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Basseterre, St. Kitts, June 30, 2021 (SKNIS): Environmental conservation protects wildlife and promotes biodiversity. As such, officials within the Department of Environment have encouraged the general public to utilize several tips that are deemed important to the restoration of ecosystems.

“We are encouraging persons to plant more trees. If it is a situation where you have to clear land, let us find a way where we can plant back three more,” said Derionne Edmeade, Environmental Education Officer, during his appearance on the June 30 edition of Working for You. ”We can also encourage persons to do simple things at home like vegetable gardens and so forth. All of these are contributing to a healthier environment. We can also look at basic things like community cleanups, reducing our dependency on plastics that pollute the terrestrial and the marine environment and we can also reduce the excessive burning of fires.”

Mr. Edmeade noted that burning fires have become too frequent in St. Kitts and Nevis. He noted that they may have been lit for good reasons, however, rather than just thinking about clearing lands, focusing on containing the particular area should be a priority.

He noted that before restoring the ecosystem, it is important for persons to understand why they were destroyed or degraded because everything that we do has a negative or positive impact.

“Some of the things that we do include the improper disposal of waste in the environment, cutting down of trees as in deforestation. When we do that we are reducing the air, water =, food, and home for animals,” said Mr. Edmeade. “Overfishing is another way of destroying the ecosystem. We only think about what we want for the time and how it is benefiting us, it is not so much about down the road so we go and we overfish because for that particular time it is satisfying a need for the individual, but when we do that we are reducing our resources. ”

Sharon Rattan, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Environment, shared similar sentiments adding that poor maintenance of the environment contributes to climate change.

“All of these activities lead to the big umbrella of climate change. The constant degradation of the environment, changes in the climate patterns are why today, with the constant cutting of trees, constant pollution we are seeing stronger hurricanes,” said PS Rattan.

The environmental officials noted that it is important to maintain a healthy and functional ecosystem as it helps to prevent the extinction of animal species. Healthy ecosystems also clean our water, purify the air, maintain the soil, regulate the climate, recycle nutrients, as well as provide food, raw materials, and resources for medicines and other purposes.