Expert Decries Non-Utilisation Of Ecological Fund

The Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Kariala Konsult Nig. Ltd, Prof. Dagogo Fubara over the weekend expressed displeasure with the non-utilisation of the 2% ecological fund in the country and called for a reversal of the anomaly.

Prof. Fubara was speaking as chairman of the Nigerian Environmental Society (NES) 22nd Annual General Meeting/Conference in Yenagoa Bayelsa State, with the theme “Green Economy: The Impacts of Unsustainable Environmental Practices”. He described the development as “unsustainable environment practice” that was counterproductive.

Prof. Fubara who advocated for the replacement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) with the sustainable development goals (SDGs) said the objectives of the MDGs were not being met.

While calling on the NES to make proposals to governments in the Niger Delta region on checking the menace of perennial flooding and other ecological challenges, he cautioned against the belief that the next flooding would occur in 50 years time.

According to him, the flood may reoccur within a three years time frame even as he called for the building of structures and barriers of higher platforms as was the norm.

He expressed worry at the practice where those not directly affected by the flood profited through the management of the camps even as Professor of Geodesy expressed the hope that the conference was not just a talk shop and gathering of scientists and experts.

He further called on NES to strive to making politicians in power see reason as to why the environment in the Niger Delta should be protected at all times.

In his presentation, the keynote speaker, Prof. Ndowa Lale of the University of Port Harcourt said the basis of men’s existence was the environment and regretted its mismanagement by man.

He revealed that even the decisions taken by our grand parents in the agricultural sector in the past, had affected the present generation negatively as evidenced by low crop yield.

He said the protection of different specie and the eco-system should be given priority as the survival of the human race was dependent on the wellbeing of the ecosystem. On the over dependence on the forests for protein need, the professor of Animal and Environmental Biology called for the control of consumption pattern through sustainable consumption processes.

He said it was evident that people prefer snails to cow meat which has led to snails being over picked from the forests.

“Every day people are selling snails and they are not farming them.

“They gather them from our forests, you have the smaller medium and large ones.

“They don’t give a damn because the people want to survive” he said.

He advised that if consumption pattern was not regulated by checking indiscriminate hunting and gathering, the end would be disastrous to the forests and animal specie especially, man. Earlier, the National president of NES, Engr. Olu Andah-Wai Ogosu described the event as significant as it was the first after the new executive came into office

He described the theme of the conference which also had as sub-themes “Crude Consequences, The Way Forward”, “biodiversity Conservation in the Niger Delta” The challenge of Artisanal Refineries and its Effects on the environment among others as thought provoking to both the physical Environment and the economic sector.

He said NES was in a process of revitalization and recovery and for the past one year was able to reposition itself not only within its membership but also in the eyes of stakeholders in the environmental sector and the public.

He expressed happiness that NES had been involved in public hearings organized by the National Assembly, Department of Petroleum Resources and submitted a memoranda on the PIB among others.

The NES boss expressed the desire of the organization to see that the environment was seen as a living system and the activities of individuals and corporate organisations and groups were checked to ensure that the environment did not die.

He emphasised that NES was opposed to unsustainable environment practices.

He advocated for tough and implementable regulations to ensure that the generation of today leaves a green economy for the future.