By Hon. Prof. Kariuki Muigua, OGW, PhD, C.Arb, FCIArb is a Professor of Environmental Law and Dispute Resolution at the University of Nairobi, Member of Permanent Court of Arbitration, Leading Environmental Law Scholar, Respected Sustainable Development Policy Advisor, Top Natural Resources Lawyer, Highly-Regarded Dispute Resolution Expert and Awardee of the Order of Grand Warrior (OGW) of Kenya by H.E. the President of Republic of Kenya. He is the Academic Champion of ADR 2024, the African ADR Practitioner of the Year 2022, the African Arbitrator of the Year 2022, ADR Practitioner of the Year in Kenya 2021, CIArb (Kenya) Lifetime Achievement Award 2021 and ADR Publisher of the Year 2021 and Author of the Kenya’s First ESG Book: Embracing Environmental Social and Governance (ESG) tenets for Sustainable Development” (Glenwood, Nairobi, July 2023) and Kenya’s First Two Climate Change Law Book: Combating Climate Change for Sustainability (Glenwood, Nairobi, October 2023), Achieving Climate Justice for Development (Glenwood, Nairobi, October 2023), Promoting Rule of Law for Sustainable Development (Glenwood, Nairobi, January 2024) and Actualizing the Right to a Clean and Healthy Environment (Glenwood, Nairobi, March 2024)*
One of the key approaches towards combating environmental degradation is the restoration and rehabilitation of damaged or degraded ecosystems. These are practices aimed at returning ecosystems to a healthy state as was before such ecosystems were degraded. Restoration has been defined as a process of improvement of degraded land and ecosystems on a large scale that rebuilds ecological integrity and enhances people’s lives. It aims to recover the ecological functionality and enhance human well-being in deforested and degraded landscapes and ecosystems.
Rehabilitation on the other hand seeks to reverse ill effects on the environment and natural resources as a result of illeffects such as loss of biodiversity, land capability loss, landscape destabilization, nutrient impoverishment, overgrazing, and soil organic carbon loss among others. These processes are essential in the recovery of ecosystems that have been degraded or destroyed, as well as conserving the ecosystems that are still intact.
It has been noted that healthier ecosystems, with richer biodiversity, yield greater benefits such as more fertile soils, bigger yields of timber and fish, and larger stores of greenhouse gases. It is therefore necessary to restore and rehabilitate degraded ecosystems in order ensure a healthier, cleaner, and safer, and sustainable environment. This can be achieved through approaches such as restoring forest landscapes through reforestation, agroforestry, embracing regenerative agricultural practices, improved protection and management of landscapes and ecosystems, eliminating invasive species in order to curtail their impact on ecosystems, and planting endangered vegetation.
In addition, it is imperative to transform food systems to become more sustainable and resilient in order to reverse environmental degradation, restore ecosystems and ensure food and nutritional security. It has been noted that agriculture has altered the face of the planet more than any other human activity. For example, the use of pesticides and fertilizers has resulted in serious air and water pollution.
It has been argued that current food systems have been following the “cheaper food paradigm”, with a goal of producing more food at lower costs through increasing inputs such as fertilizers, pesticides, energy, land and water. This approach leads to a vicious circle: the lower cost of food production creates a bigger demand for food that must also be produced at a lower cost through more intensification and further land clearance. This has resulted in environmental degradation due to over cultivation, deforestation in order to acquire more land for farming, loss of biodiversity and the threat of climate change with the global food system estimated to account for nearly thirty per cent of total human produced emissions.
Therefore, it is necessary to change global food systems through measures such as changing global dietary patterns, protecting and setting aside land for nature, and farming in a more nature-friendly and biodiversity-supporting way in order to combat environmental degradation arising from agricultural practices. It is also necessary to combat land degradation and desertification. The phenomenon of desertification has been identified as one of greatest environmental challenges of our time.
It has been noted that desertification is not necessarily the natural expansion of existing deserts but rather the degradation of land over time due to practices such as over- cultivation, overgrazing, deforestation and poor irrigation techniques. Further, it has been observed that although desertification is primarily man-made, it is exacerbated by the extreme weather, such as droughts as a result of climate change.
Desertification is a major problem that results in environmental degradation through loss of biodiversity, loss of productive land resulting in poverty and hunger, and climate change. It is therefore vital to address the problem of desertification. This calls for rehabilitation of land to restore soil fertility, embracing sustainable water management practices, curbing land degradation through tree-planting efforts, and restoring degraded land. In addition, it has been observed that there is need to halt and reverse biodiversity loss.
The loss of biodiversity has been identified as among the triple planetary crisis alongside pollution and climate change. It has been noted that biodiversity is the baseline for everything on the planet and its loss impacts food supplies and access to clean water therefore impacting the survival of both humanity and nature1. According to UNEP, species are now disappearing hundreds, or even thousands, of times faster than the natural background rate of extinction.
The loss of biodiversity impacts food security, availability of medicines, fresh air and water, shelter, and a clean and healthy environment in which to live. It is therefore critical to halt and reverse the loss of biodiversity. There is an urgent need for all countries to place biodiversity at the heart of the environment and development decisionmaking to enable enlightened choices for people and the planet. There is also need to tackle pollution. This problem results in environmental degradation by straining ecosystems and reducing or even eliminating populations of sensitive species.
Further, it has been noted that contamination as a result of pollution may reverberate along the food chain causing mass environmental destruction. For example, the use herbicides and pesticides in agricultural land may result in these chemicals being absorbed into rivers that flow through protected areas, causing poisoning of wildlife and fish. It has been noted that air pollution is already the most significant environmental health risk and a major cause of death and disability, and its future impact is likely to be even worse without adequate measures.
It is estimated that outdoor air pollution may cause between 6 million and 9 million premature deaths a year worldwide by 2060, and cost 1 per cent of global Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as a result of sick days, medical bills and reduced agricultural output. Pollution is therefore a major cause of environmental degradation which affects food security and safety, air and water quality, and the health of humanity and nature.
Addressing pollution is therefore not only an environmental priority, but also a prerequisite for the achievement of the SDGs. It is therefore necessary to tackle pollution through approaches such as effective waste management, enforcement of laws and policies on pollution, public empowerment and participation, and embracing incentive-based approaches. Tackling pollution is an important approach in combating environmental degradation.
Finally, there is an urgent need to combat climate change which is the most pressing issue facing humanity today. The impacts of climate change are already being manifested all over the world through increased intensity and severity of droughts, water scarcity, wildfires, rising sea levels, flooding, melting polar ice, catastrophic storms and declining biodiversity. It has been noted that climate change is likely to exacerbate gradual processes of environmental degradation and the frequency and intensity of natural disasters, both slow-onset (such as desertification, drought, coastal erosion) and sudden onset (including tropical storms, flash floods).
Further, it has been correctly asserted that climate change and environmental degradation each occur in parallel, as well as the relationship between them becoming a vicious cycle, with climate change inducing environmental degradation and biodiversity loss, which then further exacerbates climate change. It is therefore necessary to tackle climate change in order to combat environmental degradation. Combating environmental degradation plays a key role in tackling climate change. SDG 13 urges all countries to take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts. It is therefore necessary for all countries to embrace and strengthen climate change mitigation and adaptation actions in order to combat environmental degradation.
*This is an extract from Kenya’s First Clean and Healthy Environment Book: Actualizing the Right to a Clean and Healthy Environment (Glenwood, Nairobi, January 2024) by Hon. Prof. Kariuki Muigua, OGW, PhD, Professor of Environmental Law and Dispute Resolution, Senior Advocate of Kenya, Chartered Arbitrator, Kenya’s ADR Practitioner of the Year 2021 (Nairobi Legal Awards), ADR Lifetime Achievement Award 2021 (CIArb Kenya), African Arbitrator of the Year 2022, Africa ADR Practitioner of the Year 2022, Member of National Environment Tribunal (NET) Emeritus (2017 to 2023) and Member of Permanent Court of Arbitration nominated by Republic of Kenya and Academic Champion of ADR 2024. Prof. Kariuki Muigua is a foremost Environmental Law and Natural Resources Lawyer and Scholar, Sustainable Development Advocate and Conflict Management Expert in Kenya. Prof. Kariuki Muigua teaches Environmental Law and Dispute resolution at the University of Nairobi School of Law, The Center for Advanced Studies in Environmental Law and Policy (CASELAP) and Wangari Maathai Institute for Peace and Environmental Studies. He has published numerous books and articles on Environmental Law, Environmental Justice Conflict Management, Alternative Dispute Resolution and Sustainable Development. Prof. Muigua is also a Chartered Arbitrator, an Accredited Mediator, the Managing Partner of Kariuki Muigua & Co. Advocates and Africa Trustee Emeritus of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators 2019-2022. Prof. Muigua is a 2023 recipient of President of the Republic of Kenya Order of Grand Warrior (OGW) Award for his service to the Nation as a Distinguished Expert, Academic and Scholar in Dispute Resolution and recognized among the top 5 leading lawyers and dispute resolution experts in Band 1 in Kenya by the Chambers Global Guide 2024 and was listed in the Inaugural THE LAWYER AFRICA Litigation Hall of Fame 2023 as one of the Top 50 Most Distinguished Litigation Lawyers in Kenya and the Top Arbitrator in Kenya in 2023.
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