Protection, preservation, and restoration of the natural environment of the Bizerte

Today I will be covering why is it necessary to protect, preserve, and restore the natural environment of the Bizerte but also it could be of any city or state in the world.

The purpose of this project is to aid in the protection, preservation, and restoration of the natural environment of the Bizerte’s lake, port, and their watersheds to expand awareness of environmental issues and responsibility including the lakes, and to create a desire and opportunity for citizens to take an active role in helping to make a cleaner environment.

The word sustainability, in ecology, symbolizes the capability of biological systems to continue to be healthy, diverse, and productive over time. As examples of sustainable biological systems are long-lived and healthy wetlands and forests. Sustainability as a word has been used more Since the 1980s in the meaning of human sustainability on planet Earth. This use generates the theory of sustainable development. Defined by the Brundtland Commission of the United Nations (March 20, 1987): "Sustainable development is the development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." Sustainable development consists of environmental, economic, and social features.

For a specific process to be sustainable, it should not result in an irreparable change to the environment, should be economically feasible, and should be profitable to society (Becker, 2011, p. 9-15). The systems methodology to sustainability (Passet, 1995) highlights the interdependence of three spheres of the system: the economic, the social, and the environmental.

The notion of economic sustainability was originated by Hicks in his classic work second edition 1946. Economic sustainability suggests that a system of production that satisfies present consumption levels without compromising future needs. According to Basiago who is an American lawyer, holds two advanced degrees in environmental planning: “The sustainability that economic sustainability seeks is the sustainability of the economic system itself” (Basiago, 1999). In a basic definition, social sustainability indicates a system of social organization that eases poverty. In an involved definition, social sustainability creates a connection between social conditions such as poverty and environmental decay (Ruttan, 1991).

The concept of social sustainability requests for economic growth controlled by the requirements of social equity (Basiago, 1999). Environmental sustainability call for maintaining natural capital as both a supplier of economic inputs called sources and an absorber called sinks of economic outputs called wastes (Daly, 1973; 1974; World Bank, 1986; Pearce and Redclift, 1988; Pearce et al., 1990a; 1990b; Serageldin, 1993). In concrete expressions, the theory of environmental sustainability advocates a planning process that allows human society to “live within the limitations of the biophysical environment”.

According to AMERICAN RIVERS- Rivers Connect Us making river or stream a safer, healthier place for wildlife and people could be done through providing an approach to connect citizens to their local river or stream. After seeing for the first time the harm caused by litter, specifically in the waterway, people are transformed by a sense of achievement and triumph after removing bags of trash. Especially when they see in a relatively short time the results of saving the environment.

As well, volunteering offers an exceptional method to educate and train volunteers about other problems the stream is facing. Volunteers will want to know “what else they can do” after the cleanup is over (Cloud Object Storage | Store & Retrieve Data Anywhere | Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3), n.d.). In the case of the Scuba diving Club, the club tries to overcome the shortcoming related to the linkage between economic growth, energy consumption, and pollutant emissions.

Environmental pollution is one of the major problems that affect biodiversity, ecosystems, and human health worldwide by contaminating soil and water. It is one of the critical global challenges. It represents an obstacle to economical exploitation in general. Ecological problems can be prevented, but such measures are costly. Human activities such as run-off, sewage overflow, or gas drilling have a major impact on terrestrial ecosystems and even alter major biogeochemical cycles such as the global nitrogen cycle (Bouwman et al., 2010). Environmental pollution of rivers and lakes ecosystems affects development and production in all prokaryotic and eukaryotic organisms. It is noticed that pollution is more critical in coastal ecosystems than in the open oceans (Häder & Erzinger, 2018, p. 1-20). In the economic literature in the last decades, the relationship between economic growth and environmental pollution has been one of the most extensively explored and studied.

The next blog will focus on Bizerta Scuba Diving activities.

Sources:

BASIAGO, A. D. (1999). Amherst College. https://www.amherst.edu/system/files/media/0972/fulltext.pdf

Becker, C. (2011). Sustainability Ethics and sustainability research. Springer Science & Business Media.

Bouwman, A. F., Grinsven, J. J., & Eickhout, B. (2010). Consequences of the cultivation of energy crops for the global nitrogen cycle. Ecological Applications, 20(1), 101-109. https://doi.org/10.1890/08-0608.1

Cloud Object Storage | Store & Retrieve Data Anywhere | Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3). https://s3.amazonaws.com/american-rivers-website/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/24220944/AR-Handbook_general-2014.pdf

Faculté des Sciences de Bizerte - Faculté des Sciences de Bizerte. https://www.fsb.rnu.tn/

Häder, D., & Erzinger, G. S. (2018). Daphniatox. Bioassays, 221-240. https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-12-811861-0.00011-5

Recycling basics. (2019, November 13). US EPA. https://www.epa.gov/recycle/recycling-basics