Adibe Emenyonu in Benin City
The Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) yesterday challenged federal and state governments to adopt the United Nations Action on Ecosystem Restoration, which seeks to heal the planet.
In a statement by its Executive Director, Dr. Godwin Ojo, ERA/FoEN said restoring the ecosystem would enhance biodiversity, clean polluted rivers and contaminated soil and improve local livelihoods of the people.
The UN had set aside June 5, every year as a day of shared global reflection and action towards protecting the environment with an emphasis that “only with healthy ecosystems, we can enhance people’s livelihoods, counteract climate change and stop the collapse of biodiversity.”
ERA/FoEN, Nigeria’s foremost non-governmental organisation promoting environmental human rights, issued the statement to mark the 2021 world environment day with a theme, “Ecosystem Restoration,” noting that investing in ecosystems “is investing in our future.”
Given this theme, the organisation observed that the 2021 World Environment Day “is incredibly significant because it called on everyone to ensure protection of the ecosystems in these uncertain times.”
Ojo, therefore, challenged governments at all levels “to put in place clear policies and regulations that would ensure the sustainability of the ecosystems in line with the UN policies on ecosystem restoration by setting achievable targets for implementation.”
Ecosystem restoration “will enhance capacity of our soils and forests to store greenhouse gases rather than the false solutions of carbon capture and storage facilities that do not cut emissions at source and pose grave danger to ecosystems.
“The crucial challenge requires a post petroleum economy through deep transformation in global production and consumption patterns,” Ojo observed in a statement highlighting the significance of restoring the ecosystem.
He, therefore, said ecosystem restoration would require concerted actions at local, national and international levels focusing on a pragmatic shift towards a sustainable decarbonized development pathway before it is too late.
He cited a study of the Intergovernmental Science -Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, indicating millions of species “are threatened with extinction due to human activities.”
As the study revealed, according to the executive director, 70% of land has been severely altered in the last five decades; 66% of ocean area experiencing cumulative impacts and more than 85% of wetlands lost.
Quoted in the statement, ERA/FoEN’s Programme Director, Mr. Mike Karikpo, explained that ecosystems “are dynamic communities of plants, animals and microorganisms interacting with the physical environment, landscapes, lakes, and oceans.”
Owing to human activities especially since the advent of the industrial revolution and a neoliberal economic ideology that prioritises profit over sustainability, Karikpo observed that ecosystems “are being degraded at astronomical rates across the world and many ecosystems may have been destroyed irreversibly.”
He, therefore, said: “Ecosystems across the world support life on earth and considering the multiple crises faced such as the climate crisis, the coronavirus pandemic, financial and economic crisis, time is of the essence to act now in order to save the planet and lives.
“The UN has set aside 2021-2030 as the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. Degraded and destroyed ecosystems already cost the global economy 10% of its annual output,” the programmer director said.
Without concerted global actions to preserve, restore and enhance the viability of our ecosystems, according to him, our capacity to make progress in critical areas such as education, health and employment will be greatly compromised.
Also, a member of Bodo Council of Chiefs and Chairman of ERA/FoEN Board of Trustees, Chief Emma Pii said the surest way to escape the looming danger “is to live in harmony with nature.”
The board chairman said the survival of human beings, the preservation of other organisms and the future of planet earth could be restored if communities were allowed to manage their resources and involved in environmental protection and conservation.Rights Group Ask Govts to Adopt UN Action on Ecosystem Restoration
Adibe Emenyonu in Benin City
The Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) yesterday challenged federal and state governments to adopt the United Nations Action on Ecosystem Restoration, which seeks to heal the planet.
In a statement by its Executive Director, Dr. Godwin Ojo, ERA/FoEN said restoring the ecosystem would enhance biodiversity, clean polluted rivers and contaminated soil and improve local livelihoods of the people.
The UN had set aside June 5, every year as a day of shared global reflection and action towards protecting the environment with an emphasis that “only with healthy ecosystems, we can enhance people’s livelihoods, counteract climate change and stop the collapse of biodiversity.”
ERA/FoEN, Nigeria’s foremost non-governmental organisation promoting environmental human rights, issued the statement to mark the 2021 world environment day with a theme, “Ecosystem Restoration,” noting that investing in ecosystems “is investing in our future.”
Given this theme, the organisation observed that the 2021 World Environment Day “is incredibly significant because it called on everyone to ensure protection of the ecosystems in these uncertain times.”
Ojo, therefore, challenged governments at all levels “to put in place clear policies and regulations that would ensure the sustainability of the ecosystems in line with the UN policies on ecosystem restoration by setting achievable targets for implementation.”
Ecosystem restoration “will enhance capacity of our soils and forests to store greenhouse gases rather than the false solutions of carbon capture and storage facilities that do not cut emissions at source and pose grave danger to ecosystems.
“The crucial challenge requires a post petroleum economy through deep transformation in global production and consumption patterns,” Ojo observed in a statement highlighting the significance of restoring the ecosystem.
He, therefore, said ecosystem restoration would require concerted actions at local, national and international levels focusing on a pragmatic shift towards a sustainable decarbonized development pathway before it is too late.
He cited a study of the Intergovernmental Science -Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, indicating millions of species “are threatened with extinction due to human activities.”
As the study revealed, according to the executive director, 70% of land has been severely altered in the last five decades; 66% of ocean area experiencing cumulative impacts and more than 85% of wetlands lost.
Quoted in the statement, ERA/FoEN’s Programme Director, Mr. Mike Karikpo, explained that ecosystems “are dynamic communities of plants, animals and microorganisms interacting with the physical environment, landscapes, lakes, and oceans.”
Owing to human activities especially since the advent of the industrial revolution and a neoliberal economic ideology that prioritises profit over sustainability, Karikpo observed that ecosystems “are being degraded at astronomical rates across the world and many ecosystems may have been destroyed irreversibly.”
He, therefore, said: “Ecosystems across the world support life on earth and considering the multiple crises faced such as the climate crisis, the coronavirus pandemic, financial and economic crisis, time is of the essence to act now in order to save the planet and lives.
“The UN has set aside 2021-2030 as the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. Degraded and destroyed ecosystems already cost the global economy 10% of its annual output,” the programmer director said.
Without concerted global actions to preserve, restore and enhance the viability of our ecosystems, according to him, our capacity to make progress in critical areas such as education, health and employment will be greatly compromised.
Also, a member of Bodo Council of Chiefs and Chairman of ERA/FoEN Board of Trustees, Chief Emma Pii said the surest way to escape the looming danger “is to live in harmony with nature.”
The board chairman said the survival of human beings, the preservation of other organisms and the future of planet earth could be restored if communities were allowed to manage their resources and involved in environmental protection and conservation.
