A REVIEW OF BIODIVERSITY LOSS AND CLIMATE CHANGE: POLICY MEASURES AND ADAPTATION STRATEGIES IN NIGERIA

Abstract

Climate change which has become a global concern has occupied the centre stage of all human discussions today, can be traced to the advent of massive industrialization in the late 19th Century and early 20th Century, during which enormous quantities of greenhouse gases were emitted into the atmosphere. This Phenomenon has greatly affected the distribution and extinction of species of flora and fauna ecosystems as well as man and his environment. The earth’s surface is full of diversity of plants and animals, currently estimated at about 1.8 million yet greatly threatened by biodiversity loss, erosion and depletion of genes, and the extinction of global species which constitute an important concern to national and international authorities. In this paper, we examined the rational and regime for the conservation of biodiversity and adaptation strategies for Nigeria in particular and Africa in general. We also considered deeply the problem of climate change, value and loss of biodiversity, the effect of climate change on species extinction and the relationship between climate change and loss of biodiversity in a bid to proffering sustainable measures to curtail its menace on this only life sustaining planet.