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Mt Kenya University • EGE 412: ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION Credit Hours: 3 Pre-requisites: EGE 122 and EGE 222 George Eshiamwata Purpose An introduction to fundamentals of environmental and management Expected Learning Outcomes 1. Discuss the making implementation of environmental policies; soil, and water conservation, Forest management, River and other aquatic environmental conservation. 2. Discuss the Role of National environmental management authority (NEMA) I National Development and Planning Course Content Environmental conservation and its significance in Kenya; Policy making and implementation in environmental conservation; Soil and water conservation in different environments, Forests management, River catchments studies, Protected resources Land use conflicts; Aquatic environments (Lakes and marine); The role of environmental conservation in national development; National Environmental Management Authority Teaching / Learning Methodologies Lectures; Tutorials; Class discussion Instructional Materials and Equipment Handouts; Chalk board Course Assessment Examination - 70%; Continuous Assessments (Exercises and Tests) - 30%; Total - 100% Recommended Text Books Muchina S. J (2009); An Introduction to Environmental Management; JKF Asish Ghosh (2008); Environmental Conservation; Aph Publishing House Michael d (2005); Environmental Science: Managining Biological and Physical Resources Richard T (2002); Environmental Conservations; Person Educations Text Books for further Reading • Journals (2002); • NEMA Publications • Michael D (2009); Environmental Science: Managing Biological and Physical Resources; Prentice Hall • William P (2007); Environmental Science: A Global Concern; McGraw Hill Environment • Origin of the term: • The word derived from the French word “environ” – some what related to “encompass” “encircle” etc. It is believed to have been introduced into the subject by biologist Jacob Van Erkulin the early 1900 Environment Many definitions exist: • The sum total of all surroundings of a living organism, including natural forces and other living things, which provide conditions for development and growth as well as of danger and damage. • the air, water, minerals, organisms, and all other external factors surrounding and affecting a given organism at any time. Environment • the natural surroundings of that organism which directly or indirectly influences the growth and development of the organism. • the surroundings in which an organization operates including air, water, land and natural resources, flora, fauna,humans and their inter relations” – ISO • is the sum total of all living and non living factors that compose the surroundings of man Components of the Environment • the air, water, minerals, soil, and living organisms Components of the Environment Environment Physical environment (abiotic) Atmosphere (air) Hydrosphere (water) Lithosphere (land) Biological environment (biotic) Biosphere= Flora-producers Fauna -consumers Microbialdecomposers Cultural environment Society Economy Politics ENVIRONMENT, ECOLOGY AND ECOSYSTEM Very interrelated terms • The natural surroundings of an organism, both living and physical is its environment • Ecology is a branch of study of the interrelationships with the organism and its environment. The Earth includes a variety of living things which depend in some way on other living and nonliving things in its Environment. Ecology • Ecology is the study of the relationships between all organisms and their environment • The biosphere is the largest ecosystem of all. It consists of the thin layer of the earth's surface where all organisms live • Ecology involves collecting information about organisms and their environment, looking for patterns, and seeking to explain these patterns. It can be confidently established that Environmental Science is more or less Ecology • The ecology that takes place in a defined area is called ecosystem. Ecosystem • is a self-sustaining collection of organisms and their environment. – a dynamic system of interaction between all of the species inhabiting an area and the non-living , physical environment. • Ecosystems consist of three levels of life: –Species - the sheer variety of species on Earth –Ecosystem s - the environments where the species evolve and live Ecosystems • A community - which refers to the organisms that live in a particular place such as a forest (residents of a neighborhood) A habitat - refers to the physical location of a community (neighborhood). • Genetic diversity- all the variety of genes within a species (and ecosystem) Importance of environmental conservation • Natural environment = air, rivers, lakes, oceans, land & biological life • Three main functions: – Resource supplier e.g. extract raw materials and energy – Life-support system – Waste assimilator Importance of environmental conservation • Both the formation & maintenance of gaseous composition of the air are sustained by the living components of the biosphere (plants & micro-organisms). e.g. oxygen produced by plants • Soil fertility: is one of the essentials for the existence of mankind is fully determined by the life activities of great many living creatures of the soil (invertebrates, fungi, bacteria, algae Importance of environmental conservation • Purity & quality of water are as a result of activities of living creatures (destruction of the ever-increasing amount of pollutants and foreign or natural waste compounds are carried out by biodegrading organisms – Environment is therefore an assimilator of wastes from human activities • The diversity of living nature is an indispensable source of all our food (proteins, fats, carbohydrates), top quality materials for clothing (wool, cotton, silk, linen ) & footwear (leather), cellulose Importance of environmental conservation • The potential value of every aspect of the environment is important e.g. unique characteristics & properties which may be potentially utilized by man now or in the future • Man himself is a sort of ecosystem – each physiologically and physically connected with an immense number of species and the environment Importance of environmental conservation • The diversity of forms of living nature is vitally important & essential for the formation, development and maintenance of man’s spiritual & mental well-being • The position of man in the environment & his power over other living things demand a better recognition of being environmental stewards • Recreation & enjoyment of the beauty Functions of the natural environment & relationship with economic activities Natural Environment Environmental services (raw material & energy) Production Goods & Services (recreation, clean waters, rich wildlife) Consumption Residuals Residuals Waste Management Ecosystem services/environmental services include provisioning services, such as food and water; regulating services, such as flood and disease control; cultural services, such as spiritual, recreational and cultural benefits; and supporting services, such as nutrient cycling that maintain the conditions for life on Earth Environment &n Human well-being Human well-being is the extent to which individuals have the ability and the opportunity to live the kinds of lives they have reason to value. Environment &n Human well-being Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing, and not merely the absence of disease or illness. Good health not only includes being strong and feeling well, but also freedom from avoidable disease, a healthy physical environment, access to energy, safe water and clean air. What one can be and do include among others, the ability to keep fit, minimize health related stress, and ensure access to medical care. Material needs relate to access to ecosystem goods-and-services. The material basis for a good life includes secure and adequate livelihoods, income and assets, enough food and clean water at all times, shelter, clothing, access to energy to keep warm and cool, and access to goods. Environment &n Human well-being Security relates to personal and environmental security. It includes access to natural and other resources, and freedom from violence, crime and wars (motivated by environmental drivers), as well as security from natural and human-caused disasters. Social relations refer to positive characteristics that define interactions among individuals, such as social cohesion, reciprocity, mutual respect, good gender and family relations, and the ability to help others and provide for children. Increasing the real opportunities that people have to improve their lives requires addressing all these components. This is closely linked to environmental quality and the sustainability of ecosystem services. Environmental issues 1. Water resources Quantity and quality:Water resources are under pressure from agricultural chemicals and urban and industrial wastes, as well as from use for hydroelectric power e.g. Kenya expects a shortage of water to pose a problem in the coming years. Water-quality problems in lakes, including water hyacinth infestation in Lake Victoria, have contributed to a substantial decline in fishing output and endangered fish species. Environmental issues • Forestry Output from forestry also has declined because of resource degradation. Overexploitation over the past three decades has reduced the country’s timber resources by one-half. At present only 2% of the land remains forested, and an estimated 50km2 of forest are lost each year. This loss of forest aggravates erosion, the silting of dams and flooding, and the loss of biodiversity. • Mau forest, coastal forests etc • Forest depletion and livelihoods, quality of living, ecosystem services (flooding, erosion, global warming) Environmental issues • Wildlife There are a wide variety of wildlife species in Kenya, whose habitats are threatened by encroachment of man species that are threatened e.g. Birds, mammals, plants, fish etc Environmental issues • Erosion is the removal of solids (sediment, soil, rock and other particles) in the natural environment. It usually occurs due to transport by wind, water, or ice; by downslope creep of soil and other material under the force of gravity; or by living organisms, such as burrowing animals, in the case of bioerosion. Environmental issues • Erosion The process of chemical or physical breakdown of the minerals in the rocks, although the two processes may occur concurrently. Erosion is a noticeable intrinsic natural process but in many places it is increased by human land use. Poor land use practices include deforestation, overgrazing, unmanaged construction activity and road-building.. Environmental issues • Erosion Land that is used for the production of agricultural crops generally experiences a significant greater rate of erosion than that of land under natural vegetation. This is particularly true if tillage is used, which reduces vegetation cover on the surface of the soil and disturbs both soil structure and plant roots that would otherwise hold the soil in place. Environmental issues • Erosion: However, improved land use practices can limit erosion, using techniques such as terrace-building, conservation tillage practices, and tree planting. A certain amount of erosion is natural and, in fact, healthy for the ecosystem. For example, gravels continuously move downstream in watercourses. Environmental issues • Erosion is the removal of solids (sediment, soil, rock and other particles) in the natural environment. It usually occurs due to transport by wind, water, or ice; by down-slope creep of soil and other material under the force of gravity; or by living organisms, such as burrowing animals, in the case of bioerosion. Desertification The degradation of land in arid and dry sub-humid areas, resulting primarily from man-made activities and influenced by climatic variations. It is principally caused by overgrazing, overdrafting of groundwater and diversion of water from rivers for human consumption and industrial use, all of these processes fundamentally driven by overpopulation. A major impact of desertification is biodiversity loss and loss of productive capacity, for example, by transition from land dominated • Erosion The process of chemical or physical breakdown of the minerals in the rocks, although the two processes may occur concurrently. Erosion is a noticeable intrinsic natural process but in many places it is increased by human land use. Poor land use practices include deforestation, overgrazing, unmanaged construction activity and roadbuilding. Land that is used for the production Environmental issues • Excessive erosion, however, does cause problems, such as receiving water sedimentation, ecosystem damage and outright loss of soil Environmental issues • Desertification The degradation of land in arid and dry subhumid areas, resulting primarily from manmade activities and influenced by climatic variations. It is principally caused by overgrazing, overdrafting of groundwater and diversion of water from rivers for human consumption and industrial use, all of these processes fundamentally driven by overpopulation. Environmental issues • Desertification: A major impact of desertification is biodiversity loss and loss of productive capacity, for example, by transition from land dominated by shrublands to nonnative grasslands. In Kenya, if current trends of soil degradation continue, we will be able to feed only 25% of our population by 2025 Environmental issues • All these issues compromise the ability of the environment to offer ecosystem services: the services provided by the environment/ecosystem and ecological processes including regulation of water flows and maintenance of water quality, the formation of soil, prevention of soil erosion, and nutrient cycling that maintains soil fertility, degradation of wastes and pollution, pest and pathogen control, pollination and climate regulation through carbon storage and sequestration Environmental conservation • maintenance of the environment, maintenance of the habitat, preservation of the environs, protection of the environment • Conservation: The protection, preservation, management, or restoration of natural environments and the ecological communities that inhabit them. Conservation is generally held to include the management of human use of natural resources for current public benefit and sustainable social and economic utilization. • Environmental conservation or protection is a practice of protecting the environment, on individual, organizational or governmental level, for the benefit of the natural environment and (or) humans. Environmental conservation • Environmental protection definition includes all available practices used to protect our environment, whether on individual, organizational or global (international) level. This basically means that each and every one of us can do something to protect our environment but of course, global actions are the ones that would help our environment the most. Importance of environmental conservation • Environmental conservation not just about animals It is in fact essential to our own survival. • Importance to agriculture – Agriculture depends on the environment and we depend on agriculture. This is obvious in countries where the economies depend on agriculture but applies to all. A country’s wealth might come from something else but its population needs to eat. Conserving the environment and preventing soil erosion, desertification, and flooding is essential. Unsustainable farming techniques not only impact natural ecosystems but also ultimately make farming itself impossible. • START FROM HERE Importance of environmental conservation • Importance to fishing – While much of our food comes from agriculture, the oceans are also an essential source. Communities worldwide depend upon seafood. Marine conservation is vital to protect human food supplies as well as marine animals. Looking after the seas doesn’t just mean saving big, glamorous animals from extinction, important as this is. At the moment there are serious conservation issues affecting the oceans, including over fishing and pollution, bleaching of coral reefs. The complex, interlinked ecosystems need conserving in our own self-interest. • Importance of environmental conservation • Importance to climate – Human activities impact the climate, and this affects all life. Droughts, floods, and extremes of heat and cold, are caused by global warming, which is almost certainly linked to greenhouse gas emissions. Some countries are already experiencing disastrous effects, while others it is just, for the moment, inconvenient. There are other, more local, climate changes also caused by not treating the environment with respect. For example rainfall is affected by deforestation. Conservation of natural environments should be done not just for their own sake, but also for that of the world as a whole. • Policy • Politics: (1) The basic principles by which a government is guided. (2) The declared objectives that a government or party seeks to achieve and preserve in the interest of national community. • Management: The set of basic principles and associated guidelines, formulated and enforced by the governing body of an organization, to direct and limit its actions in pursuit of long-term goals Global Concern towards environmental conservation • Loss of environmental services and impact on economies, livelihoods, stability, species extinction – The loss of species, will lead to loss breakdown of biogeochemical process, ecosystem and ecological processes, economies, human well-being and hunger – Many insects, which play essential roles as decomposers and pollinators, are threatened: between 100k and 500k species of insects are projected to become extinct in the next 300 years, a rate that equals losing 7 to 30 species per week (Mawdsley and Stork, 1995). – Vicious circle: There is a clear cause-and-effect between poverty & environmental degradation & poverty is an habitual cause of environmental degradation & undermines people’s capacity to manage resources well & sustainably Some facts (From USAID, 2005) • Ecosystems and habitats are also threatened and are being lost at alarming levels: – More than 2/3of the area of 2 of the world’s 14 major terrestrial biomes and more than half of the area of 4 other biomes had been converted, primarily to agriculture, by 1990 (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, 2005). – 1/5 of all tropical rain forest cover was lost between 1960 and 1990, according to the World Resources Institute (WRI). – 5% of the world’s wetlands habitat has been destroyed over the past 100 years (WRI, 2003). – The world's coastal mangroves, a vital nursery ground for countless species, are also at risk; 50% have already been cleared (WRI, 2000-2001). – 20% of the world’s coral reefs were lost and an additional 20% degraded in the last several decades of the twentieth century (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, 2005). Policy making at Global levels Environmental policies in 3rd world • Not coherent and rationalized partly because: – poverty and socioeconomic needs are often seen as more pressing than the need for environmental controls • But caveat: we can not develop or alleviate poverty without the environment e.g Mau forest issues and the Sondu Miriu power, drying of Rift valley lakes, flooding in Budalangi, hunger, scramble and clan fighting because of pasture and water Why Kenya has not been effective in formulating and implementing environmental policies • lack of institutional capacity and resources to mobilize and link activities effectively within and between sectors, • specific environmental sectoral laws that do not adequately articulate the links between development, population and environmental concerns; and more often conflict with the EMCA, and • limited budgetary provisions to finance the effective implementation of environmental programs set out in national development plans. Policies • Sectoral – Agricultural – Livestock – Water – Health – Energy – Mining – Human settlement – Industry – Wildlife – Forestry – fisheries Instruments for Environmental Policy • • • • • • Environmental Impact Assessment Environmental legislation Economic instruments Environmental standards & indicators Precautionary approach/principle International collaboration Environmental legislation • EMCA 1999 • Forest Act 2005 – Strong emphasis on partnerships – Participatory forest management – cooeperative behavior among users of the resource (CFAs formed to avoid free rider/tragedy of the commons – Opened commercial plantation for lease arrangement by interested groups Environmental policy in Kenya In order to strengthen coherence within the environmental sector and addressing key environmental and development challenges facing her, Kenya is in the process of developing an environmental policy which aims to integrate environment into the wider economic context, addressing trade- offs between economic growth and poverty reduction, and environmental sustainability. The Environmental Policy will complement EMCA Vision 2030 & Environment International Collaboration • MEAs and Conventions – Which MEAs/conventions is Kenya a signatory to – How are they being domesticated