By Elizabeth Uwandu

As part of efforts to preserve Nigeria’s natural resources in their habitats from going into extinction, the new Director-General, Nigerian Conservation Foundation, NCF, Dr Muhtari Aminu-Kano, has said that Nigeria needs to put measures in place to have marine-protected areas and to stop the degradation of its game reserves.

Dr Aminu-Kano who spoke to journalists at the Conservation  Centre, Lekki, weekend, said his core mandate is premised on two flagship projects – the Green Recovery Nigeria Initiative, GRNI, and the need to preserve our marine resources by having marine-protected areas.

Speaking on these projects, the new DG explained: “We have two new flagship projects that we really want to launch with my coming. One of them is the Green Recovery Nigeria Initiative, GRNI. This is a massive ambition as over time, our forest has been degraded, lost and our tree cover reduced to five per cent.

“Our ambition is to bring all stakeholders together. From government, NGOs, private and public sectors and international community, to achieve the lofty goal of increasing forest cover from five per cent to 25 per cent God willing in the next 40 years.

“The second project is the need to lobby for marine-protected areas. Over time in Nigeria, we have been protecting some of our land-based natural resources such as national parks, forest reserve, game reserve. But we’ve done very little for our very rich high profile marine resources.

“We do not have marine- protected areas as we are not protecting the ocean and coasts full of natural resources. So, one of our aims is to bring people from various institutions in order to lobby for marine protection within Nigeria by saving some of our marine resources for future generation,” added  Aminu-Kano.

The DG explained further the foundation’s measures to address deforestation, flooding and climate change saying: “GRNI aims to encourage massive planting of trees, encourage leaving tree cover without degrading forest. Tree planting encourages the taking up of carbon dioxide by the trees that in turn reduce the gases that cause climate change and global warming.

“There are lots of things we can do from different areas to stop deforestation. But the first one is to stop the loss and make sure we protect the bit that is already threatened. We already have a few natural parks, forest and game reserves. However, our reserves are tremulously under pressure. And there is a lot of illegal lobbying; a lot of trees for firewood and for other purposes.

“So, the first thing is to identify some of these reserves that are not under much pressure, that are still looking good and full of wildlife, have rich species and try to protect them. This will stop the loss in some of the very rich places.

“I have concerns over the flooding and the main concern is that if the authorities do not act fast, there will be a repeat of what happens yearly. We have also seen the massive interference with river forces within parts of the country. Those are parts of the major problems of flooding.