This year’s World Environment Day annually celebrated on June 5 is being organized far and wide under the theme: “Connecting People to Nature”.
This global theme is very intriguing because it speaks of connecting people to nature, and people are the most precious resources of any country. People are the ones who have energy, enthusiasm, innovation and desire to build and to destroy nature.
We are part of nature and not separated from it. No matter where you live, we are all connected to nature. From the food we eat, to the water we drink, to the clothes we wear, to the house we live in, to the air we breathe, all bond us even more to the wonder, beauty and power of nature.
In order to fully understand humanity, we must first look at nature. We are social creatures and we are part of nature, not separate from it. Our society depends on nature to feed us, drive our economy, and shelter us.
Our sense of place comes from what we value and too often we allow our instincts to focus on our differences and get the best of us. Nature is also an economy. It gives and takes the flow of resources – it’s all there to be found in the economic textbook and in the canopy of a rain forest.
Going to the park, visiting a nature reserve, walking on the beach, viewing wetlands, climbing mountains and relaxing under trees are all the joy we get from nature. Even our children prove every day that they are deeply connected to nature because they really enjoy being outdoors.
Hence, the way we treat our environment matters not just to us, but to our children and posterity. Nature also provides the much-needed support to live on earth.
Consequently, nature is the lifeblood of our very existence and it shapes the course of our future.
Accordingly, it is obvious that the wellbeing of nature determines in large part the health of our own bodies and the health of our economies. In essence, nature affects your life and the lives of your families and friends, classmates, and colleagues. So, we all directly depend on nature for our existence and livelihood.
However, every single day, the very source of our survival is severely being threatened by us through various activities.
The ways we obtain energy, grow food, exploit resources and utilize nature are creating adverse effects on the environment. As we make the earth warmer and destroy nature, our lives and livelihoods are definitely going to change for the worse.
Nowadays, many homes alongside the coast in Liberia have been submerged in the vast Atlantic Ocean with wreckages scattered beneath the ocean floor. High-level intermittent rainfall is causing floods and making several homes uninhabitable. Coastal dwellers are becoming displaced and fleeing for higher ground.
Changes in weather pattern have resulted to crops withering for already aging farmers who are all too often unable to determine when to plant or to harvest certain agricultural products.
Our forest is depleting with a good number of people who use and depend on it. The imprudent practices we adopt towards our wetlands and mangroves have caused problems such as over-harvesting of natural resources and reduction in biodiversity. We risk the very ecosystems on which our survival depends.
Moreover, the degradation of animals’ habitats as well as the hunting, killing and poaching of already endangered species is responsible for the extinctions of most animals, from mammals to birds, all over the world. This is not a far-off problem.
It’s happening right here in Liberia. Every day, we keep hunting for a host of wild animals for life-sustaining with already scarce nutrition. In the populous commercial district of Red-Light, there is a section dedicated to the sale of bush meat.
Around S.D. Cooper Road and between 15th and 16th Streets along the Tubman Boulevard in flourishing Sinkor, young men and women are seen daily selling fresh bush meat and living wild animals.
The problem that confronts nature in Liberia goes beyond the Executive Mansion, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Forestry Development Authority. It is the responsibility of every citizen in every nook and cranny of this country.
With a great cause for optimism, we need to redouble our efforts through perseverance, persistence and hard work realizing that nature is actually resilient if we take care to just stop actively destroying it and take the steps that are necessary to restore nature.
The incredible power of nature to rebuild itself can only be realized if we work together collectively with a clear vision and sacrifice on the part of everyone regardless of political affiliation, religious expressed, dialect spoken, and the sound of your last name.
Together with public institutions, international non-governmental organizations and local youth-led development organization like Youth Exploring Solutions alongside many environmental movement groups across Liberia, we can muster the courage to solve the challenges facing nature through a deeply interconnected environmental movement.
We have to increase environmental education and advocacy in families, schools, religious institutions, businesses, political parties and just everywhere. We cannot afford to keep silence on the environmental tragedies around us.
We cannot allow our forest to be cut down every single day. We cannot sit in our individual corner and watch our ocean being polluted as coastal erosion swallows our people homes. And, we cannot agree for our wildlife to be hunted and killed every moment.
It is time to stop consistently and persistently trying to tear down nature. Whether you are rich or poor, we must all work together to find ways to increase nature as opposed to destroying it. We can invest in urban agriculture, aquaculture, sustainably-managed forests, ecotourism, and renewable energy to boost our economy and build a resilience environment.
We can remove trash from the environment; replant Liberia’s forest, and create bio-engineer ecosystems to be more productive and bio-diverse than would naturally occur. All of these things and more can be done to help contribute to the wellbeing of our people socially and economically.
Therefore, as Liberia celebrates World Environment Day, we need to elevate the profile of protecting nature to every sphere of government, decision making and political discussion. We the electorates need to ensure that those who are running to become the next President and representatives of the Republic of Liberia include the conservation of nature in their platforms.
Every single one of us has a chance to make a difference in this country and the real change is going to come from collective action. It is going to come from each and every one of us taking a small part of our lives and doing the small part that we can in order to make a difference in our country. Collectively, with God’s command, we will make nature flourish to ensure cleaner air, safer water, and a greener environment.
About Author:
Stephen B. Lavalah is an advocate and the Founder & Executive Director of Youth Exploring Solutions (YES), a passionate, non-profit and voluntary grassroots youth-led development organization. For more information about YES work in Liberia, please visit us here. The views expressed are the author’s own and do not represent YES