NCF, SSDO task Enugu communities on vulture conservation

The Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF), with the support of South-Saharan Social Development Organisation (SSDO) has called on Enugu communities on the need to conserve vultures in the state.

Justifying the campaign, the Director General of NCF, Dr Joseph Onoja, who was represented by Head Communications, NCF, Mr Oladapo Soneye, said that currently, vultures have become endangered species in the country.

“If we don’t take urgent actions in preserving what is left, while halting further reduction of their populations, we may drive them into extinction through human activities. The commonest species of vulture found in Enugu is Hooded Vulture,”he said.

He further admonished them to put a stop to the killing of vulture, destroying their habitat, trading in vulture and its parts or misrepresenting them as bad omen or evil birds.

This was parts of the state-wide awareness and advocacy campaign in Enugu State during the International Vulture Awareness Day (IVAD) sensitisation walk.

Some communities of Enugu State in Nigeria have been identified as wildlife market hotspot as well as vulture safe zones.

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During the event, participants were drawn from the Enugu State Ministries of Environment, Agriculture, and Information; Igbo Eze North Health Department; representatives from Local Government Areas; CSO partners, students of higher institutions as well as secondary school.

The three-mile walk commenced at SPAR Mall Complex, Enugu through the popular Okpara Square and terminated at Hotel Sylvia, Independence Layout, Enugu, where a reception was held.

The objective of the campaign is to drum support for the protection of the vultures – nature’s clean-up crew while highlighting their health and economic importance to the people and environment.

In September 2021, NCF conducted a field survey in a forest at Awgu Local Government Area and recorded over 200 individual population of Hooded Vulture. The community forest is not a government recognised protected area but protected by cultural and traditional beliefs hindering exploitation of the species.

The small community has a growing population of over 25,000 people involved in subsistence farming and other artisanal activities.

Another community within the area that is a cosmopolitan area with semi-urban population and a regional market that has one of the largest slaughter house in the area, was also identified. This gave opportunity for a population of Hooded Vulture between 500-1000 in the area to visit market daily for food.

NCF said it has also gotten the commitment of the shrine custodian to support the protection of the vulture in the long term.

Head of Programmes for SSDO, Mr Udochukwu Egwim while highlighting the health benefit of vulture, revealed that vulture is the only animal among all other species who has the capacity to feed on carcass and not emit harmful substance into the atmosphere.

NCF is the foremost environmental NGO in Nigeria dedicated to nature conservation and biodiversity resources management. It has been promoting a vision of where people prosper while living in harmony with nature for four decades.

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