The Conservator General of National Park Service, Mr. Ibrahim Goni has said that Nigeria is losing over 300 hectares of forest reserve on a daily basis, identifying illegal logging and hunting among the longstanding threats to forest conservation, and the loss has accelerated desertification and worsened environmental degradation.

Goni stated this while receiving the members of the Environmental Media Correspondents Association of Nigeria (EMCAN), who paid a courtesy visit to the service’s headquarters in Abuja, saying a sustained collaboration among law enforcement agencies and the media was necessary to expose trafficking networks and improve accountability.

To address the problem, he added, the Nigeria Customs Service, National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA) and Nigeria Police Force had formed an inter-agency committee to combat illegal wildlife trafficking, leading to the seizure of live animals, carcasses and other wildlife specimens.

He emphasised that forest loss has raised environmental concerns beyond security and wildlife crimes, saying the expansion of Nigeria’s national park system was partly intended to restore degraded vegetation and strengthen the country’s response to climate change.

The National Park Service boss called for stronger collaboration with Environmental Journalists to expose illegal activities in Nigeria’s forests and protected areas, as insecurity, illegal mining and wildlife trafficking continue to pose challenges to conservation efforts.

Mr. Goni added, environmental journalists are strategic partners in the campaign to protect Nigeria’s natural resources and wildlife species, stressing that increased media attention would help bring conservation challenges to the forefront of public discourse and encourage action by relevant authorities.

He said the problems confronting national parks and forest reserves remained underreported, making media engagement essential to improving public awareness and strengthening advocacy,as the interconnected nature of Nigeria’s forests makes it difficult to isolate parks from criminal activities taking place in the reserves.

“We are comfortable to have you as partners. We are also comfortable to collaborate with you so that our issues can be given widespread visibility,” Mr Goni said.

The Conservator-General of National Park Service identified illegal mining, illegal hunting, timber exploitation, banditry and kidnapping as major threats to the effective management of national parks and other protected areas.

He explained that even when security operations succeed in containing criminal elements within a national park, adjoining forests could provide alternative hideouts, thereby complicating efforts to maintain security.

Goni commended the Nigerian Armed Forces and other security agencies for their efforts to tackle insecurity and protect vulnerable areas, illegal Mining Operations Disrupt Conservation.

The Conservator-General disclosed that the service had collaborated with the Nigerian Army to close two illegal mining sites in sectors of Gashaka-Gumti National Park in Taraba and Adamawa states.

He said the operation resulted in the closure of mining pits and the dislodgement of more than 4,000 miners, warning that removing illegal miners from protected areas could generate resistance, so there is need for government interventions to provide alternative livelihoods for affected communities.

He also raised concerns over mining activities in Oyo State, saying that the service was working with the Ministry of Solid Minerals to address the situation, and cited the arrest of about 17 miners in Rivers State as part of efforts to curb illegal mining.

The Conservator-General stressed that effective enforcement must be accompanied by inter-agency cooperation and practical measures to address the economic factors driving illegal exploitation of natural resources.

Earlier, EMCAN Chairman, Joycelyn Ellakeche Adah said the association was committed to bridging the communication gap between environmental agencies including the National Park Service and the media.

She added that the association’s new leadership, elected two months ago, had identified inadequate engagement between environmental agencies andd journalists as one of the major challenges affecting effective reporting of the sector.

According to Adah, the association decided to engage relevant agencies to introduce its leadership, establish working relationships and ensure that journalists covering environmental issues have access to information about their activities.

“As journalists, our job is to report on this sector. In every parastatal, there is an environment correspondent, and the job of that correspondent is to report on the sector,”she said.

The EMCAN chairman noted that the association had over 35 members, but only three or four media organisations regularly covered activities of the National Park Service, leaving many environmental correspondents without adequate access to information about the agency.