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Are you a threat or an opportunity for biodiversity?

15Dec

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

African News, Energy, Events, Rwanda News

Are you a threat or an opportunity for biodiversity?

By Josephine Wawira Kigali, a city that rhythms with African charm, prides itself on biodiversity so well maintained, sprawling over green valleys and ridges, the capital of the land of a thousand hills, Rwanda. I am here for the annual World Circular Economy Forum (WCEF), and like millions of other people who have visited Kigali, I am in awe of the progressiveness of an African people who have chosen to rise from dust to glory. The streets are clean and flowers blossom along the roads; safe for your morning jog or an evening bicycle ride with provisions for both pedestrian and cycling lanes. On multiple corners sustainable buildings are coming up; some are already in existence. A city on the move towards the right direction. A direction of peaceful co-existence, a spirited art scene, an...

Messing with nature is risky business!

For a long time now, economy and the conservation of biodiversity seemed to be two different worlds. Not many CEOs or financial managers were able to explain how their company’s impact contributed to the loss of species, deforestation or the acidification of oceans. But times have changed. Today, trailblazing entrepreneurs understand that they don’t have to be biologists to recognize the correlation between nature and the economy. In simple terms; on a dead planet, there would be no thriving business. Biodiversity is on the verge of collapse The more we know about nature, the clearer it dawns to us that messing with nature is risky business. Take these instances: We cut down trees to make wood products for sale. In turn, deforestation destroys our essential ecosystem services; and we...

Biotechnology and biodiversity in Africa

Though biotechnology is most often seen as a tool to meet Africa’s food needs, it could also play a role in protecting the continent’s unique biodiversity. Ugandan environmental activist, geneticist and conservation biologist Clet Wandui asserts that biotechnology has in fact helped to preserve and protect Africa’s biodiversity, a term that refers to the number of different species that are present in a given location, along with the numbers of individuals in each species and genetic variability within the species. “Actually, biotechnology has come to save biodiversity,” Wandui told this writer. “If you look scientifically at the drivers of biodiversity loss, there is nowhere biotechnology comes in.” He says that, broadly, biotechnology has been instrumental in increasing yields, reduci...