As the world commemorates the 2018 International Day for the Conservation of  Mangrove Ecosystems today, Niger Delta state governments have been tasked on the need to create a Coastal Areas Development Agency, COADA, to specifically fast track the sustainable management of coastal communities whose homelands and livelihoods are at the verge of extinction across the country.

File photo: An aerial view of submerged community in the Niger Delta

Chief Presiding Officer of Coastal and Marine Areas Development Initiative, CMADI, developers of Falcorp Mangrove Park, Ijala Ikeren, in Delta State, Mr. Henry Erikowa, made the call in Warri, Delta State, while addressing students of Egbokodo Secondary School, Egbokod -Itsekiri on the need to imbibe habits that would help mitigate the effects of climate change.

Speaking on the need to inaugurate the school’s Environmental Conservation Club, Mr. Erikowa noted that many countries including “Nigeria have not incorporated Coastal blue carbon into their portfolio of climate change mitigation nor do they have coastal management policies and action plans.”

According to him, states like Delta, Bayelsa, Cross River,Akwa Ibom and Edo are largely neck deep in the petroleum sector while their coastal communities are fast losing their ecosystems and means of livelihood to the vagaries and ravaging storms and floods daily, saying that coastal ecosystems are critical to maintaining human well-being and global biodiversity.

He said mangroves and tidal salt marshes sequester stores significant amount of coastal blue carbon from the atmosphere and ocean that are recognised for their role in mitigating climate change noting that conservation and restoration of these coastal ecosystems has been addressed in international and national climate change mitigation policy and finance mechanisms.