As the economy, population, and urban spaces were growing rapidly worldwide, there was massive encroachment of human activities in biologically sensitive locations. Which resulted in declining biodiversity in and around the world for excessive resource extraction and land-use towards catering to the ever-growing human population and its needs. In order to aim for a sustainable future, there is a requirement for nurturing biodiversity. To do so, people’s participation is vital to kickstart the efforts where policies should aim for behavioral change and eco-friendly approaches.
Convention for biodiversity has already recognized the role played by local indigenous communities living in forests in practicing eco-friendly methods to balance out resource extraction as well as giving spaces for other organisms to sustain themselves. Encouragingly, indigenous communities have been successful in doing so.
For example, in Namibia, providing legal authorization for community-based natural resource management after passing Nature Conservation Amendment Act in 1996 has helped in establishing around 82 conservancies and 32 community forests. Presently, these conservancies cover about 20% of the country’s surface area. In addition to that, some animal populations have been known to have been restored, others are recovering, along with improved living conditions for local people continue to happen.
Instead of relying on protected areas for efforts since these plans are known to be discriminatory for the local population and their lifestyle gets heavily hampered as well. In fact, including indigenous communities is a better option as they are known to possess advanced scientific understandings of species’ ranges, baselines, and trends. Where their knowledge can be helpful in contributing towards mapping, monitoring, and reporting changes in local biodiversity, including collecting evidence of resource overexploitation, invasive species expansion, pollution, and climate change's impact.
Similarly, inclusivity should be promoted while implementing conserving bio-diversity amongst rural communities. Many projects at present equate tree plantation drives as a method to promote bio-diversity. These are schemes are monotonous and do not promote bio-diversity.
Rather policies should focus on promoting the participation of local communities to engage in ecologically regenerative practices, agroforestry or Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration initiatives to replenish severely degraded soils. Alongside, local communities through local governing bodies must be empowered to plan on promoting local products to be farmed. So as to create demand for these products to ensure these practices stay on for the long-term as well as to help in serving the needs of the local population at the same time. By doing so, agricultural production, local food security, and sustainable land and water use can be enhanced at the village level. Which would translate in paving way for local as well as global welfare.
Whereas, in urban communities, natural reserves, parks, and green areas are the common practices to increase the presence of green areas in urban spaces. But innovative solutions are also vital to push for a bio-diverse atmosphere in urban space to balance out rapid urbanization in the present scenario.
Some of the innovative solutions can include- Urban gardens focused on catering to the needs of the household, and urban agriculture practices. These practices help in educating the future generation about nature’s importance and connecting with nature even helps in refreshing resident’s physical and mental health. Coupled with that, urban plans should emphasize over establishing watersheds and restrict construction on wetlands to maintain natural ecosystems. Plus, these systems also help in preventing natural risks caused by cyclones, floods, and other natural calamities. For example, in Cape Town, the city management was able to prevent a major water shortage by investing heavily on watershed using nature-based solutions that helps in restoring vegetation and degraded land.
In the end, these are some of the feasible solutions that look good to implement but the state’s role is really essential to provide the impetus in order to promote these solutions. Wherein, local participation and scientifically oriented knowledge systems are the ones that can help in conserving biodiversity in and around the world.
References:
Bhaskar , D., & Kulkarni, C. (n.d.). Creating green, sustainable livelihoods is the road to recovery post-pandemic. The News Minute. https://www.thenewsminute.com/article/creating-green-sustainable-livelihoods-road-recovery-post-pandemic-150308.
Convention on Biological Diversity. (n.d.). Global Biodiversity Outlook 5. https://www.cbd.int/gbo/gbo5/publication/gbo-5-spm-en.pdf.
Guardian News and Media. (2018, March 12). What is biodiversity and why does it matter to us? The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/mar/12/what-is-biodiversity-and-why-does-it-matter-to-us.
Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). (n.d.). The global assessment report on BIODIVERSITY AND ECOSYSTEM SERVICES. https://ipbes.net/sites/default/files/2020-02/ipbes_global_assessment_report_summary_for_policymakers_en.pdf.
Jose Graziano da Silva. (n.d.). To feed 10 billion people, we must preserve biodiversity. Here's how. World Economic Forum. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/07/biodiversity-food/.
Lin, B. B., Egerer, M. H., & Ossola, A. (2018, December 3). Urban Gardens as a Space to Engender Biophilia: Evidence and Ways Forward. Frontiers. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fbuil.2018.00079/full.
Mauricio Rodas Espinel. (n.d.). We must reimagine our cities as nexus of biodiversity, conservation and climate resilience. Here is how. World Economic Forum. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/06/cities-ecosystems-biodiversity-climate-change/.
Reyes-García, V., Fernández-Llamazares, Á., Aumeeruddy-Thomas, Y., Benyei, P., Bussmann, R. W., Diamond, S. K., García-del-Amo, D., Guadilla-Sáez, S., Hanazaki, N., Kosoy, N., Lavides, M., Luz, A. C., McElwee, P., Meretsky, V. J., Newberry, T., Molnár, Z., Ruiz-Mallén, I., Salpeteur, M., Wyndham, F. S., … Brondizio, E. S. (2021). Recognizing Indigenous peoples’ and local communities’ rights and agency in the post-2020 Biodiversity Agenda. Ambio. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-021-01561-7
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