To What Extent Do Africans Value Biodiversity?
In terms of ecosystems and species, Africa has a lot of biodiversity. However, multiple concerns to biodiversity protection exist throughout Africa. Poverty, pollution, sickness, and policy failures are only a few significant issues that need to be addressed. Many attempts have been made to conserve biodiversity on the continent, both by worldwide groups and African countries. However, if the necessary activities are not taken with devotion, biodiversity loss will continue to be a major issue.
“Biological diversity” refers to the variation among living organisms from all sources, including terrestrial, marine, and other aquatic habitats, as well as the ecological complexes to which they belong. It comprises diversity within species, across species, and within ecosystems. Conservation is the process of safeguarding, managing, and utilizing biodiversity resources to fulfill long-term economic, social, cultural, and environmental goals.
As a result, conservation is not a strategy for separating biodiversity from humans. On the other hand, conservation refers to preserving biodiversity so that humans can continue to benefit from it.
Human activities are causing biodiversity loss and decline, and these activities are jeopardizing human well-being. Uncontrolled land cover change, i.e., habitat loss and over-exploitation, has been the leading source of biodiversity loss to date, but given Africa’s exceptional vulnerability to climate change impacts, climate change is projected to become the dominating driver of change in the future. The expected doubling of Africa’s population by 2050, along with rising urbanization, would put a considerable strain on the continent’s biodiversity and natural contributions to people.
Africa has a rich diversity of habitats due to its harsh climatic and physical conditions. Ecosystems, which range from deserts to moist tropical forests, have a diverse range of organisms. Savannahs make up the majority of African ecosystems.
They are the richest grasslands on the planet and the home to more large mammals than any other environment. Elephants, rhinoceroses, hippopotamuses, lions, leopards, buffaloes, wildebeests, zebras, countless antelopes, gazelles, giraffes, baboons, mountain gorillas, chimps, lemurs, hyenas, and African wild dogs are just a few of the animals that live in the savannah and tropical rainforest regions.
The African coastline is large, with a diverse range of habitats ranging from stunning coral reefs off Egypt’s Red Sea coast to mangrove forests and seagrass beds elsewhere. Fish species diversity is considerable, with over 4000 species identified. Tuna, marlin, and billfish are all-important fish species. Sea turtles and dugongs are two other prominent marine species in African waters.
Africa’s biological resources are diverse and rich, contributing to the continent’s development and global well-being. Approximately 64% of Africans continue to rely on traditional energy sources derived from African trees.
Forests and woodlands are essential for cultural, spiritual, and religious reasons, in addition to tangible benefits. In Tanzania, for example, the Zigua ethnic community protects 748 woodlands that they use for burial sites, ceremonies, worship, traditional activities, and training.
Commercial exploitation of African forests and woodlands is a significant source of income, foreign exchange, and employment at the national level. South Africa’s wood product exports, for example, totaled $837 million in 1998. Forests yield a diverse range of non-timber forest products, including oils, gum, latex, resins, tannins, steroids, waxes, edible oils, and rattan, in addition to timber.
The loss of biodiversity and the benefits of nature to humans is a serious threat. Food, water, energy, and health security are all in jeopardy, posing a threat to livelihoods. Climate-related threats, land degradation and desertification, loss of migratory species’ habitats, and biodiversity loss are exacerbated by biodiversity loss drivers.
These loss drivers reduce soil fertility and productivity, as well as tourism potential. Various natural and anthropogenic causes directly or indirectly threaten an increasing number of mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles, fish, and plants.
Climate change, which manifests itself as a rise in temperature, a rise in sea level, and changes in rainfall pattern, distribution, and quantity, aggravates all of the other direct drivers of biodiversity loss. Natural disasters, such as droughts, floods, hurricanes, and earthquakes, are becoming more common, adding to the pressures and threats faced by various species. Africa is also growing rapidly, with an average GDP growth rate of 4 to 5% and increasing investments in infrastructure development, such as telecommunications, energy, transportation, resource extraction, and large-scale agro-industrial sectors. Such developments could endanger biodiversity and the contributions it makes to society.
We Can Make the Future Happen Together
Multi-stakeholder and multilevel adaptive governance and improved integration of indigenous and local knowledge through recognition of traditional institutions can help Africa achieve its development goals while also improving the conservation of its valuable natural assets and meeting its biodiversity commitments.
Governance solutions that leverage synergies and generate numerous benefits, aided by an enabling environment, can help Africa balance access to and allocation of ecosystem services. Policy coherence could also help to reduce poverty and strengthen the resilience of linked social-ecological systems.
Establishing and utilizing existing entry points in spatial planning, land use management, and integrated development planning, as well as mechanisms that draw on various policy instruments, can assist in leveraging synergy and improving policy implementation at the regional and national levels.
As outlined in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and Agenda 2063, Africa’s radical transformation to sustainability will depend on investments aimed at multi-stakeholder, multilevel adaptive governance.
We can achieve a more socially just approach to accessing ecosystem services and biodiversity by promoting policy coherence with adequate resources and capacity, and encouraging adaptive governance approaches that bring together different perspectives. This will help to ensure that costs and benefits are distributed more evenly.
Author: Yetunde Oyelami
Photo: Phys.org
