Use it, Don’t Lose It
by Miss Bouvone Thiphavanh
Biodiversity in Lao PDR contributes to food, nutrition, and products day by day, to both rural and urban people's livelihoods. All of these relate to the wealth and natural heritage in Laos, especially for food linked to culture and traditional custom. At the moment, biodiversity loss happens day by day, which is not such a good signal for food security, nutrition, economy.
A question was set, “Why?”.
I follow up news every day, as I have noticed there are many causes, from human action and climate change. Our actions affect biodiversity loss, ecosystem balance and climate change, both directly and indirectly. Sometimes we realize the effect, sometimes not. That’s why we need education, learning and change. The food system is one of the things that we should re-think.
We eat food every single day, without food we cannot survive because food provides us with nutrition, energy for living. But, have you ever thought that besides these benefits, it affects biodiversity loss, which might be harmful to ecosystem balance? How does this happen? Demand for food increases day by day. We consume with unresponsible methods, such as single-use packing, which then becomes trash. It is the same for cans, plastic and other things we use to contain food. Can you imagine where will these things go?
At the same time, in some parts of rural Laos, local people live under the condition of nature. They live by doing agriculture and part of their income comes from non-timber forest products. (NFTPs). NTFPs for local people are used for food, nutrition and medicine. Some are cooked as local delicious dishes with herbs. Some are sold for a high price, making an income.
What the change we as humans need to do is learn to have responsible consumption, eat for an applicable reason. People should have more support, advice and technique for sustainable use in the future, learning to conserve and grow, and not only rely on the forest. We have abundant biodiversity, with high value for food, nutrition, medicine and the economy. However, all of those things will easily disappear from us if we don’t change. Use it, do not lose it!
Sources
(Pack, n.d.) https://ecotogofoodpacks.co.uk/how-food-packaging-affects-the-environment/
(Phakhaolao, n.d.) https://www.phakhaolao.la/en/about/what-is-agrobiodiversity
(Phakhao Lao, n.d.) https://www.phakhaolao.la/en/kb/0000084
About
I was born and grew up in the countryside but I came to study and live in the city. Of course, the environment in each place is different, so I have a question: is biodiversity declining because of human activity or not? This is why I wrote this article.