Neglect of biodiversity has cost Nigeria a lot – Dore
Can you tell us the state of biodiversity in the country?The state of biodiversity is very poor in this country, the first thing is that the concept of biodiversity is poorly understood and when it comes to managing it, it’s even poorer for two reasons; one is that the structures to manage biodiversities are not […]
Can you tell us the state of biodiversity in the country?
The state of biodiversity is very poor in this country, the first thing is that the concept of biodiversity is poorly understood and when it comes to managing it, it’s even poorer for two reasons; one is that the structures to manage biodiversities are not there. Where there are institutions to manage biodiversity, they are poorly funded. All across the country, ecosystem dehydration, species loss and extinction in some instances are rife. For the past hundred years, we have lost several species of animals, some plants are endangered, the status of many of them are just not quiet understood at all. The reasons for the deprivation of biodiversity ranges from pollution, poor waste management, open access to biological resources in the sense that controls are not strong, people helping themselves to plants and animals for domestic consumption, there’s prevention of several ecosystem by exotic species. In many instances, industries have opened up forest that were once impenetrable and now people have access to these places. We also have barriers; policies are not in place for conservation despite the fact that this country has signed international treaties that make it mandatory for them to conserve biodiversity.
When people hear of biodiversity what usually comes to their mind is animals, so what is biodiversity?
When we talk about biodiversity, we are talking about the whole complex of plants, animals in their variety and the place where you can find those plants and animals together with the relationship between plants and animals and the places you can find them, in their ecosystem.
Can we say Nigeria has a comparative advantage in areas of biodiversity?
Nigeria is very rich in biodiversity both plants and animal kingdoms. In variety of mammals, birds, reptiles, fishes, amphibian, we are blessed, but as population increases and industrialization sets in, the challenge to manage these things comes to play. We cannot continue to do business as usual, we need to take steps, that is why it is good to set aside certain places that will be inviolate, certain places where the animals can live and breathe, we cannot hunt animals every day, if we do, we imperil the next generation, because whatever we are seeing today, we cannot see them tomorrow again because we lack the control to manage the resources God has blessed us with.
Which biodiversity in this country is facing threats of extinction?
Let me start from the Niger Delta; we used to have what is known as Pigmy Hippo, its existence is now in doubts, we think it could be extinct, the Pigmy Hippo was found in Nigeria, parts of Liberia and Sierra Lone maybe Ivory Coast. So between Nigeria and those three countries, the animals do not exist anymore. It is an animal with discontinuous distribution, with very specialized requirements, with thick swamp forest, its status in this country is not clear, the elephant is probably almost extinct except some small population in Andone, parts of Okhimu National Park in Edo State and in Cross River National Park.
In most of the other states, the elephant is gone. The bigger the mammals, the more threats they experience because of their conflicts with human beings. The status of the Bush Cow and Buffalo in the Niger Delta is very shaky, even the Crocodile that used to be many. A recent study shows that in one market in Delta State, they sell over one thousand crocodiles every year and they harvest the crocodiles every day by collecting the eggs of the crocodiles. If you are collecting the adults and the young ones (eggs), how long will it take for the species to go extinct, and this applies to all other groups, birds, antelopes etc. People use chemicals to kill fish.
In the North, we used to have giraffe, at least in Borno state until recently but the giraffe no longer exists, we used to have Cheetah but there are no more, even the status of the Ostrich is also imperil, and the National Park and Games Reserves are no longer safe as people enter there to hunt and kill the animals in spite of public policy that attempts to conserve the animals there. The NGO communities are also trying their best to see that these plants and animals do not finish.
What is the driving force behind the extinction?
The driving force behind the extinction is poverty; somebody once asked why the Nigerian economy has not yet collapsed. Biodiversity is sustaining rural economy because people go to the wilderness and help themselves on a daily basis, they catch fish, meat, take plants for building houses, for medicines, for food, for cosmetics; it is like free pool, a natural bank where people go to borrow their children’s future. Then there is lack of enforcement capacity. In many instances, the guards to enforce extinct laws are not there, when they get old and retire, new ones are not recruited, very few states are recruiting new staff.
Is there a national map identifying and showing location of biodiversity in the country?
There is a map showing the forest reserves, but forest reserves are subject to abuse. It is very easy for public policies to de-reserve if you’re constructing a road, many roads pass through forest reserves, if a man is very powerful he can buy part of the reserve, and the management of the forest reserve is very weak. If you take part of a forest reserve, the best thing is to add to it but these are not done, so many of the forest reserves are weak in structure. There should be the protection of the forest from human activities like fire, cutting of timber where people go with arms and ammunition into forest reserves to take timber and are ready to fight public officers who try to stop them from taking timber.
Nigeria used to be rich in terms of biodiversity, is that still the case?
For about sixty years now that oil extraction has been going on in the Niger Delta, some oil companies have taken steps to protect biodiversity, when activities such as seismic lines are being cut, pipelines are being constructed. This opens the forest and creeks and access is created for places that were once unavailable ordinarily, so a lot of the biodiversity is under threat from pollution. Inhabitants are more responsible for the daily off take because as you drive around the Niger Delta, you’ll find bush meat being sold on the streets, it is illegal for most of these species to be sold so both the population and industries share the blame. As it were, you cannot hunt wild life on a daily basis and still think that your children or grandchildren will have access to those same species. The companies do environmental impact assessment and when they do these assessments, it is left for the company officials to enforce. Whether this takes place is a different question altogether but there’s something some oil companies are doing called biodiversity action plan, where they are investing in the conservation of specific geographic sports which is a way of investing in biodiversity.
Do you think such investments should be made compulsory?
Yes. I must say it is part of the controversies, there is a lot of mangrove conservation work going on with NGOs and civil societies in some communities, but we could do a lot more. Whatever it is we are doing, if the rural communities do not respect laws that forbid the hunting of animals at different times, there’s nothing anybody can do if we want to keep eating bush meat every day.
Is government doing enough to safeguard the biodiversity?
Biodiversity is not at the forefront of public policy and many states do not have laws that conserve biodiversity. In fact, some of the forests reserves have no legal backing so it will be an incentive to conservation if every state could review their biodiversity associated laws to come with terms with modern realities and challenges that biodiversity face. They need to recruit and train staff to meet the challenges. Human population has increased, the reserves in the Niger Delta are very small so we need to do proper planning so that the reserves can be connected and then become more functional.
How has the international support that we get aided efforts to conserve?
There have been quite a number of international supports especially from the Niger Delta. About eleven years ago, international support led to the discovery of a unique monkey that is found nowhere else in the world. With such support, the NGOs, public and private sectors are trying to make sure that conservation goes on but addressing poverty, looking for alternative life style, unemployment etc have to be addressed so that rural communities can have options from where they can get proper employment and a better life.
Considering the inadequate attention given to biodiversity, what do we lose as a country?
Biodiversity is the basis of life; the ecosystem services is provided by biodiversity, the oxygen you breathe, so when we abuse our biodiversity we run into problems of deforestation, erosions and the likes. How are we going to get trees to produce timber to roof our houses? How are we going to have access to medicinal ingredients for pharmaceutical? How are we going to find food and cosmetics? So we lose a lot because virtually every industry has to do with biodiversity.