"Saving the wild for the wilds"

In the past, the record says men were hunters and gatherers before they learnt the skills of domesticating the wilds. They learnt to raise crops from seeds and they were skillful enough to tame some animals and birds. In a way they were able to contain and manage their environment by being observant and innovative. So the era of hunting and gathering faded into obscurity and man became like gods on earth. They needed more space to contain their growing population and of course they wanted to explore the vastness of the planet. So the forests needed to be cleared and really nothing could stand in the way of men’s advancement for whatever they tend to set their heart on, they achieve. Many animals of the wild had to move away from the potent terror of mankind taking over the shared planet like a plague that has no end. So many species of animals have lost their homes and worse still, some lost the possibility of posterity as men sent them into extinction. 

Now the century count is on 21 and man has indeed conquered the planet with just an altogether little percentage of space left for the wild. Despite the much spaces man has taken over due to his never ending appetite for more, he still wants more and more, and in the process destroying sanctuaries of other life forms that he shares the planet with. 

Picture credit:traveller24.news24.com

The spotlight is on the unhealthy and unregulated hunting of animals in the wild for pleasure and for money. Africa has been notably categorized as a continent that still has a significant population of wild species of animals and the likes and this fact has opened the continent to exploring opportunities in the likes of safari and trophy hunting. This and the complimentary factor of being a receptive continent have opened the door to many opportunistic dangers such as poaching and which has also been enabled by the wide socio-economic gap  that sees the majority living sub standard lives of abject poverty.

The poor living standard that obtains in most parts of Africa has indeed been a fuel for a lot of illegal activities in most wildlife sanctuaries with culprits coming from settlements closer to such protected areas. Another factor which seems a rather prevalent one is the part of poor to no policy on hunting activities which seem to have allowed for a rather uncontrolled harvesting of animals from the wild. A typical case study country is Nigeria. It has become rather a popular road side attraction to find locals with their make shift stead decorated with fresh kills from the wild. This is quite the obvious extent to which the country has taken conservation to be.  While of course there may be agencies that have been saddled with the responsibilities of ensuring a level of control on regulated hunting practices, unfortunately their functions have not been obvious enough to be felt in the society.

With the current state of events, it is only well placed to call for a massive awareness as regards the need for conservation. There is the need to make the locals see the reasons into regulating hunting activities such that, allowances are made for the animals to close up on the gaps opened by unhealthy and unregulated hunting. While at the same time, the strategy of community based approach of conservation would go a long way into ensuring a complimentary stand in the protection of the wildlife components of our society. The government actually does have the most important role to play in this as most forest layouts are under their control. They must ensure there are adequate regulations and policies that would help lay a formal template of control on illegal activities and unregulated hunting in the wild.

Conservation is simply another way to ensuring sustainability and through this can we achieve a balance in the eco-related functionality of the planet Earth.

Sincerely Yours Earthly,

‘Dele Oni