Biodiversity Conservation: RSG To Partner UNDP

The Rivers State
Government has assured the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) of its willingness to partner with it in the conservation of the state biodiversity resources.
The Permanent Secretary in the Rivers State Ministry of Agriculture, Mr Adolpheus Nweke said this in Port Harcourt while declaring open a UNDP’s Niger Delta biodiversity project meeting with traditional rulers and opinion leaders.
Mr Nweke who also called on traditional rulers to check the high rate of encroachment on land in their vicinities, said that the state was in danger of losing “its resources especially forest resources to land speculations.
“The workshop is a welcome idea. In the past we enjoyed a lot of stability arising from conserve forest, but today, a lot has been destroyed” he said.
The permanent secretary also decried the continuous killings of the elephants in the Andoni forest the killings of python and iguana in Bonny and urged the organisation to design an action plan that would focus on ways of preserving these animals for future generations.
He also charged the traditional rulers to go back home and sensitise their people on the importance of resource conservation and thanked the UNDP for their programme.
According to him, “the more efforts we put, the better, it will be for our environment.
The permanent secretary also decried the effects of climate change on the Niger Delta, stressing that the region is witnessing more incidences of flooding, deforestations while the coastal communities are constantly being threatened by ocean surge.
“There is a lot to gain in biodiversity conservation and ecotourism there must be restriction on sales of land by communities” he said.
Speaking with The Tide in an interview, an environmentalists, Mr John Akinnuba urged the organisation to carry the sensitisation programme   to communities across the region, as that will enable it to have direct contact with the people.
He also restated the readiness of civil society organizations in the region to partner with UNDP in the conservation programme.