Senator Iroegbu in Abuja
In addition to the terror unleashed by suspected herdsmen, efforts to conserve, protect and preserve wildlife in Nigeria is threatened by the activities of the herdsmen as they invade conservation parks, maim and kill rangers on daily basis.
The issue was brought to the fore in a roundtable discussion in Abuja weekend, which centred on importance and way forward in conserving wildlife, organised by the French Embassy in collaboration with National Park Service (NPS), Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), the ministry of environment and other relevant stakeholders.
Assistant Conservator-General on Ecological Resource Management, National Park, Dr. Okeonyi Agboola, explained that a major challenge confronting the park in carrying out its mandate of conserving wildlife in Nigeria is its constant conflict with the herdsmen.
Agboola said: “On daily basis, herdsmen fight with our rangers, they kill and maim our staff. We have this problem in Cross River, Gashaka gunti National Park, Yankari National park, kanji lake national park and others.
“The issue of grazing in the protected National park is quite cultural. An average Fulani man believes that if his cow grazes in a protected area, the animal will produce more, because protected areas have forage, water and so on. No matter what we do, they still invade the parks.
“The National park also lacks incompetent operation equipment, such as high calibre firearms, because these herdsmen are using AK47 rifles and some of our National Parks are still using pump-action and sticks to confront these herdsmen with AK47.”
He also explained that inadequate personnel, poor road network and inadequate funding from the Federal Government are also bottlenecks to the National Parks mandate.
Also speaking, the Country Director, Wildlife Conservation Society, Mr. Andrew Dunn, said there was need to look into the issues confronting the National Parks in Nigeria because Wildlife cannot survive outside National Parks.
Dunn noted that in addition to the activities of the herdsmen and increasing northern crisis, hunting and loss of habitat through farming, road construction are also problems facing wildlife conservation.
He however, acknowledged that efforts have been made by the WCS and NPS in solving the issue of hunting by providing alternate means of livelihood particularly in Gashaka and cross river. “Schools, clinics and vocational centres have been built to teach them on vocational jobs,” he said.
Speaking further, he said strategies are being put in place to recover more habitats.
“We are working to formalise the arrangement with Cameroon to join the forest of cross river and Taraba state with Cameroon to have bigger area for wildlife,†he added, and called on the federal government to make wildlife conservation a priority.
Representative from the Ministry of Environment, Dr. Elizabeth Ebewili, emphasised the importance of wildlife conservation.
Ebewili urged Nigerians not to overlook or disregard the issue, adding that the God-given natural resources are indispensable part of our ecosystem and the general environment.
“The animals, the plants and the likes have impacts, for example, the elephants help in planning trees and dispersals, vultures are naturally sanitation officers, trees protect water shades and so on. We need to preserve them from going into extinction and for our future generations.
“The inhuman treatment of animals should also stop particularly to the zoo management system in Nigeria, animals are put in terrible conditions,†she added
The Cooperation attaché of the French Embassy, Mr. Helios Ellien, also noted that it’s as a result of the enormous importance and the great need to conserve wildlife that the French institute organised the programme as a platform to create a synergy between actors, embassies, NGOs to coordinate and bring ideas to tackle the issue.
