Green Party members tipped on the relationship between eating too much meat and disrupting the biodiversity and harming the Environment

By Ange de la Victoire DUSABEMUNGU

As the World celebrated the World Biodiversity Day in the weekend, the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda has reminded that apart from the continuous quest for democracy, Environmental protection continues to be the most important concern for the party

This was revealed by Hon. Jean Claude Ntezimana, MP and Secretary General of the Greens of Rwanda. Ntezimana made the comment in the weekend during an Interview with Media.

Jean Claude Ntezimana, the party’s secretary general and member of parliament in Rwanda, says environmental protection is one of the party’s pillars of which are fighting for democracy and protecting the environment.

“We want everyone to take care of the biodiversity, it should be taken care of because it ends up affecting us when it is not taken care of.  Everything relies on Biodiversity.” He said.

“Of course, humans cannot live without the environment, the animals, the plants, and if they are not protected, we are even forgetting ourselves. We have to protect the biodiversity, protect the animals, aquatic animals, etc…” Ntezimana added.

In an interview with Mathew Hanley, Member of the UK Green Party and PHD Researcher on Trans-boundary biodiversity Management in Rwanda, DRC and Uganda explained that “the green ideology is asking who is benefiting from the control of resources and who is losing out and why they’re losing out.”

Matthew goes on to say that the Green Party has a code of conduct to protect the environment and the ecosystem in general.

He cites the example of Western countries where Greens encourage people not to overeat meat because it has been shown that the need for meat and the need to eat it more contribute to environmental degradation.

He argues that the fact that more humans raise cattle makes them search for pastures, which in turn leads to environmental degradation adding that research has shown that animals play a role in polluting the air.

However, He explains that not eating the meat “is a very much a Western problem.”

“This is a European and an American issue. When you talk about vegetarianism, Frank asked me to talk a little bit about being vegetarian or veganism. I always talked about the link between the meat industry and global warming and environmental degradation. But as I said, that’s all that’s our problem (Western. It certainly isn’t a global scale problem.” Metthew explained.

“The industrialised meat industry is a Western problem. That’s something that we have to grapple with. We over consume meat. We have far too much of it. And the way it’s produced is leading to unsustainable practices. Yeah, but again, as I said, it’s not nothing to do with the Global South African continent. It’s a European and American problem, and we need to deal with it and get it in order.” He said.

The United Nations has proclaimed May 22 the International Day for Biological Diversity to increase understanding and awareness of biodiversity issues.

UNESCO’s intersectoral strategy for biodiversity is based on 3 pillars: restore the relationship between humans and nature and regenerate ecosystems; conserve the harmony of our ecosystems; and amplify the power of youth.

The theme of the 2022 International Day for Biological Diversity is “Building a shared future for all life”