Post by Ifeanyi Uddin (@IfeanyiUddin)

Wetlands conservation in Lagos State is an important part of the effort to make this space liveable on a sustainable basis. I got on this train at the biodiversity protection platform.

Yet, whether it’s for fish, birds (my bias), amphibians, reptiles, insects, and mammals, wetlands are among the world’s richest ecosystems for wildlife. These do not only breed, and feed in wetlands. The latter also provide migration habitats.

Straight off the top of any list, healthy wetlands also work for flood control, water purification, climate regulation and carbon storage, coastal protection, support for fisheries and agriculture, groundwater recharge, cultural and recreational value, disease regulation, etc.

Lagos also suffers a housing shortage, especially at the bottom of the heap. And if urbanisation is both cause and consequence of economic development and growth, it will continue to experience net immigration of people for sometime yet.

Not surprisingly, urban slums are the first level of threat to wetlands – both in terms of the competition for shared spaces, and the damage to the ecosystems from human waste and effluent.

The biggest threat to wetlands in Lagos, however, is from the continuous expansion of urban sprawl.

Slum renewal measures – through better sites and services support – hold out the possibility of starting to square the circle of life at the point where mankind first meets wildlife.

To succeed, serious levels of deliberateness would need to be included in our urban planning infrastructure and the institutions that support them.

Nowhere, alas, is this latter need greater than in the management of urban sprawl.

0 likes · 0 comments · 0 shares