Stakeholders have raised the alarm that the country’s biodiversity is in rapid decline due to land degradation, deforestation, climate change and fauna loss.
The world is facing a biodiversity crisis unprecedented in scale resulting in a ‘mass extinction event’. Around one million species are threatened with extinction, many of them within a few decades. About 75 per cent of the terrestrial environment is ‘severely altered’ and more than 85 per cent of the surfaces of wetlands have disappeared. The world’s oceans are warmer, more acidic, more polluted and losing more oxygen than ever before, causing unprecedented damage to virtually all marine life.

Speaking at the Stakeholders Workshop on Status of Forest Reserve and Protected Areas in Nigeria, organised by the Federal Ministry of Environment and Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF), the ministry’s Director of Forestry, Dr Moses Ama, called for solutions that will preserve nature for future generations.

“These alarming figures are stark reminders that the world must unite and act promptly to reverse this trend as we are eroding the foundation of our economies, livelihoods, food security health and quality of life worldwide.

“If we continue the wave of natural destruction, we jeopardise our resilience to climate change and invite the resurgence of zoonotic pandemics. We must act swiftly and boldly to reverse the loss of nature and deliver urgently needed solutions to climate change and these solutions are nature-based. We are at a decisive turning point for the future of the world as we know it and our priorities must align to give our natural world a fighting chance,” he said.

According to him, well-managed forest reserves and national parks provide security for people and wildlife and establish an enabling environment that can attract tourism, combat poaching, protect biodiversity, deliver on international commitments and create decent local jobs.

“We have a crucial mission – ensuring that we don’t turn away from the catastrophe rushing straight at us. Ensuring that we act together to protect species threatened by over-exploitation, to strengthen our forest and protected areas as effective measures in the recovery of our natural world,” he said.

Also, the Director General, Forestry Research Institute of Nigeria, Zacharia Yaduma, said that all sectors have a crucial role to play in ensuring measures that are bold enough to preserve the biodiversity and natural resources, on which people’s survival depends.

Programme Coordinator, NCF’s Green Recovery Nigeria (GRN), Folake Salawu, stressed the importance of protected areas in tackling the biodiversity crisis. “African nations have created over two million square kilometres of protected areas, which are an indication of our joint commitment to the preservation of Africa’s rich biodiversity, but we need to do more,” she said.

According to her, the overall goal of the GRN project is to contribute/facilitate a forest degradation landmass of (923,768 square kilometres from 2017 to 2047, while promoting actions to curb further deforestation reforestation scheme in 25 per cent (230,942 square kilometres) of Nigeria’s total areas.

Contributing, NCF Director General, Dr Joseph Onoja, said the protected areas are the cornerstone of biodiversity conservation, and “we must continue to act jointly to preserve them.”

He called for the protection of biodiversity and urged governments to implement and enforce laws and regulations. “We all need to take charge of the situation as Nigerians and see what we can do to enjoy our environment,” Onoja added.

Director of Forestry, Adamawa, Sarah Gundiri, regretted that “the world’s oceans are warmer, more acidic, more polluted and losing more oxygen than ever before, causing unprecedented damage to virtually all marine life.”

However, a consultant, Adedamola Ogunsesan, explained that only 15 per cent of the world’s land mass and seven per cent of the oceans are protected, adding, that the degradation and loss of ecosystems are some of the main causes of greenhouse gas emissions, and accounting for 20 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions.