KOKIL SHAH: Development all well and good, but protect our ecosystem before it’s too late

Agriculture is the backbone of the Kenyan economy. Kenya aims to boost agriculture to achieve a sustainable breadbasket, but it has encountered multiple challenges to do with the climate.

Over the past few years, Kenya has witnessed a dramatic change in rainfall patterns, leading to water shortages and rising cost of living due to high food prices.

While the country may embark on new strategies to achieve food security and sustainable farming, the nation is simultaneously losing its wetlands and precious water towers to climate change.

Kenya’s major towns and cities are witnessing rapid development and urbanisation. No doubt urbanisation plays a key role in economic and social development, but, in equal measure, the simultaneous disappearance of green spaces in towns and cities is a catastrophic challenge to the existing environment and ecosystems.

The impacts of human activities to sustain the rising populations with new constructions of dwellings in urban areas have slowly led to the erosion and destruction of biodiversity. This has ultimately led to adverse effects of climate change, such as prolonged droughts and unforeseen erratic rains, resulting in flooding of major towns.

So what is the way forward to a solution that will help mitigate the impacts of climate change? How do we balance the challenges of rapid urbanisation while simultaneously fostering economic growth and enhancing opportunities for urban dwellers, while enhancing in equal measure climate resilience? This is a very challenging task and requires collective collaborative efforts.

Communities living in urban centres must first be sensitised on the gravity of the consequences of climate change and its impacts on the fragile ecosystem and the biodiversity of the environment. The destruction of biodiversity not only impacts the livelihoods of people in certain areas, but also impacts endangered species.

Joint collaborative efforts must be encouraged to engage all stakeholders and communities in reforestation programmes as a commitment to sustainable environmental conservation by planting more trees and conserving green spaces in towns and cities.

By encouraging environmental conservation, this helps to sustain critical water towers, which have been the lifeline of water supply to Kenya’s major rivers and provide the basic necessity to the millions of citizens. Such efforts are vital to the restoration of biodiversity before it is too late for any future prevention of the destruction of the natural environment.