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NCF, BirdLife Int’l Rue Effects of Urbanisation, Mining on Habitat
Olawale Ajimotokan
The Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF) and partners of BirdLife International have bemoaned the destruction to habitat and environment by urbanisation and mining activities in the Sahelian region.
They called for a concerted action to mitigate this practice at a workshop held in Abuja under the aegis of the Pan-African Agency of the Great Green Wall (PAGGW), on the margins of the 8th Ordinary Session of Council of Ministers.
The workshop had in attendance the DG NCF, Dr Muhtari Aminu-Kano; DG NAGGW Nigeria, Dr Yusuf Maina-Bukur; Head, BirdLife International West Africa, Mr. Jean-Baptiste Deffontaines; DG NAGGW Senegal, Mr Gora Diop; DG NAGGW Chad, Mr. Ahamat Mahamat Haggar; and DG of NAGGW Sudan, Dr Sawsan Mustafa.
Aminu-Kano warned that indiscriminate prospecting of natural resources, coupled with urbanisation, will inflict a heavy consequences for nature and biodiversity in Africa in the next 50 years.
He called for a policy and legislation that will protect habitat and biodiversity to be put in place and stem a global crisis from failure to act.
“In some African countries, including Nigeria, there is huge pressure for solid mineral exploitation and expansion of mining fields. And by some strange coincidence then you will find out that the most minerals are deposited in the most remote and natural places where biodiversity lives. So there is a potential contention between wildlife and human explorers,” Aminu-Kano said.
He also noted that aforestation, reforestation, awareness creation about green energy and sustainable living were intentional programmes which individuals, corporate organisations and government agencies must embark on to combat desertification and climate change impact that can drive humanity into annihilation and bring unexpected devastation, even pandemic.
Nigeria and 10 other African countries, Burkina Faso, Chad, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal and Sudan, established the Great Green Wall Initiative (GGWI), which was endorsed in 2007 by the African Union to address increasing desertification, climate change and survival of wildlife in the Sahara and Sahel.
At the Abuja workshop, the participants called for more attention to biodiversity, advocacy, monitoring of habitats and ecosystem services within GGW initiative along building the capacity of national and local conservation organisations.
The workshop noted that PAGGW with support the BirdLife Partnership developed the project entitled “Making the Sahel Greater and Greener for Nature and People” within the framework of the partnership.
The proposed initiative seeks to improve biodiversity conservation, ecosystem services and community resilience for the benefit of nature, people, and climate.
“The Great Green Wall is a great development opportunity for communities to integrate socio-economic and ecological conditions in a context of climate change and insecurity. All components are equal, but the biodiversity component is essential for this initiative and must be taken into account by all actors, state and non-state actors. Because a hand can never wash itself,” said Haggar.
