Importance of farming to the environment

Maize farm (Pic by Miriam Mangwaya)

Farmed areas – both on land and in the water – provide important habitats for many wild plants and animals.

When farming operations are sustainably managed, they can help preserve and restore critical habitats, protect watersheds, and improve soil health and water quality.

But when practiced without care, farming presents the greatest threat to species and ecosystems.

Negative environmental impacts from unsustainable farming practices include:

• Land conversion & habitat loss
• Wasteful water consumption
• Soil erosion and degradation
  
• Pollution
• Climate change
• Genetic erosion

 Industrial crop and livestock production damages the environment, threatens human health, degrades rural communities, harms workers and compromises animal welfare. These pages provide detailed information, along with resources for promoting a sustainable alternative. Industrial livestock operations generate a tremendous amount of air pollution - yet these facilities remain largely exempt from meaningful air quality regulation.Though healthy soil is invaluable, industrial agricultural practices degrade this natural resource by causing erosion, nutrient depletion, and soil contamination.

Environmental effects of mining

 What is mining?

Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth from an orebody, lode, vein, seam, or reef, which forms the mineralized package of economic interest to the miner.

Impacts

The environmental impact of mining includes erosion, formation of sinkholes, loss of biodiversity, and

contamination of soil, groundwater, surface water by chemicals from mining processes. In some cases, additional forest logging is done in the vicinity of mines to increase the available room for the storage of the created debris and soil.Besides creating environmental damage, the contamination resulting from leakage of chemicals also affect the health of the local population.

Bad mining practices can ignite coal fires, which can burn for decades, release fly ash and smoke laden with greenhouse gasses and toxic chemicals. Furthermore mining releases coal mine methane, a greenhouse gas 20 times more powerful than carbon dioxide. Coal dust inhalation causes black lung disease among miners and those who live nearby, and mine accidents kill thousands every year. Coal mining displaces whole communities, forced off their land by expanding mines, coal fires, subsidence and contaminated water supplies.

There are two widely used ways of mining: strip mining and underground mining.

Impacts of underground mining

• Underground mining causes huge amounts of waste earth and rock to be brought to the surface – waste that often becomes toxic when it comes into contact with air and water.
• It causes subsidence as mines collapse and the land above it starts to sink. This causes serious damage to buildings.
• It lowers the water table, changing the flow of groundwater and streams. In Germany for example, over 500 million cubic metres of water are pumped out of the ground every year. Only a small percentage of this is used by industry or local towns – the rest is wasted. What’s worse is that removing so much water creates a kind of funnel that drains water from an area much larger than the immediate coal-mining environment.
• Coal mining produces also greenhouse gas emissions.

Wildlife- The beauty of the environment

The wildlife of Zimbabwe is mostly located in remote or rugged terrain in the national parks and private wildlife ranches; it is spread over the landscapes of miombo woodlands and thorny acacia or kopje. The prominent wild fauna members which inhabit this landscape are not only the "Big Five" – buffalo, elephant, leopard, lion and rhino – but also antelopes, zebras and giraffes.

 The World's Big Five ( pic from

The rhino, which is almost extinct, with its extraordinary horns and bad temper. And the leopard with its beauty and remarkable speed and skill to hunt.The African lion (Panthera leo) king of the sub-Saharan savanna, has been admired by man for its beauty and strength for thousands of years. It's one of the most exciting animals to see on safari. These beautiful, large cats are excellent hunters but you're more likely to see one sleeping than hunting. (Find out where to go to see in Africa)
 Lions can reach around 14 years of age, but many males die sooner because they get injured fighting one another. Female lions synchronize the birth of their cubs and cooperate in raising them. Females tend to stay with their pride for life, male cubs get kicked out when they are between 2-4 years old
The African elephant (Loxodonta africana) is the largest mammal in the world and remarkably adaptable. Elephants live in woodlands, forests, deserts and savanna, spread across 37 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. The demand for ivory led to a dramatic decrease in elephant numbers, especially during the 1970's and 1980's.
Cape Buffalo are commonly found in protected wildlife areas (that have plenty of water), throughout sub-Saharan Africa. Four sub-species of African Buffalo have been recognized and basically reflect the different type of regions and habitats they live in: Forest Buffalo (S. c. nanus); West African Savanna Buffallo.

Managing Wetlands

A wetland is a land area that is saturated with water, either permanently or seasonally, such that it takes on the characteristics of a distinct ecosystem.

 

Wetlands are the link between land and water, and are some of the most productive ecosystems in the world. Some common names for different types of wetlands are swamp, marsh and bog. Depending on the type of wetland, it may be filled mostly with trees, grasses, shrubs or moss. To be called a wetland, an area must be filled or soaked with water at least part of the year. Some wetlands are actually dry at certain times of the year!

 

Wetlands have many important functions that benefit people and wildlife.

• Provide habitat for a wide variety and number of wildlife and plants.
• Filter, clean and store water - in other words, acting like kidneys for other ecosystems!
• Collect and hold flood waters.
• Absorb wind and tidal forces.
• Provide places of beauty and many recreational activities

Wetland- Southern Ivory Coast (by Reun Moyse)

Wetlands also act like sponges by holding flood waters and keeping rivers at normal levels. Wetlands filter and purify water as it flows through the wetland system. Plants found in wetlands help control water erosion.

 

Other names for wetlands include: muskeg, moor, fen, carr, dambo, mangal, vlei, bayou, slough, pocosin, prairie pothole and vernal pools. Each type of wetland has characteristics specific to their part of the world.

 

More than one-third of the federally listed species on the Endangered Species Act rely directly, or indirectly, on wetlands for their survival.

           

Types of Wetlands

1.Marshes

Marshes are areas with shallow water that are mostly grasslands. Marshes can be freshwater or saltwater and the amount of water in a marsh can change with the seasons and in the case of salt water marshes, can also change with the tide.
Freshwater marshes have soft stemmed and herbaceous plants, like grasses, shrubs and wildflowers. Plants found in saltwater marshes include reeds, grasses and shrubs like rushes, sedges, and saltbush

Marshes are home to a variety of animals, including beavers, alligators, newts, shrimp and turtles.

Marshes have soil with low mineral content.

 

Freshwater marshes often occur along the edges of lakes and rivers. Saltwater marshes occur along coastlines, inlets and estuaries where they are affected by tides, and often have a source of fresh water from surrounding land, rivers or ground

 

2.Swamps

Swamps are slow moving streams, rivers or isolated low areas with more open and deeper water than marshes.

Swamps have trees (for example, cypress tress in freshwater and mangrove trees in salty water) and woody shrubs rather than grasses and herbs. In African swamps, papyrus is the main plant.

Swamps are found in low-lying areas near rivers or coastal areas. Examples include the Everglades in Florida.

Swamp soil is poorly-drained and water logged.

Swamp wildlife includes alligators, snakes, a variety of insects, bobcat, beaver, large diversity of birds and river otter.

3.Bogs and Fens

A bog is a fresh water wetland, usually formed in an old glacial lake with a spongy peat base. Most of the bog’s water comes from rain. A fen is a fresh water peat wetland covered mostly by grasses sedges, reeds, and wildflowers of high pH (alkaline) ground water.

Bogs have soil that is low in nutrients.

Evergreen trees and shrubs, and a floor covered by a thick carpet of sphagnum moss. Some species of carnivorous plants are also found in bogs.

There are only a few animals that are found in bogs. These include, red deer, Dragonflies and birds such as grouse and plover.

Water Conservation

Water is one of our most important resources, as every living thing needs water to survive. Water conservation means using less water or recycling used water so that it can be used again. This type of program is important because water conservation helps save energy, protect wild animals, and prevent people from using so much water that it cannot be replaced with rain. Water conservation also helps people and governments save money.Conserving water enables a  sustainable environment.

 

10 Tips for conserving water.

• Turn off the water while washing your hair and save up to 150 gallons a month.
• Toilet leaks can be silent! Be sure to test your toilet for leaks at least once a year
• Aerate your lawn periodically. Holes every six inches will allow water to reach the roots, rather than run off the surface.
• Use a layer of organic mulch on the surface of your planting beds to minimize weed growth that competes for water.
• Check your sprinkler system frequently and adjust sprinklers so only your lawn is watered and not the house, sidewalk or street.
• Wash company vehicles at commercial car washers that recycle water.
• Signs of overwatering: Leaves turn lighter shades of green or yellow, young shoots wilt, and sometimes algae or fungi grow.
• Adjust your watering schedule each month to match seasonal weather conditions and landscape requirements.
• Take 5-minute showers instead of baths. A full bathtub requires up to 70 gallons of water.

Did you know?

 

Soil Conservation

Soil conservation is the prevention of soil from erosion or reduced fertility caused by overuse, acidification, salinization or other chemical soil contamination. slash-and-burn and other unsustainable methods of subsistence farming are practiced in some lesser developed areas. A sequel to the deforestation is typically large scale erosion, loss of soil nutrients and sometimes total desertification.It has become common to speak of conserving natural resources such as trees or fossil fuels. Yet long before humans recognized the need to make responsible use of things taken from the ground, they learned to conserve the ground itself—that is, the soil. This was a hard-won lesson: failure to conserve soil has turned many a fertile farmland into temporary dust bowl or even permanent desert.

 

Techniques such as crop rotation aid in conservation efforts, but communities continue to face hazards associated with the soil. There is, for instance, the matter of leaching, the movement of dissolved substances through the soil, which, on the one hand, can benefit it but, on the other hand, can rob it of valuable nutrients. Issues of soil contamination also raise concerns that affect not just farmers but the population as a whole.

 

Contour Farming

 

Contour ploughing

Contour farming orients crop furrows following the contour lines of the farmed area. Furrows move left and right to maintain a constant altitude, which reduces runoff. Contour farming was practiced by the ancient Phoenicians, and is effective for slopes between two and ten percent.^[1] Contour plowing can increase crop yields from 10 to 50 percent, partially as a result from greater soil retention.

Erosion barriers

Erosion barriers on disturbed slope, Marin County, California

Erosion Barrier Installations provides alternative erosion prevention and restoration services along shorelines and waterways throughout Florida and the Southeastern United States. We have dedicated our time and resources to innovatively overcome the existing erosion challenges that continue to harm the environment. This environmental sensitive approach to shoreline erosion control and prevention ensures that our erosion barrier installations protect your most valued asset; your land, while also improving water quality in lakes, ponds, and canals.