The Honourable Minister of State, Environment, Chief Sharon Ikeazor has called on Nigerians to protect wildlife and plant species and support the Federal Government’s effort at tackling illegal wildlife trade across international ports and border posts of the country.
She said this is in line with the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
Ikeazor made the call on Tuesday during the commemoration of the World Wildlife Day for the year 2020. The theme for this year’s commemoration is “Sustaining all life on Earth”.
Ikeazor stated that the theme is well timed and all-encompassing as biodiversity is critically endangered and there is a need to rescue these natural resources and the planet as a whole. She added that the Federal Government is ready to give maximum support for the protection of wildlife and its sustainability as Nigeria is a signatory to a number of treaties on the conservation of Endangered Species.
While reiterating Nigeria’s commitment to the fight against illegal wildlife trade, she noted that Nigeria joined other 182 nations to sign and ratify the International CITES Convention in 1974, and to give credence to this Convention, Nigeria promulgated the Endangered Species Decree No. 11 in 1985, which is now enacted as Endangered Species Act 2016.
Ikeazor represented by the Permanent Secretary of Environment, Dr. Wadinga Bakari, the minister eulogized Nigeria’s endowment with enormous biodiversity resources of both plant and animal species.
‘‘There are about 7,895 plant species and over 22,000 vertebrate andinvertebrate species which include; insects, fish, birds and mammals, in Nigeria,” Izeakor said.
“This shows the depth of natural resources found within the geographical boundary of the country.
“The effective management of these enormous resources in actualising the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals calls for the celebration of the World Wildlife Day.”
Over the years, Nigeria has been recognized as a transit route by major wildlife traffickers in the perpetration of their illegal crimes. These traffickers according to her, harvest enormous wildlife resources such as Elephant tusks, Pangolin scales, hippopotamus hooves and their derivatives in the Natural Reserves of many East African countries such as Kenya, Cameroun, Tanzania etc. and transport them through our Country’s porous borders.
However, to curb this trend, the Nigeria CITES Management Authority form a Joint Task Force in Combatting Illegal Trade of Wildlife Resources with several Agencies such as the Police(Interpol unit), Nigeria Customs Service, Nigeria Immigration Service, NESREA, FAAN, Ministry of Justice and many more through which proper awareness, dissemination andexchange of information is carried out resulting in strong inter- agency collaboration to curbthe menace of wildlife trafficking in the Country.
This inter-agencies collaborations according to her, resulted in the arrest, seizure andsubsequent prosecution of wildlife traffickers in their numbers at several locations within thecountry with the Nigerian Customs Services in 2019, intercepted wildlife resources worth over 10 million naira. Ikeazor reaffirmed the ministry’s role as focal point of CITES implementation in Nigeria andits commitment to conserve wild species which according to her were now almost driven intoextinction due to over exploitation, habitat change and illicit trafficking.
She, however, addedthat it is the desire of the ministry to continue to create awareness on large scale knowingfully well that solving environmental issues will require truly comprehensive action andresponse at the local and international levels, as the illegal trade in wildlife resourcestranscend borders.
In Nigeria, efforts have been made with considerable successes towards securing the survivalof endangered species of wild fauna and flora through the establishment of National Parksacross the country in an effort to safeguard the surviving endangered species, she added thatformation of Joint Task Force in Combating Illegal Wildlife Trade in Nigeria, training of judges specialised in wildlife related matters, with vigorous awareness and re-orientationamong the citizenry and the proposed drive to include wildlife course in the Para-militarytraining centers.
Ikeazor called for attitudinal change and advocacy to save the environmentand its endangered species.
