Foundation worries over land degradation calls for stakeholders’ collaboration
The Nigeria Conservation Foundation (NCF) has expressed worry over land degradation and other natural resources, calling on relevant stakeholders’ support in addressing the menace in the country.
The NCF Director-General, Dr Muhtari Aminu-Kano, made the expression at a National Exports Consultation workshop on the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, organised by NCF, in Abuja.
He said that the effort and support of the stakeholders would address the environmental challenge.
Aminu-Kano said that the workshop was for the Ministry of Environment and other stakeholders from different sectors to deliberate on what to do to restore the degraded land and natural resources in the country.
“So, the world is developing to see how best to address this crime which we are already losing the nature.
“But the ministry of environment and the NCF are collaborating and at the same time calling on Nigerians to participate and show interest.
“We are gathering to discuss and exchange our ideas and knowledge on however this can be managed.
“We want to make sure that the deliberation will be a combination thing not involving government alone but all relevant Nigerians to discuss on what should be done as a country,’’ Aminu-Kano said.
He said the collaboration would go deep to interact with other countries, adding that Nigeria has really lost a lot of her land and nature
“Nigeria is rating the highest deforestation in the world, this means that the nature is already going; we are facing environmental problems such as desertification, soil erosion, traffic of the endangered species among others.
“We need to act fast, we are particularly facing all these because of the huge population which is increasing and our land is not increasing rather it’s actually decreasing.
“Also our impact in nature and natural resources is getting deeper and deeper. A lot of loss of natural resources happening in the world is because of human activities,’’ he said.
They said there was the need to do something urgently and act fast to address the problem as people are going around capturing endangered species, cutting down trees indiscriminately.
“Another major issue that has contributed to the loss of land and natural resources is agricultural expansion, climate change and direct exploitation of natural resources.
“I believed that effective support of every Nigerian will go a long way to address the issue appropriately,’’ he said.
Prof. Babajide Aleph, from the University of Lagos, said that the essence of the meeting was to put in place, a Nigerian picture of how natural resources can be conserved.
Aleph said that nature was made to be used by human beings, but should be managed in a sustainable manner.
According to him, the essence of this meeting is to find means by which we can conserve the biodiversity, biological resources that God has endowed us.
“Nations have come together through the auspices of the United Nations trying putting together steps and strategy within a framework to ensure that we are able to put in place processes that will make address the environmental challenge.
“Our gathering is also to ensure that as much as we use nature, we are also able to restore nature because there is no harm in using nature. It is used for food, for drugs and for soul mates.
“But we want to let people know that as we take nature we ensure that we replace it in a sustainable manner that is the only way we can restore and conserve our land and natural resources,’’ he said.
