……Solicits greater public participation to solve environmental problems
Five major nature recreational centers and forest reserves across the country covering over four hundred thousand hectares of land have been rehabilitated as part of efforts to restore the nation’s forest covers.
A former Petroleum Minister Chief Philip Asiodu who is the current President of the Board of Trustees, Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF) disclosed at a forum in Lagos.
The affected nature reserves are the Lekki Conservation Centre, Lagos (78 hectares); Omo Forest Reserve, Ogun State (65,000 hectares) ; Finima Nature Park, Rivers State (1,000 hectares) ; Becheve Nature Reserve, Cross River State (120 hectares) ;and Hadejia-Nguru Wetlands Conservation, Yobe State (350,000 hectares).
Chief Asiodu said the projects fall under the Green Recovery Nigeria (GRN) program of NCF towards reclaiming the country’s forests to the Independence Era in 1960.
He pointed out that the ambitious program which seems to recover and restore the nation’s forest cover from the current seven percent to twenty-five percent by 2047 is pushing through with the support of partners.
According to the former minister who was reporting on the foundation’s activities in 2023, “Working with many International and local donors including corporate partners, we implemented a lot of projects under the Green Recovery Nigeria (GRN) program, a flagship program of the NCF Strategic Action Plan (SAP). The GRN which started in 2017 is a 30-year ambitious programme that seems to recover and restore Nigeria’s forest cover from the current 7% to 25% by 2047. We are consistently pushing towards achieving this goal. Last year, with support from our partners, we planted over 285,000 trees across the country.”
He submitted that most of the environmental issues plaguing the country namely coastal erosion, desertification, loss of biodiversity, and increasing heat waves can be sustainably addressed by creating forests in cities and conserving those in rural areas.
Chief Asiodu emphasized that trees remain the most impactful strategy for addressing most climate and weather-related issues.
Asiodu therefore called on Nigerians to become nature ambassadors and work towards the conservation and protection of natural environments.
He particularly harped on the need to conserve wetlands saying they are useful for controlling floods.
Asiodu stated that despite the economic challenges, 2023 was a good year for NCF as so much was achieved including the execution of several projects to save endangered species as well as the commemoration of important annual events.
He said, “In the year under review, we hosted the 21st edition of the Chief S. L. Edu Memorial Lecture, our flagship advocacy tool used to set the agenda for the foundation and to call the attention of all stakeholders to germane issues on environmental sustainability and nature conservation. The keynote Speaker, Mr. Martin Harper, CEO of BirdLife International made an incisive presentation on the theme, “Humanity and the Twin Crisis of Climate Change and Biodiversity Loss”. Two PHD grants were also awarded to two students at the lecture. We thank the Chief S. L. Edu family and Chevron Nigeria Ltd for their consistent support of the lecture for over two decades.
“Several conservation projects were implemented under the saving species in Peril. Some important aspects of our strategy and resource mobilization were targeted at some of our focal species. Working with diverse partners, we implemented projects for the preservation of endangered animals, birds, and plant species. These projects focused on the conservation of species like critically Endangered Cross River gorillas, wild cats like lions and leopards, sea turtles, African forest elephants, vultures, and others.
“To properly galvanize efforts towards tackling the climate change crisis, we inaugurated the Nigeria Climate Justice Alliance (NCJA) in July 2023. The support we received from the Ford Foundation helped in achieve this. Through this alliance, we now have passionate CSOs who are promoting one agenda or the other in tackling the impact of climate change.
“As we know, solving environmental problems requires robust action and response at the local and global levels because conservation issues transcend borders. Given this, I call on all to join hands with the Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF) to promote environmental sustainability and nature conservation programs, projects, and initiatives. NCF will continue to intensify its efforts, and synergize with other partners, to achieve greater results.”
Meanwhile, NCF is working hard to fully develop its conservation Centre in Abuja, a 262 hectares of land donated for the project by the immediate former President of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari.
A brief on the project which is contained in the NCF brochure for its 35th Annual General Meeting says the centre was “established with the objectives to raise awareness amongst Nigerians, especially on the need to conserve biodiversity. The centre serves as education, research and ecotourism site where people can interact to learn and appreciate nature; and conserve biological and historical resources particularly species and habitats that abound in the area”.
By Innocent Onoh (+2348034158834)
COV/ONOH
