The depletion in the wildlife population which is the reason for the soaring global value of wildlife trade now estimated at $50-$150 billion is raising concerns among environmental activists.
The activists are also sad that fewer than 50 lions remain in Nigeria while less than 7,100 cheetahs remain in the wild, globally, saying that many more statistics of the state of wildlife suggest that the time for urgent action is now.
“The Federal Ministry of Environment and the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development must create an operational synergy between associated government and non-government stakeholders”, said the environmentalists advised at this year’s Wildlife Day.
Continuing, they said, “we must take a cue from smaller countries like Gabon with 13 well-managed national parks, Egypt with 25 national parks and Kenya with 23 national parks only aside game reserves, wildlife sanctuary and other forms of protected areas in countries like Botswana, South Africa, Tanzania and Madagascar”.
Despite Nigeria’s very large landmass, it cannot assure of the functionality of its only seven National Parks which may not really be a refuge for what is left of the wildlife population just as there is no clear prioritization of biodiversity and wildlife heritage by the governments at all levels in Nigeria.
“Human activities like hunting, grazing, land deforestation, mining, infrastructural construction, aerodromes, power lines, and related activities have destroyed our wildlife flora and fauna than natural factors like climate change and fire occurrences by over 40 percent in the last 25 years. Another adjoining factor is that occupants of host communities earmarked as protected areas see their surrounding areas as traditional hunting grounds”, Joseph Onoja, Ag. Director General, Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF), noted.
Onoja recalled that two years ago since Amina Mohammed promised that the government would develop the capacity to know what the baseline wildlife population was, what animal was where, which was endangered, what needed to be done to protect those animals and to increase their population in Nigeria for the sake of the wildlife.
“For long, Nigeria has rested on an erroneous notion that our wild animals were plentiful and not under any threat of extinction, however, following the recent publication of a red list of globally threatened species which revealed that 148 animals and 146 plant species found in Nigeria were threatened at various degrees including some species near extinction; we hope it is not too late to right the wrongs,” he said.
He advised further that government should dstrengthen the National Park Service to enhance their capacity for wildlife conservation and protection and also increase awareness and education on the intrinsic value of wildlife to the society.
According to him, there should be swift and clear penalties for illegal poachers and hunters to mitigate further illegal harvesting of wildlife while there should be infrastructural development plans to incorporate the wildlife protection/survival programme through effective Environmental & Social Impact Assessment..
“Mmonitoring and data compilation must complement environmental education and awareness; the fiercest of wild animals cannot protect themselves from those out to poach or illegally traffic them;it’s up to you and me, together we can restore Nigeria’s wildlife heritage and give a voice to the younger ones”, he assured.
CHUKA UROKO
