Biodiversity and wilderness sustainability in environmental ethics: What can Yoruba eco-philosophy offer?

This work interrogates some theories of environmental ethics. It identifies biodiversity loss and wilderness degradation as pivotal environmental problems facing our world today. This is because the local and global environment is presently experiencing biodiversity loss and wilderness degradation, traceable to destructive anthropogenic activities such as deforestation, pollution, hunting, urbanisation and uncontrolled capitalist-inspired agricultural practices. Using relationalism as a theoretical framework, the work examines the practice of Igbo oro in Yoruba eco-philosophy and untangles the inherent similarity and the point of divergence between Yoruba eco-philosophy and deep ecology of the western philosophical tradition. It argues that the practice of Igbo oro among the Yoruba people embodies and goes beyond what deep ecology stands for. The work goes further to demonstrate how the practice of Igbo oro pragmatically shows respect for nature, thereby constituting an indigenous African paradigm for environmental sustainability. This argument is significant since it debunks the position held in certain quarters that the practice of Igbo oro in Yorubaland is only for the fulfilment of religious aspirations of the Yoruba people.