Teeming Biodiversity of an African City Park

 During COVID- 19 People have been confined to their homes in different countries due to lockdowns. This creates tension and emotional pain in some people. Green spaces in and around cities are beneficial to people’s mental health, according to a study.

Banco National Park, in the midst of Abidjan, the capital of Côte d’Ivoire, is one such oasis. The park has become Abidjan’s “green lung,” teeming with various flora and provides about 40% of the city’s drinking water demands since its inception in 1983.

Banco Park is one of eight national parks and seven natural reserves in Cote d’Ivoire, constituting 6.5 percent of the country’s land area (about 5,000 football fields). It comprises 600 hectares of primary woods, an arboretum with over 800 plant species from tropical Africa, Asia, and Latin America, fish ponds, chimps, and enormous catfish in the river that runs through it. The park offers spiritual, scientific, educational, and recreational value, as well as being a treasure trove of data for science.

A park under pressure

The park is under threat, despite the natural beauty and environmental services it provides. The park’s vegetation and flora are threatened by untreated domestic and industrial effluent from the heavily populated suburb of Abobo. Plant cover in the protected region is being impacted by air pollution, agricultural encroachment, economic activity, and population growth.

Rainwater and wastewater are depositing sandy sediments and muddy soil near the park’s perimeter, allowing invasive species to thrive.

UNEP, the Government of Côte d’Ivoire, the Japan International Cooperation Agency, and other partners are working on a project called Integrated Management of Protected Areas in Côte d’Ivoire, West Africa, to address these issues. The effort will run for four years, from 2017 to 2021.

Apart from conducting a species inventory, the project aims to improve park management, establish an innovative financing mechanism, integrate local biodiversity conservation initiatives into the park’s outlying areas, and reduce pressure on forest resources to increase the flow of ecosystem services in Banco Park.

“Prior to the initiative, the fundamental problem was high demand on forest resources and minimal community involvement, resulting in a decline in ecosystem service provision,” explains Adamou Bouhari, a UNEP biodiversity expert.

Jobs

Banco National Park not only provides better living conditions for Abidjan people, but also provides employment opportunities. The Ivorian Office of Parks and Reserves (local partners in the project) and the non-governmental group “Vision Verte” have teamed up to generate jobs for youth from adjacent areas. The young people work as tourist guides in the park, collect data on flora and wildlife, and maintain paths and green spaces, all of which contributes to environmental awareness.

Abidjan’s District Governor, Robert Beugré Mambé, The mayor of Abidjan is a major supporter of the park and the regular meetings of the local management committee, and is assisting in the involvement of local authorities. The park is being expanded to include a 61,000-hectare area.

Global Environment Facility

The Global Environment Facility (GEF), which was founded on the eve of the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, is a catalyst for environmental action, among other things. The GEF collaborates with partners to address the world’s most pressing environmental concerns through smart investments.

The GEF is a UNIQUE PARTNERSHIP of 18 organisations, including UN agencies, multilateral development banks, national institutions, and international non-governmental organisations (NGOs), that collaborate with 183 nations to address the world’s most pressing environmental concerns. The GEF works closely with the business sector around the world and receives ongoing input from an independent assessment office and a world-class scientific panel. It is a FINANCIAL MECHANISM for the Minamata Convention on Mercury, the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs), the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (UNCBD), the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). For a more prosperous, climate-resilient world, GEF is also an INNOVATOR AND CATALYST that supports multi-stakeholder alliances to preserve threatened ecosystems on land and in the oceans, build greener cities, boost food security, and promote clean energy, leveraging $5.2 in additional financing for every $1 invested.

The GEF Trust Fund was formed to assist in the solution of the world’s most critical environmental issues. To accomplish the goals of international environmental treaties and agreements, funds are available to developing countries and countries in transition.

Nature is in crisis

When a species goes extinct, the world around us begins to unravel a little. The ramifications are huge, not only for those regions and species, but for all of us. There are measurable losses, such as agricultural pollination and water purification, as well as spiritual and cultural losses.

People have deep emotional connections to the natural world, despite the loudness and hurry of modern life. Plants and animals have influenced our history, myths, languages, and worldviews. Wildlife offers us joy and enhances our lives, and each extinction makes our world a lonely and colder place for us and future generations.

We are totally to blame for the current extinction disaster. Over a century of habitat destruction, pollution, invasive species proliferation, overharvesting in the wild, climate change, population growth, and other human activities have pushed nature to the brink. Addressing the extinction problem will require strong leadership, particularly from the United States, as well as ambitious, gutsy, and far-reaching actions that address the core causes of the catastrophe.

The 30×30 campaign, which will safeguard wildlife locations and habitat such as oceans, rivers, forests, deserts, and swamps, is one of the most important stages.

Conclusion

Africa’s biodiversity is in serious decline, despite its vast potential. The main reasons of the situation include population growth, extensive agricultural practices, fast urbanisation, infrastructural development, and illegal wildlife trafficking.

National parks preserve species, habitats, and the natural world from human harm. They provide a safe environment for animals to procreate and survive. National Parks preserve about 247 types of threatened or endangered plants and animals. Natural areas are protected by national parks.