The Minister of Environment, Ms Amina Mohammed, has called on local governments to support the Federal Government’s efforts to prevent vultures from going into extinct.
Mohammed made the call in Lagos while delivering a lecture at the 5th Chief S. L. Edu Memorial Lecture, organised by the Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF).
The lecture was on the “Decline of Vultures: Consequences to Human Health and the Economy’’.
According to him, vultures are best known as sanitation officers as they help to clear carcasses of dead animals from our communities.
“By this action, vultures have helped countries to save hundreds of dollars yearly on carcass disposal.
“Human actions are putting the lives of these vultures in danger and their numbers are reducing by the day.
“The importance of vultures can never be over-emphasised as without their activities of removing carcasses, the society will be burdened by diseases from decaying human and animals remains,’’ she said.
Mohammed said that the population of vultures was being affected by the activities of poachers who hunted them for food and deforestation that affected their habitat.
She said that there was need to carry out a massive awareness campaign at the grassroots to educate people on the importance of vultures existing among them.
The minister said that the government would partner with private individuals, business and non-governmental organisations to ensure their preservation.
Mohammed explained that vultures were part of the ecosystem and the biodiversity of the nation.
The Chairman of the occasion, Dr Newton Jibunoh, said that Nigeria should strive to preserve wetlands and forests.
Jibunoh said that if the forests and wetlands continued to diminish as it was today, there would be no place for vultures to exist, as they needed trees and shrubs to perch.
He stressed the need for legislations to prevent people from poaching on endangered species, which, he said, the vultures had become.
The Director-General of NCF, Mr Adeniyi Karunwi, said that the foundation had for some years now recognised the decline in the vulture population.
He said that the lecture afforded the foundation another opportunity to create awareness on vultures and their relevance in the ecosystem.
Karunmi said that the lecture was the NCF’s advocacy across different aspects to bring a stop to the declining population of vultures and focus attention on their conservation.
Chief Ede Dafinone, the NCF Council Chairman, said that the memorial lecture was a platform to raise salient issues on the environment.
He said that dangers posed by the declining vulture population were enormous, adding that there should be a national action plan to reverse the trend.