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NAME: Ahmad Sulaiman Fanty

INSTITUTION: Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi State.

FACULTY/DEPT.: Science/Biochemistry

STATE/LGA: Bauchi State/Alkaleri

GENDER: Male

PHONE: 08176703375
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BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION & NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Potentials & Challenges

It is no news that the agricultural sector is one of the leading major economic factors of many
countries around the world. Countries like Nigeria are even hell-bent on resuscitating it’s lost
agricultural economic factor. Biodiversity, which is the basis of agriculture, however, plays
an even more important role in the economic sector and national flourishment or
development. Biodiversity is the variety and variability of life on Earth.

Biodiversity conservation basically deals with improving, protecting and scientifically

managing biodiversity. Some of the major ultimate aims of biodiversity conservation include
the preservation of variety of species, sustainably exploiting ecosystems and species,
conservation of pivotal ecological procedures and life support systems.

Economically speaking, biodiversity conservation is indispensable and vital for economic

growth and reduction of poverty in a country not to mention that some reports concluded that
around 1.6 billion people around the world depend on forests and ‘non-timber’ products for
their income and sustenance of life. Other reports also reported that some 2.6 billion people
in the developing world solely, rely on ‘fisheries’ for nutritional importance and subsistence.
The best-selling food commodity internationally is seafood. The exportation of fish and
shellfish from developing countries surpassed the value of meat, rice, tea, tobacco, coffee,
rubber, and cocoa combined in accordance with a report in 2008.

An instance of an economic importance aiding to national development with biodiversity

conservation is that of a country in Southern Africa distinguished by the Namib Desert along
its Atlantic Ocean coast, a country by the name, Namibia, where it was reported that 70% of
the population resides in the rural or remote areas of the country and relies on natural
resources for subsistence. After the partnership of USAID with the World Wildlife Fund on
the Living in a Finite Environment project – a nationwide community-based program to
manage natural resources, the project implemented community conservancies with
conditional use of rights over wildlife and other natural resources which includes the right to
profit from sustainably making use of the resources. Active communities enjoyed a rise in
their collective income from $165,000 to a whopping $5,700,000 in just 10 years, with a net
return of nearly $34,000,000 to the Namibian economy resulting from conservancies and
tourism.
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Another notable instance is that of the USAID’s Fisheries Improved for Sustainable Harvest
project in the Philippines, which substantiated that that well supervision and management of
fisheries locally governed by stiff administrations can ‘reverse fish catch decline’ and elevate
productivity. Apart from the restoration of fish stocks and quantitively increasing food for
numerous coastal families, the project also increased their incomes. According to one report,
in the span of 4 years only, the total harvest increased 76%, fish value increased 73% with
‘catch per fisher’ increasing to 6.06 from 2.6kg daily. It was assessed recently that during that
time, fish stocks increased to nearly 20%.

Many other factors demonstrate the importance of biodiversity towards national

development, some of which includes the dependence of food security on natural resources
which forms the basis of food production, helping in addressing change of climate for
example, conserving habitats can decrease the amount of the waste product, carbon dioxide,
that is released into the atmosphere.

However, there’s always two sides to every story and that includes the case with biodiversity
conservation too, as it is challenged from different sources. One of the major threats to
biodiversity today is poverty, especially in countries like Nigeria, where the poor constitute
one third of the population. Poverty poses a critical threat to biodiversity as the poor, living in
the rural areas along the forests, are left with no choice but to make use of the natural
resources around them, giving it up to make a living. This is a very conspicuous challenge to
biodiversity as unfortunately, the government are not making quite the necessary efforts to
alleviate the country’s longtime poor financial condition.

The government are not just guilty of neglecting the poor condition of the nation as the
Ecological Fund constituting 2% of the Federal annual budget, is allocated to state
governments by the federal government through their respective governors, whom in most
cases divert the funds for other uses. So, to conclude this point, the absence of political
diligence and poorly managed funding of the forestry subsector institute the major threats
combating against sustainable management of forest resources in the nation.

Another problem to biodiversity as of today is the issue of climate change and the effect it
exhibits on biodiversity. It was reported a while back that it was estimated in a suggestion
that in the absence of adaptation, there might a loss of between 2% - 11% of Nigeria's GDP in
the year 2020, resulting from climate change, with a possible rise of between 6% - 30% by
the year 2050. Climate change is expected to have an impact that will worsen the
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consequences of human insistence on biodiversity which will inarguably lessen the ability of
natural ecosystems to keep on rendering ecosystem services and may cause intrusion of odd
species preferred and favored by the change in climate.

Biodiversity also faces challenges through urbanization, and high population growth. Nigeria
is the most populous country in Africa hence deriving the sobriquet, Giant of Africa. As
people grow larger, towns get bigger, and new villages get established. This also calls for
infrastructures to be made which requires deforestation. Roads, buildings and factories cost
forestry a great deal. Factories on the other hand, also contributes negatively to biodiversity
due to the toxic chemicals that they give out. Distribution, consumption and production
structures is seen have had a significant influence on biodiversity loss in Nigeria which are all
socio-economic factors that arbitrate between population and decrease in Nigeria's natural
resources.

Biodiversity conservation has its own benefits as well as challenges. The above points were
some of the potentials and challenges that it faces and even though many organizations have
been formed around the world to help fight against those challenges, we do not know when it
will all be over and finally be able to coexist with mother nature, but what we do know is that
it's definitely far from soon.