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Biodiversity and human vandalism

Biodiversity is another word for all creatures, from the very minute and weak to the most visible and domineering that live on earth. These creatures…

Biodiversity is another word for all creatures, from the very minute and weak to the most visible and domineering that live on earth.

These creatures include bacteria, worms, insects, reptiles, birds and animals including humans.

These creatures constitute the environment, and are known for providing shelter, food, and security for one another in a very complex manner.

Together they balance and moderate each other’s existence on earth.

But this balancing and moderating has failed significantly.

Coexistence failed mainly for reasons of survival and differing modes of survival livelihoods.

The big creatures capture the small ones for their meals.

Big fishes eat up small ones, pythons swallow their victims, as the big cats pieces and eat other animals.

As the wilds eat, they trample and kill or destroy others including vegetation cover.

The vegetation cover such as shrubs, trees and grass are major resources to humans.

The most domineering, visible and influence of the co-tenant of earth is the human species.

The humans have combined intelligence and technology to capture, adopt and use the surface of the earth to the destruction of other tenants and self.

Farmland, construction materials, household fuel, food and medicinal materials that are sourced by man impact on the environment.

The sourcing of these resources has reached the point of rendering life on earth unliveable.

Human being, the most vicious and destructive species on earth, is the creature that sources much of these.

Human activities  destroy the environment and invariably the biodiversity as the humans pursue food production and other livelihoods.

Furthermore, construction of places of abode as homes, the production of food, and construction or production of other support infrastructure and goods, have made humans far less accommodating and tolerable of creatures that are co-tenants.

Farmland clearances and farm practices have often destroyed trees and grass species, killed birds, insects, worms, ants, reptiles and such others that have definite roles in keeping the natural balance while supporting the existence of humans on earth.

Further more, the construction of towns and cities has bitten off a good chunk of biodiversity as concretes, asphalt roads and roofs took over the natural environment.

Humans seem to say wait for me as production and consumption processes continue to inflict injuries on the natural environment so much that water bodies, earth surfaces and the atmosphere have become precariously vandalised and polluted.

It is bad enough that carbon dioxide emitted by humans has lost its tenancy on plants and grass and has turned its anger on the world in the form of global warming.

In all these, grass and plant species has vanished. Iroko, mahogany, and obeche trees have reduced in quantity and quality.

Vultures that were common sites at abattoirs have left towns and villages.

Worms, soldier ants, butterflies, and species of moth have all decreased.

This is so because human beings, the vandals in the environment and annihilators of other biodiversity are at work to meet own needs.

Farmlands, both small holder and large scale, are completely striped of natural vegetation to the extent that medicinal plants and grass have been lost.

Animals and birds have either been eaten or migrated.

The bare land has been exposed to damage and the anger of climate change manifestations in terms of flood, whirlwind and erosion that in various ways destroy livelihoods and properties is high.

Today humans are more threatened by consequences of biodiversity depletion and consequences  of climate change such as food security than can ever be imagined.

The coexistence of biodiversity on earth is naturally constructed to be interdependent and symbiotic to the extent that the destruction of the environment and the biodiversity by humans has grave consequences for living and survival of humans on earth.

As the vandalisation and annihilation continue, humans are also under pressure to either change their ways or be set to be vanquished from earth as an abode.

Today, as the world celebrates the Environment Day with a focus on Biodiversity, the human population has left us with little or nothing to celebrate.

This is no less so in Nigeria where the distinction between the mangrove forest and Sudan Savannah has become bloured.

A journey through the built and unbuilt environment in Nigeria only presents you indicators of hugely diminished and fast diminishing biodiversity.

To mediate the coexistence, preserve the environment and protect the biodiversity, institutions like the Ministry of Environment and other departments and agencies were created.

The task is to regulate and limit the annihilator.

These agencies have tall tasks.

The task of monitoring the ways humans use every inch of earth; the extraction of items of value by humans and containing human excesses; restoring the environment and cultivating the biodiversity is certainly herculean.

This is indeed a huge task for many national and international agencies that are engaged in environmental protection and conservation.

From the experience of the Socioeconomic and Environment Advocacy Centre (SEA-C) with a farming community, restoring the environment and nurturing biodiversity to make the world a liveable habitat require intensive and extensive outreach activities.

It requires the mobilisation of grassroots stakeholders through outreach programmes.

The outreach is a platform for connecting all agencies and persons, spreading ideas and techniques for humans to appreciate the environment and live peacefully with other creatures.

The attainment of a sustainable  environment where all creatures happily coexist is far from being attained.

As for the Federal and State Ministries of Environment and other agencies, the ability to attain the ideals of liveable environments where all creatures, including humans, co-habit with others and incurring minimal damage to the symbiotic relationship lies in monitoring, protection and conservation.

Effective advocacy is a veritable mediating activity.

Mohammed Bello Yunusa, Executive Director, Socioeconomic and Environment Advocacy Centre, Zaria.

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