Deforestation and Habitat Loss: Human Causes, Consequences and Possible Solutions

Deforestation leads to habitat loss while preservation and conservation of the natural forest increase biological diversity.Multiple factors have been reported to be responsible for deforestation and habitat loss,which could either be of human or natural origin.Natural causes of deforestation could be as a result of forest fires,droughts,exotic animals,floods,overpopula­tion of foreign animals and climate change.That notwithstanding,human activities are among the principal causes of global deforestation and habitat loss with agricultural expansion,cattle breeding,timber extraction,mining,oil extraction,dam construction and infrastructure development as some examples of these human influences.This study identifies agricultural ac­tivities and urbanization as the chief causes of human induced deforestation and habitat loss on a large scale.The simple and more practicable approach to curb the already alarming effects of deforestation and habitat loss is through environmental education of everyone still surviving on our planet.Environmental education is the key to reversing continuous and deliberate human actions through the protection of every natural forest and afforesta­tion where necessary.

Distribution of Respiratory Tract Infectious Diseases in Relation to Particulate Matter(PM_(2.5))Concentration in Selected Urban Centres in Niger Delta Region of Nigeria

Due to the visibility of soot in the environment of the Niger Delta especially Rivers State that has led to the increase of Respiratory Tract Infections(RTIs)in the region,this study was undertaken to determine the relationship between Particulate Matter(PM_(2.5))concentration and the incident of Respiratory Tract Infections(RTIs)in selected urban centres of the Niger Delta.Data on RTIs were collected from the Hospital Management Boards of the Ministries of Health of Rivers,Bayelsa and Delta States and the data for PM_(2.5)were remotely sensed from 2016 to 2019,and subsequently analyzed with ANOVA and Spearman’s rank correlation statistics.The findings of this study revealed that there was significant variation in the occurrence of PM_(2.5)across the selected urban centres in the Niger Delta Region.The PM_(2.5)for the reviewed years was far above the World Health Organization(WHO)annual permissible limit of 10μg/m^(3)thereby exacerbating Respiratory Tract Infections(RTIs).The epidemiology of the RTIs showed that there are basically four(4)prominent RTI diseases:Asthma,Tuberculosis,Pneumonia and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease(COPD).The result of this study showed that the concentration of PM_(2.5)varies in all the selected cities,and the mean monthly variation(2016-2019)showed that Port Harcourt had 47.27μg/m^(3)for January while Yenagoa and Asaba had 46μg/m^(3)and 47.51μg/m^(3)respectively for January;while the lowest mean value in the cities were seen within the month of September and October,which also had a strong seasonal influence on the concentration of PM_(2.5).The concentration of PM_(2.5)and the numbers of RTIs also gradually increases in the study areas from 2016 to 2019.The study recommends that the necessary regulatory bodies should closely monitor the activities of the companies likely to cause such pollution;guild them through their operations and give prompt sanctions and heavy fines to defaulters of the accepted standards.