Towards making Nigeria wildlife ecotourism destination
Nigeria is blessed with several once-thriving national parks but the activities of poachers, the country’s expanding population, resource extraction, lack of conservation support from the government and other anthropogenic effects are threatening them.
With the abundance of wildlife resources that include animals and birds, many of these species have gone into extinction due to increasing industrial pollution, environmental degradation and forest depletion. Whereas, countries like Tanzania, Kenya and South Africa have over the years been making good fortunes from wildlife tourism.
Specifically, ecotourism is Tanzania’s most important natural resource contributing significantly to the nation’s economic importance/gross yearly earnings and providing the basis for the country’s tourism industry.
In the case of Nigeria, the abundance of reserves is fast depleting. Nigeria has no surviving Rhinos, Giraffes or Cheetahs and fewer than 50 lions, 100 gorillas, 500 elephants and 2300 chimpanzees are left in the wild.
Despite ongoing conservation efforts, poaching for body parts and meat along with habitat loss from deforestation, infrastructure development and agricultural expansion threaten wildlife. Illegal bushmeat consumption is also widespread across Nigeria’s urban areas and cities.
Nigeria currently does not have an inventory of all the resources in its 17 national parks, which include the Chad Basin, Cross River, Gashaka-Gumti, Kamuku, Kainji Lake, Okomu and Old Oyo and Yankari Game Reserve.
Others like Allawa Game Reserve, Apoi Forest Reserve and Edumenum Forest Reserve, Falgore Game Reserve, Hadeja Wetland Game Reserve, Kampe Forest Reserve, Kogo Forest Reserve, Marhai Forest Reserve, Oba Hill Forest Reserve and Pandam Forest Reserve are not also well accounted for.
The unfortunate development is not unconnected to the lack of effective management and infrastructure deficit. Additionally, many Nigerians don’t have the culture of visiting tourist sites, hence the dying culture of domestic tourism.
Essentially, climate change has also become a major limitation to wildlife ecotourism efforts in Nigeria and Africa.
For instance, the Yankari site, which used to be the most vibrant of all the resource reserves, was neglected and under-funded from 2006 to 2014, thereby hindering effective operations. As a result, poachers in illegal ivory trade allegedly killed many elephants in the reserves.
The Assistant Conservator General, Nigeria National Park Service (NNPS), Dr. Okeyoyin Agboola, said the issue of Nigeria attaining the destination for wildlife tourism is possible with the massive endowment in terms of natural resources.
However, he said certain things have to be put into place to attain such a giant stride.
He said the present state of infrastructure in the nations’ tourist sites should be improved upon. According to him, any tourist that plans to come on a visit would desire to have value for their money, adding that if the infrastructure is not good, nobody will want to come on a visit to the country’s tourist sites.
“The road network to our tourist sites must be properly built, where tourists are going to sleep must be simple and decent. Another issue is insecurity. In a situation where Nigerians are scared of going to tourist sites, can we now advise foreigners to come? The moment you want to market the park site, the first question you will be asked is ‘how secure is the place?’
“Take, for example, some of our tourist sites located in Borno and Yobe, how many Nigerians can go there? How much more about foreigners? There is a security problem,” he said.
Agboola reinforced that the protection of the resources is of major concern, especially with the unending craving for bush meat by most Nigerians.
“Anything in Nigeria is bushmeat, any crawling thing is also bush meat. This is affecting the population of flora and the fauna that people will want to come and view in our protected areas.
There must be effective protection of those resources. When you go to Kenya and Tanzania, you move left, right and you see animals around. In those days, when we were young, you see animals when we move around but we don’t see them anymore. We have consumed all of them as bushmeat.”
He stated that if the country hopes to attain the status of a great destination for wildlife tourism, the VISA policy must be friendly to tourism. For instance, he suggested VISA on arrival for foreigners, who want to visit the tourist parks.
“Let us have an inventory of all the wildlife ecotourism sites, full details and a documentary of each of the sites. In Kainji, what are the resources there, in Old Oyo, what are the resources there and what are the unique features in Cross River national park? We must have all those details before talking about publicity within and outside the country,” he said.
Speaking with The Guardian, a veterinarian/conservationist, Dr. Mark Ofua, said countries like South Africa, Kenya, Uganda and Kenya have positioned their resources, parks and wildlife such that they make income from the exploitation of the natural resources but said Nigeria over the years has let her natural resources slide to a point of near extinction making it difficult to make any income from there.
Ofua, who is also a WildAid consultant said the situation is not a write off yet as the ugly trend can be reversed. He pointed out that the loopholes have to be clogged.
“It is said that some of our local species are functionally extinct like the Jeerah, the cheetah, the back Rhino but we still have some great species that are still available that if we block the hole of decline, we can still save them and make Nigeria a great tourist destination for wildlife. We have water buffalo, elephants and others. If we conserve these animals and help them to thrive, replenish and create well-protected areas for them, people will pay so much money to see these animals.
“We have one of the most elusive mammals, the pangolins in Nigeria, The giant is extinct but we still have the white-bellied pangolin. If we conserve them and make a place for them, people will pay good money to come. There is a private park in South Africa where people pay up to $ 50,000 rands to see a pangolin,” he said.
“If a poacher kills an elephant and gets the tusk, the tusk could give him N3 million or N4million in the black market but if a community has an elephant located there, the same elephant will give them up to N50million yearly for tourism. If we conserve our resources, it will benefit the populace as a whole as against benefiting a few people exploiting the resources and shipping the money out.”
Ofua called for a holistic approach to stop the illegal exploitation of the resources, stressing that the illicit trade of wildlife from West Africa, South Africa, and East and Southern Africa must be stopped.
“Port security and officials have to be strengthened, as well as trained on the arrest of illegal wildlife traders. Sniffer dogs should be given to them and stiffer penalties must be imposed to protect the animals. Conservation biology should be inculcated in the secondary school and university curriculum. Education is important, that is it is illegal to kill wildlife animals,” he said.
He lamented that the national parks are in a state of decline, hence the need for measures to make them attractive. He also urged leaders to muster the political will to revamp the parks while the facilities must be made more modern.
“I was at Yankari recently, which is our foremost reserve. Nigerians are not even aware that the parks are in existence. Very few people can name three parks in Nigeria. We need to get rangers that are well trained to do the work in the right number with arms so that poachers will not have their way. We need to motivate the rangers so that they don’t aid the poachers. Till today, we see illegal loggers going into national parks to look for fireworks. It is said that it has political undertones but there should be penalties.”
Also speaking, a Professor of Wildlife and Ecotourism Management, University of Ibadan, Oluwagbemiga Ojo said Nigeria is well placed to generate income if the tourism sector is promoted using the national parks and protected areas.
Ojo who explained that Wildlife, comprises consumptive and non-consumptive resources, argued that it is essential for Nigerian authorities to understand the need to conserve some of the resources like the flora and fauna.
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