Traditional Coping Mechanism and Environmental Sustainability Strategies in Nnewi, Nigeria
Nnewi is situated some 30 kilometres South East of Onitsha in Anambra State in the southeastern part of Nigeria. This highly commercial town has undergone rapid urbanisation and industrialisation within the past two decades, since the end of the 1967–1970 Nigerian civil war. The Igbo community of the study area had traditionally employed bioconversion methods and other indigenous technology to process or recycle bio and non-degradable wastes. Industrialisation has enjoyed priority status in this locality as a requirement for modernisation and economic progress. The rapid urbanisation, aggressive industrialisation, and the attendant uncontrolled population growth have had a deleterious impact on the environment. There is now a wide range of industrial wastes that are released daily into the environment. Effects of these activities on the socio-cultural practices of the people, plant genetic resources and the environment are highlighted. In addition to palliative measures suggested here, a call is made to revisit the successful indigenous waste treatment and management technology formerly practised by the Igbo community. The importance of combining modern biotechnological approaches with the indigenous technology, norms and practices of Nwewi people to effect suitable waste treatment and management, as well as improving the living habits and the education of the people about their environment, is recommended.
The Role Of Environmental Impact Assessment In Environmental Sustainability Of Onitsha Metropolis In Anambra State, Nigeria.
Environmental impact assessment (EIA) is a process having the ultimate objective of providing decision-makers with an indication of the likely consequences of their actions or the official appraisal process to identify, predict, evaluate and justify the ecological, social, and related biophysical effects of a proposed policy, program or project on the environment, while sustainable developmentis the maintenance of ecological integrity. The present study investigates the level of development in the city of Onitsha in Anambra State, Nigeria, to ascertainwhether it is a sustainable development, using the tool of EIA and its implementation as a parameter. The instrument used for data collection included literature review, field survey using questionnaire distribution, interviews and personal observation. The result of the research showed that a lot of development have taken place in the city of Onitsha which include building of residential houses, shops, industries,petroleum filling stations, road constructions, hospitals and schools but these developments are not sustainable especially those of Onitsha South Local Government Area because the environment is not put into consideration. The key tool for sustainable development, which is EIA, is not used in the process of these developments mentioned above. From the statistical analysis collected and analyzed usingmann-whitney test shows that there is a significant different between the project executed in this city using EIA and the ones executed without the use of EIA (P< 0.05).The consequences of this unsustainable development have resulted in environmental degradation, pollution, health hazards, erosion,excessive heat, over flooding and lost of the vegetation.To return to the path of sustainable development, there is therefore the need to go back to the use and implementation of EIAresults provide by decision makers and the proper implementationof environmental lawsand policies.
Complexity, Network-Decisions And Alternative Risk Premia: Some New Theories Of Structural Change And Portfolio Decisions.
Structural Change is the basis for many decisions such as government fiscal and monetary policies, government interventions, corporate-expenditure decisions, corporate strategic decisions, portfolio management decisions in finance; household allocation decisions, etc.. Structural change in industries and national economies is increasingly more difficult to detect partly because of the growth and dominance of Complex Systems and “Networks” in modern industries and economies – such Networks and Complex Systems include GVCs (global value chains), retail store networks; franchising networks; internet networks; services networks; credit-chains in industries; online social networks; etc.. The relationship between Complexity and Structural Change is well established in the physics, applied math and economic dynamics literatures. Traditional definitions and modeling of structural change have erroneously focused on changes in labor, technological progress, market share, and or capital – which are grossly inadequate in the new economy and post- global financial crisis (as confirmed by changes in the global retailing and housing industries and other industries). Also the modeling of structural change seems to be constrained by the availability of data, and often omits the relationship between structural change on one hand, and globalization, financial stability and international financial contagion. This article: i) introduces the Operations Strategy Model of structural change, explains how it differs from the Lewis Model of Structural Change; and explains the often omitted relationship between operations strategy (of companies and government agencies) and structural change; ii) introduces other new Complexity-based models/theories of Structural Change in industries; iii) reviews the relationships among Operations Research, Complexity and Structural Change; iv) explains the symbiotic relationship between structural change on one hand, and economic growth, financial stability, financial contagion and globalization; v) discusses the significant gap between academic research and practice and explains some issues and factors that should be considered in the development and testing of structural change models; vi) explains how alternative risk premia can be generated from new models of Structural Change.