16 THE HUMAN ECOSYSTEMS: INTRODUCTION
- The Human landscape
- The Natural Ecozones of the Niger Delta
- The Human Economic Impact
- Society
- The Resulting Human Landscape
16.1 THE HUMAN LANDSCAPE
Clearly, the modern landscape of the Niger Delta is a manifestation of human ecosystems. These have arisen out of a people’s dynamic relationship with natural ecosystems. This relationship can also be understood as economic activity because:
natural ecosystems x people = economic activity
And people's ability to exploit minerals expands the equation to become:
(natural ecosystems + mineral resources) x people = economic activity.
Furthermore, the way that people organise themselves in order maximise the efficiency of economic activity is manifested in society because:
organised economic activity = society
When we look at a landscape as a picture we see land-uses (e.g. farms, villages, oil installations and raffia-palm groves), and ecological resources (e.g. rivers, forests, and soil). The picture is not an accident but the result of people's economic exploitation of the natural ecosystems for the resources that we need, and the social structure that has developed as a result of this exploitation.
The landscape represents people's impact upon the environment. An impact which today is potentially more damaging to the ability of ecosystems to continue to provide the resources required of them, because of fast growing human populations and inappropriate technology.
This is not academic theorising but a reality which must be grasped, especially if we ever get to the stage of considering some sort of planning for the Niger Delta. Land-Use Planning, in particular, must work with human ecological, economic and social realities: if it does not then it will fail.
Thus the present state of the ecological resources and land-use of the Niger Delta is best understood in terms of:
- the natural ecosystems;
- human economic impact;
- society; and
- the resulting human landscape.
