Apart from having staff on the ground for monitoring purposes, the Forestry Research Institute of Nigeria (FRIN) has teamed up with the Nigerian Army to ensure the protection of Nigeria’s biosphere reserves.
The Director General of FRIN, Zacharia Yaduma, made this known as the institute marked the second International Day of Biosphere Reserves, with the theme “Building Resilience in Nigeria’s Biosphere Reserves,” at FRIN headquarters in Ibadan on Friday.
Yaduma told Nigerian Tribune that “We are in collaboration with the security forces. We have agreed with the military to do mobile surveillance around the protected areas. These are areas being devastated by insecurity like Niger, Cross River, Ogun and Yobe states.”
In his welcome address at the event, the DG of FRIN noted that “Biosphere reserves play a crucial role in addressing some of the most pressing global challenges we face today, such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and sustainable development. They serve as showcases for innovative and sustainable practices that can be replicated and scaled up elsewhere.
“Today, as we celebrate the International Day of Biosphere Reserves, let us reflect on the importance of these remarkable areas in our world and focus on strategic ways to boost resilience in Nigerian Biosphere Reserves.
“Let us renew our commitment to protecting and conserving our planet for future generations.”
Nigeria currently has four biosphere reserves, namely: Omo Biosphere Reserve in Ogun State; Oban Biosphere Reserve and Okwangwo Biosphere Reserve both in Cross River State; and Hadejia-Nguru-Bade Biosphere Reserve that occupies Jigawa and Yobe states. Two more biosphere reserves are expected to be established in Shere Hills Forest Reserve in Plateau State, and Yankari Game Reserve in Bauchi State.
Adedayo Memudu of the Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF) was guest speaker at the event.
In his presentation, he noted that Nigeria was too rich in biodiversity and too large a land mass to have only four established biosphere reserves.
According to UNESCO, a Biosphere Reserve is simply a learning place for sustainable development.
“Biosphere Reserves are important as we continue to understand and find the point of sustainability between economic exploitation and ecosystem conservation,” he stated.
Memudu told Nigerian Tribune that biosphere reserves were undervalued because “generally in Africa and specifically in Nigeria, we do not put economic valuation on our biological resources despite the fact that they play important roles in climate regulation, providing ecosystem services as well as invaluable goods that humans derive from them.
“Unfortunately, our failure to appropriately capture their economic significance and by extension the nation income means that their contributions are not captured in our GDP computations. That is why people think they are valueless.
“Let’s value the air. The average individual needs seven to eight mature trees during their lifetime for breathing because these trees give out oxygen. When we valued Lekki Conservation Centre in 2016, it was more than N20 billion. That is just 78 hectares. Now talk about Omo Biosphere Reserve which is more than 130,000 square kilometres.”
In her remarks, Professor Morenike Ojo, director of Elizabeth Ehi-Ebiewele Biodiversity Linkage Centre at FRIN, said that “with more education and enlightenment, people will know the importance of conserving their environment. For some time, this has not been done effectively that is why we have these problems such as biodiversity loss. If there is no biodiversity, humans will not be in existence.”
She called on members of the public to “embrace environmental conservation. We can start from our homes and offices. There should be community engagement for people in rural areas. People living there have indigenous knowledge that we can tap into. We need more collaboration and partnership with NGOs, agencies and community leaders so that all of us can work together to build a resilient environment.”
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