Don predicts more environmental devastation for Nigeria

Isaac Job, Uyo

Wildlife expert and Associate Professor in the Department of Forestry and Natural Environmental Management, University of Uyo, Dr. Eden Eniang has warned that Nigeria will experience grave environmental challenges if the current bush hunting and fishing are not checked.

Dr. Eniang, who was reacting to the 2019 report released by the Inter-Governmental Science Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Economic Service (IPBES) after its workshop in Paris, said the country is on the verge of losing its biodiversity.

Receiving 130 students of the Rivers state University, Port-Harcourt at the Conservation Education center (CEC) in Uyo, said the report revealed that one million animal species are at risk of extinction in the world is worrisome considering the Nigerian situation.

He acknowledged the landmark global assessment of Nigeria’s environmental problems, warning that the window is closing to safeguard the nation’s biodiversity and by extension a healthy planet, emphasizing that the unregulated hunting and fishing in the country is a threat to nature.

The university don appealed to the federal government to map-out 25 per cent of the land mass in the country to be assigned as government protected area under category 2 of the International Union of Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

While challenging policy makers in the country to come up with implementable legislation to help protect nature and the endangered species which he said are valuable creatures that play vital roles in the ecosystem.

The wildlife scientist lamented that the seven national parks in the country are not capable of providing safe haven for the endangered species and advocated for 10 additional national parks in the country.

According to him, every community must as a matter of urgency contribute 25 per cent of the community’s land to community conservation areas, adding that “in so doing, every local and state governments would end up contributing the needed percentage of land.”

The United Nations report had warned that bonds that hold nature together may be at risk of unraveling from deforestation, overfishing, development and other human activities.

“Thanks to human pressures, one million species may be pushed to extinction in the next few years with serious consequences for human beings as well as the rest of life on earth,” the UN report stated.

Eniang said there is an urgent need for the government, corporate organizations and individuals to contribute toward protecting nature and to shun bush meat consumption.

“Multi-nationals should contribute towards protecting biodiversity as their corporate social responsibility. There should be a regulation on bush meat hunting in the country as it is obtained in Kenya and other developed countries,” he added.