FG calls for preservation of forests, vultures

The Ministry of Environment has called for a total halt in acts of deforestation and the threat to the existence of vultures in the country, urging for more tree planting exercises across the country.

Speaking at the 15th edition of the Chief S.L Edu Memorial Lecture held at the Bankers House, Victoria Island, Lagos, the Minister of Environment, Amina Mohammed‎, who was guest speaker said ecosystems are essential to human life, adding that our survival as humans depend on sustainable ecosystems, which provide us with food, water and clean air.

In her lecture titled Last Nigeria Vulture: ‘The Consequences For Human Health And The Economy’, Mohammed, who is the UN Deputy Secretary-General Elect, informed that vultures play a very crucial role in maintaining a healthy environment and the wellbeing of humans, adding that they do not hunt live prey, but act as scavengers, feeding on the carcasses of dead animals.

“The acid in their stomachs is corrosive, facilitating the digestion of decomposing carcasses infected with diseases such as anthrax, cholera, botelinum toxin and rabies that would be lethal to other scavengers and people. Vultures are important indicators of poached activity as they are attracted to large carcasses such as those of poached elephants and rhinos; hence they are victims of poachers.

She stressed that the role of government in the sector is mainly catalytic, adding that programmes in the Ministry constitute the framework for a dynamic, evolving process for co-operation among stakeholders.

“I would like to appreciate the existing collaboration between Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF) and my Ministry and emphasise our resolve intention to strengthen our collaboration as we forge ahead to pursue the conservation of our nation’s natural resources with the aim of improving the quality of human life both in the present and the future”.

‎However, Chairman, National Executive Council, Nigeria Conservation Foundation (NCF) Chief Ede Dafinone said the Chief S. L. Edu Memorial Lecture is a policy advocacy tool used by NCF to raise awareness on salient environment issues affecting the people, our dear nation Nigeria and the entire world.

“The Lecture not only identifies the problems but seeks to proffer solutions to these problems for policy makers to consider. It also stirs up discussions in the media and the society to join in the crusade for the conservation of nature.

In addition, the lecture advocates actions meant to reverse the global environmental degradation that threatens our very existence as a people in this part of the world.

Dafinone futher stressed that environmental conservation must remain a survival strategy for human kind and it gladdens my heart that this has now been recognized more than ever before by various stakeholders across the globe. “The attention the Federal Government of Nigeria has been directed towards climate change and its commitment to ensure environmental sustainability by the endorsement of our Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to climate change mitigation is a testimony to this fact.”