Possible solutions

With the information provided in other pages on how important nutrient cycling is to both the environment and us, and how our activities have been negatively affecting them, resulting in serious negative impacts, the need for ways to stop and reduce them is becoming more urgent. Hence, here are some strategies, on three different levels – governmental, community and individual, that can help to reduce the negative impact of human activities to nutrient cycling, in general and in the context of Southeast Asia.

1. Governmental Level

a) More plans for reforestation and afforestation can be implemented to substitute or recover, at least to a certain extent, forest resources damaged directly by human activities such as land conversion, or indirectly by climate change.

Thailand, a country that relies heavily on its agricultural industry, has already felt the impact of forest loss, which is partly due to the conversion of forest areas for agricultural purposes and exacerbated by unpredictable rainfall, more frequent and prolonged droughts, flash floods, as well as hotter summer days and nights. A number of reforestation and afforestation projects have already been implemented, and efforts have also been made to monitor changes that are taking place. For example, the Sakaerat station in the eastern forest complex has long been used as a monitoring station, where the data is then used in studies of forest change and the carbon cycle.

Also, in Vietnam, major national programs for forestation, reforestation, and improved forest management have been developed. For example, dating all the way back in 1993, the government of Vietnam commenced Program 327 for the period 1993—2000, in which the goal was to create forest on open treeless hills throughout the country. In 1998, the National Assembly then agreed to adopt an ambitious 5-Million hectare Reforestation Program for the period 1998–2010, with the main objective of increasing forest cover to 43% by 2010. The Reforestation Program was successful, with the forest coverage in Vietnam having increased from 27.8% in 1990, to 33.2% in 2000, and to 37.3% in 2004.

With more of such programs being successful in reducing the lost of primary forest areas, and provides hope of reforestation, there is hope in reducing the negative impact of our activities on the nutrient cycles and the ecosystem.  Governments in more countries should do their part in the implementation of such programs to reduce the damage their activities have caused to the environment.

b) Using the economic theory of externalities, the Governments of Southeast Asian countries can divide the commons, forests and other land, into plots, so as to distribute property rights to the farmers. This increases the incentive of the people using the land for agricultural uses to conserve and perform proper agricultural practices, such as using appropriate amounts of environmentally friendly fertilisers and avoiding overpopulation of livestock so as to prevent overgrazing, in order to lessen the damage caused to the land that belongs to them. The Governments can also charge for the use of resources in excess of what a supplier would charge, such as implementing carbon tax or taxing emissions of other gas and wastes. This would then encourage less damaging industrial usage and more environmentally friendly power plants such as the Advanced coal power plants (uses Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle), which converts coal into a gas prior to burning, making it easier to reduce emissions with higher efficiency. More environmentally friendly sources of energy such as geothermal energy, can be encouraged too.

Screen Shot 2014-11-06 at 3.55.24 amIn this case, some Southeast Asian countries, namely Philippines and Indonesia, are already within the top 10 countries globally in terms of geothermal energy usage. With reduced emissions and release of elements such as carbon, nitrogen and sulphur, the cycles of these elements would be less affected by our activities and in turn help the ecosystem to maintain equilibrium better.

 

c) Another solution to reduce our impact on the nutrient cycles and the environment as a whole, would be to reduce our vehicle emissions that have been increasing along with the increase of vehicle ownership and usage. Encouraging the usage of public transport by increasing its comfort, convenience and affordability would be an effective way to reduce vehicle ownership and usage. Improving the traffic control in the country would also reduce emissions and fuel consumption wasted during congestion. Regulations on vehicle maintenance and control and be further enforced by the Government, especially in developing countries. Examples of successful reduction of vehicle usage through measures taken by the government would be the decrease in vehicle ownership in Singapore (by 6% from 2011 to 2012), with the implementation of strategies such as increasing convenience with the Ez-link tap card for public transport and increasing the efficiency of public transports, along with increasing COE prices for cars.

 

2. Community level:

a) Communities of farmers who are using the lands within the same area can set rules for the community which encourage responsible usage of the land. An example could be the intentional setting of fire to clear the land for agricultural use, especially in Indonesia, whereby communities of farmers can set rules to ensure precautions are taken so that the fire is controlled and would not spread to more land than was intended. The community can then monitor each other’s actions and perform enforcement of the rules.

b) Sharing of knowledge about effective and environmentally responsible practices can be carried out within members of the community.

c) Co-management, whereby the government and the community can work together to develop systems in which the government can support the community in enforcement of rules that encourage environmentally responsible behaviour and if needed, provide the resources required for that behaviour to be able to be carried out.

 

3. Individual level:

a) Changing individual attitudes through education and addressing of misconceptions. For example, the clearing of common assumption that all plants are good for the environment and hence the land use changes from primary forests to plantations are not a cause for worry, through the dissemination of information found through case studies (Case study 1 is a good example) with the help of media. Instilling a sense of responsibility into individuals can help change their behaviours to one that is more environmentally friendly.

b) Individuals can also do their part by supporting environmentally friendly campaigns and support organisations and companies with known environmentally friendly practices. Individuals can also avoid purchasing products or services from organisations and companies with environmentally unfriendly practices and even sign petitions to stop them from continuing with their practices. Examples of such petitions and campaigns include the one against commercial production of Bt eggplants in the Philippines and Greenpeace’s Save the Arctic campaign.

By using our influence as consumers and using our voice as citizens of the earth, we can make changes to the impacts of our activities to nutrient cycles and the environment.

 

" We make the world we live in and shape our own environment." -Orison Swett Marden