By Ayo Onikoyi

In response to the growing concerns over Nigeria’s rapidly declining biodiversity, the recent approval by the Nigerian Senate to establish 10 new additional national parks has sparked widespread discussions.

The initiative aims to preserve the country’s rich but endangered ecosystems. To provide deeper insights into the potential impact of this development, Vanguard Newspaper interviewed Dr Tiamiyu, an educator who is passionate about biodiversity conservation.

Dr. Bashir Tiamiyu, a lecturer in the Department of Plant Biology at the University of Ilorin, earned his PhD at the renowned Wuhan Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, China, fully funded by the Chinese Government Scholarship and won a competitive International Graduate Excellence Award in 2022.

He is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Connecticut, United States of America. As an expert, he has years of experience teaching biodiversity and conservation courses, including Natural resources and conservation, Plant Biodiversity, and Advanced Plant Evolutionary Ecology.

To him, biodiversity research is not just a profession but a deep-rooted passion. His cutting-edge research in landscape and population genomics and conservation biology is helping to illuminate the strategies for managing endemic plants in China and Nigeria, which makes him an authoritative voice in this discussion.

Dr. Tiamiyu utilizes genome and ecological data to explore how plants adapt and survive in heterogeneous environments, focusing on climate change, evolutionary ecology, species delimitation, and local adaptation. His work has garnered national and international recognition, with numerous publications and conference presentations driving his advocacy for the protection of Nigeria’s forest reserves and national parks.

“According to FAO (2004), Nigeria is among the tropical regions experiencing alarming rates of deforestation of its natural forests, with more than 50% lost in recent decades due to logging, agriculture, medicinal usage, and firewood extraction,” Dr. Tiamiyu stated in a recent interview.

Nigeria’s forests and national parks are home to some of the world’s most endangered species, such as the African manatee, Cross River gorilla, red colobus, and leatherback turtle. Despite this biodiversity richness, many species face challenges of habitat loss, fragmentation, overexploitation, pollution, invasive alien species, and the overwhelming issue of climate change. Thus, it is not surprising that the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List (IUCN, 2019) reports that 309 species in Nigeria are currently threatened and possibly if care is not taken at risk of extinction. Thus, enacting an adequate conservation policy is imperative to protect Nigeria’s biodiversity.

The recent approval of 10 new national parks by the Nigerian Government is a positive step toward conserving Nigeria’s biodiversity. Their creation will help regulate the use of flora and fauna, combat the alarming rate of forest loss, and contribute to the preservation of Nigeria’s natural forest while maintaining ecological balance. Furthermore, this initiative is expected to improve tourism infrastructure in line with international standards, providing a boost to the country’s tourism sector. Parks are crucial in mitigating climate change as the vegetation acts as carbon sinks, absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

“This is indeed a significant achievement for Nigeria’s conservation efforts. These parks will help protect our depleting biodiversity resources,” Dr. Tiamiyu emphasized. He added that creating new parks alone is not enough; effective implementation of forest laws against poaching and illegal logging and adequate funding are essential. He cited issues such as staffing, compensation for landowners, and communal conflicts, as seen in locations such as Okomu National Park, where local communities feel neglected by the government.

It is important to note that the inclusion of national parks within the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework makes it an essential biodiversity component. National parks’ role in the nation’s conservation efforts cannot be overemphasized. Dr. Tiamiyu opined that there is a need to protect the parks through concerted efforts such as safeguarding critical areas and restoring degraded ecosystems, strict anti-poaching enforcement, and use of technology to prevent illegal activities—control of invasive species, and implementation of fire control measures to prevent destructive wildfires.

Also, citizen science, education, and community engagement are crucial, as we are all stakeholders in conservation. “There is a need to sensitize the locals on the importance of protecting the national parks,” Dr. Tiamiyu noted, emphasizing the importance of collaboration between NGOs, policymakers, and other relevant stakeholders to ensure sustainable conservation of biological diversity and the mitigation of climate change impact on our ecosystems.