UTILIZATION APPROACHES OF THE ENVIRONMENT

The environment we live in has been described in various words. Perhaps, the environment can be best define as total sum of the surrounding external conditions within which an organism, community or object exists. The environment is like a physical condition operating around the abode of any organism. However, the focus has changed to encompassing not only the physical conditions but also the non-physical conditions such as the socio-economic conditions which influence the way of life of man.

Within the environment, it is important to differentiate between natural and man made environment. The natural environment connotes a cultural environment in which human activities are virtually insignificant. This is in contrast to the man made environment which is induced by man's activities. It is very rare to come by a natural environment been that human have encroached almost all the available natural environment through their activities induced by the increasing awareness of their potentials through technological development.

Human beings have over the years been a major subject of discussion on the environment, this is because of the intricate relationship that exist between them. The orientation of this relationship has been dynamic over the past decades.
The first school of thought was when the environment was seen as dominating at the expense of nature. During this period, man was seen as being conditioned by his environment. It is however doubtful if nature can actually control the industrial and technology development to a certain level.
The second phase marked the period when the environment is subjugated by human kind and people became very dominant over nature. This phase started with the industrial revolution. During this period, the environment was seen as providing possibilities for human kind hence the period was tagged Possibilism era.
The last marked the period when people realized that nature cannot be subjugated, rather people should be seen as an integral part of nature therefore there is need to live peacefully. This stage started about five decades ago and still in operation till present.

The environment provide a form of natural resources for the inhabitants which could either be renewable or non renewable. Agricultural activities stand out as a major source of environmental degradation. This act involves cultivation of land for the production of food for human consumptions and availability of raw materials for industries. As a result of poor monitoring of agricultural activities in the environment it has lead of environmental degradations such as deforestation, bush burning, overgrasing resulting in soil erosion. The rate at which forest are being encroached is also alarming, many trees in the forest are cut down without any replacement. As a result many tree species are either gone or hardly to see.