What is it about?

Biodiversity provides ecosystem services, which are the basis for healthy ecosystems that support life. These services could either be supporting, provisioning, cultural, or regulating services, and they are crucial to sustainable development as they contribute, in one way or the other, to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Africa is a continent with rich biodiversity; it has a great number of endemic species and global natural resources; yet the continent is being threatened due to human activities including habitat loss, overexploitation of species, invasive species as well as disease, changing climate, and pollution.

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Why is it important?

Our finding shows that Africa is a rapidly urbanizing continent and it projections suggest a significant population increase by the year 2050. This will further put pressure on the region’s biodiversity and natural resources, with great implications for the poorest and most vulnerable who depend directly on these resources. There is, therefore, the need to use Africa’s biodiversity sustainably to realize the long-term benefits that the ecosystem provides and to ensure its continuous benefits to future generations.

Perspectives

The sustainable use of Africa’s biodiversity would involve putting the right institutional mechanisms (Government coordination structures, Stakeholder engagement, inputs, etc.) in place; policies governing biodiversity conservation would not only be developed but also strictly enforced. There is also a need to put the right mechanisms in place for the continuous data collection on the status of the continent’s biodiversity. This is necessary for appropriate stock-taking and to make informed decisions. There is a necessity for increased awareness about the importance of biodiversity at all levels and the bottom-up approach of community involvement in conservation should also be put in place. Finally, it is important to mainstream biodiversity across all sectors in each country

Dr. Morufu Olalekan Raimi BSc. M.Sc. Ph.D. MNES, REHO, LEHO, FAIWMES
Federal University Otuoke

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This page is a summary of: The Value of Biodiversity to Sustainable Development in Africa, January 2023, Springer Science + Business Media,
DOI: 10.1007/978-981-19-6974-4_10.
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