Worried by the impending environmental crisis caused by increasing rate of carbon monoxide pollution of the atmosphere, environmentalists have called on Nigerians, including religious groups, to put in efforts towards conserving the environment.
According to them, Nigerians need to reduce the rate at which human activities are provoking unprecedented climate change.
Muhtari Aminu-Kano, director general of Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF), said in Lagos last week at the 17th Chief S. L. Edu Memorial Lecture, that the world environment was in crisis as shown by several reports by the United Nations (UN), World Bank and even President Trump’s government, who is not a strong believer in man-made climate change.
Aminu kano warned that there would be serious global crisis, if we do not address climate change within the next 12 years by reducing the level of carbon-dioxide emission, saying that Nigeria had the highest rate of deforestation in the world.
“Climate change is already affecting us in Nigeria and we have other environmental crisis that is compounding the climate change. We are dredging our wetlands, burning our savannahs, polluting and cutting our forest and killing our wild lives at a rapid pace. Nigeria loses 400,000 hectares of forest every year. Right now, we have only 4 percent of our original forest left while 96 percent is gone,” he said.
Aminu kano pointed out the need to re-green Nigeria, adding that we need to do something towards environmental conservation at the level of government, companies, NGOs and individuals.
Martin Palmer, the guest speaker, who spoke on the topic ‘A Quiet Revolution: Faith and the Environment,’ said that religious groups play key role in sustaining communities around the world.
“The role of religious groups in environmental conservation is that government and business keep changing but religion remains the same; God created human being not just to look after its fellow human beings, but also to look after the whole of the planet. We need to rediscover ourselves because we were given responsibility at creation to look after the whole of the creation”, Palmer said.
He said that the role of faiths and the sacred in conservation efforts makes it surprising that the secular and semi scientific conversation and environment movements have taken so long to become alert to the partnership the need to have with the faiths.
Palmer believed that religion, which ought to be the most powerful member of environmental movement, is still slow in playing its role in preservation of the environment in Nigeria.
“We believe that as a result of today’s advocacy lecture and the work NCF is doing in Nigeria, that role of religion in conservation in Nigeria will become a light to the rest of the world,” he added.
Pointing out that the preserved areas in Nigeria are not well preserved, Palmer attributed that to lack of sufficient funding from government to support environmental conservation.
“We should not make the mistake of thinking that the only place to conserve is the national parks. We need to conserve where we live, lands and farms that we have. The religious groups that are the major land owners – 8 percent of habitable land is owned by religious groups, need to conserve those lands. Every church and mosque should have trees around them. They are the fourth largest investing group in the world and they invest in environmental and sustainable development,” Palmer advised.
Earlier, Izoma Philip Asiodu, president, Board of Trustees of NCF, who said that NCF has since 38 years of its existence, championed the cause of nature conservation and biodiversity in Nigeria, disclosed that the foundation got the ministry of environment to agree on a percentage of Federal Government revenue that must be devoted to ecology.
Wondering how much of this ecology fund has gone into real ecological project, Asiodu further disclosed that NCF started discussing with the government on the need for Nigeria to attend, subscribe to all the international laws on conservation of environment, years back during Shehu Shagari administration.
Asiodu said that in 1988, the government announced that Nigeria must return 25 percent forest cover but sadly, “not one square kilometer of forest has been built till date”.
“NCF’s operations have through the cooperation of local and international partners and sponsors, federal and states’ ministries of environment, government departments and agencies, recorded major landmark in the initiation and promotion of nature conservation nationwide. We have projects spread across Nigeria that focus on conservation action, research; environmental education and awareness and policy and advocacy,” Asiodu explained.
CHUKA UROKO
