On 5th June the world celebrated the Environment Day with the theme “Celebrate Biodiversity”. The celebration made a loud cry: “With one million species facing extinction, there has never been a more important time to focus on biodiversity.” Unfortunately, the celebration was overshadowed by the Coronavirus epidemic and it passed by without making much impact. In any case the theme invited us to protect biodiversity as an urgent action. Though we might have heard about biodiversity, probably we may not know its actual meaning and importance in our life and on the environment.
Biodiversity is a term which describes every living organism within a single ecosystem or habitat, including numbers and diversity of species and all environmental aspects such as temperature, oxygen and carbon dioxide levels and climate. Biodiversity can be measured globally or in smaller settings, such as ponds and a forest unit. Biodiversity is the variability among living organisms from all sources, including terrestrial, marine, and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part; this includes diversity within species, between species, and of ecosystems.
For example, our treasured Mabira forest (which our irresponsible leaders have almost destroyed) in our neighbourhood is a good example of biodiversity. The forest has (or had) hundreds of plant species and other living organisms such as beetles, tiny insects, etc. Biodiversity forms the foundation of the vast array of ecosystem services that critically contribute to human well-being. Biodiversity is important in human-managed as well as natural ecosystems. Decisions humans make that influence biodiversity affect the well-being of themselves and others.
We share biodiversity in all the places where we make our habitat. Biodiversity is essentially everywhere, abundant on Earth’s surface and in every drop of its bodies of water. Certainly Uganda, truly the Pearl of Africa is blessed with rich biodiversity, that oftentimes we fail to appreciate and protect. We even fail to notice them because most of these organisms are smaller than five centimeters; their presence is scarce, short-lived, or puzzling, or, in the case of microbes, they are invisible to the unaided human eye.
On the surface of the earth or on the ocean floor, biodiversity increases soil formation, nutrient storage, energy storage, recycling, and the breaking down of toxins and pollutants. Rich biodiversity will speed the recovery of the environment after a natural disaster. Just days after a savannah fire, new plant life springs up from those species which allow their seeds to be blown by the wind, or from those whose seeds can withstand high temperatures.
Biodiversity influences climate at local, regional, and global scales, thus changes in land use and land cover that affect biodiversity can affect climate. The important components of biodiversity include plant functional diversity and the type and distribution of habitats across landscapes. By disturbing the biodiversity, we disturb the climate; and the changed climate in turn further affects the biodiversity. At the end humans stand to lose.
The maintenance of natural pest control services, which benefits food security, rural household incomes, and national incomes of many countries, is strongly dependent on biodiversity. Scientists are already speculating that the appearance and the continued presence of Corona Virus could be the result of the destruction of biodiversity. Maybe we can conclude that a “foreign” or an unfriendly virus has come to exist that harms the life of human beings, until we find a way to deal with it through vaccination—a kind of artificial defense mechanism. Hence, they are vital for human survival and human well-being. Destroying biodiversity is destroying our own very life—for us and for our future generations.
Different sections of people including little children and youth have become passionate about protecting the environment. But most often the responsible people such as political and civil leaders do lip-service in protecting the environment, they remain perpetrators of environmental destruction.
Pope Francis is a passionate environmental activist. On World Environment Day, he wrote, “Building a healthier, better world depends on everyone…We cannot remain silent before the outcry when we realize the very high costs of the destruction and exploitation of the ecosystem. This is not a time to continue looking the other way, indifferent to the signs that our planet is being plundered and violated by greed for profit, very often in the name of progress,” and he continued, “We have the chance to reverse course, to commit ourselves to a better, healthier world and to pass it on to future generations. Everything depends on us, if we really want it,” he added.
The protection of the environment and respect for the biodiversity of the planet are issues that affect us all. We cannot pretend to be healthy in a world that is sick.” When it comes to the question of protecting and caring for this planet which is our common home, we all have been pretenders, who often offer lip-service more than anything else. We pretend to care for the earth while in actual terms we destroy it. We make beautiful policies and guidelines and we quickly break them to fuel our selfishness and appetite for possessing more of everything.
Sooner than letter we need to act collectively and individually to protect and preserve biodiversity. We can do it collectively by making stricter legislation, finding ways and means to preserve the biodiversity and habitat within our locality and neighbourhood, do captive breeding and create seed banks, invest in research and education. But more so on personal terms we take care to consume less material things, purchase sustainable products, recycle and reuse objects and products and create a passion for the earth which is our common home.
Fr. Lazar Arasu SDB is a Catholicr Priest and School Administrator.
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