation importance must endeavour to understand the international conservation arguments and evolve people-oriented conservation programmes that will place the country in good stead to profit from their natural resources while at the same time conserving them.
There has been an evident failure of conservation efforts in Nigeria since the last quarter of the last century. This is attributable largely to the disconnect between the people and conservation initiatives. While conservation programmes were being reeled out with pro-conservation legislations in tow, Nigeria, during the same period lost more that four million hectares of forest cover and the trend has continued at the rate of more than 3.5 percent annually. This implies a colossal loss of biodiversity. Currently, almost 500 plant species are threatened with extinction in Nigeria.
It has been said severally that there is need to evolve more environmentally and socially equitable approaches to biodiversity conservation in Nigeria. Wanton destruction of forest resources should be checked. Bush burning and illegal logging should be discouraged while appropriate values are placed on forest resources and regenerative measures put in place.
There is need for us to profit from the tremendous biodiversity with which we are blessed as a nation for the development of people-oriented ecotourism and scientific research for the benefit of mankind. Nigeria’s remaining rainforest harbour about 4000 different plant species including those that have been found to be effective in the development of alternative medicine. There are also animals that are endemic to Nigeria – in other words, can only be found in Nigeria and nowhere else. These include the White throated monkey (Cercopithecus erythrogaster pococki), the Niger Delta Pigmy Hypo, the Niger Delta red colobus monkey, the Ibadan Malimbe, the Anambra waxbill and the Jos indigo bird. These resources should at once be protected and harnessed for national development. In other words, we should be able to fashion a sustainable development strategy that ensures the prosperity of humans while living in harmony with the natural environment.
“Well managed natural resources are crucial to sustainable development, supporting peaceful communities, encouraging well-balanced economic growth and helping reduce poverty” says Julia Marton-Lefevre, Director General of IUCN. “Protecting biodiversity protects valuable assets that are vital to the global economy”
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