Experts in the environment sector have raised alarm that Niger Delta states may face resource depletion, if they fail to evolve proactive measures to check biodiversity exploitation on a large scale.
The experts made their view public at a one-day seminar organised by the Department of Animal/Environmental Biology, Rivers State University in collaboration with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) tagged, “Mainstreaming Biodiversity Conservation in Government and Oil and Gas Operations and Policies in the Niger Delta”, last Monday in Port Harcourt.
Professor of Conservation in the Department of Animal and Environmental Biology in the state university, Prof. Godfrey Akani observed that the issue of biodiversity and conservation has become a source of concern since the region has faced a lot of environmental degradation arising from oil exploration and production over the years.
He said, “…In the Niger Delta, several wildlife species are on the brink of extinction – traceable also to multiple pressures, including unbridled anthropogenic activities, and oil and gas operations”.
Akani maintained that, “We will not like our biodiversity status to degenerate to the level observed in the Caspian littoral states. We have ample reasons to protect our biodiversity from depletion”.
In his paper titled, “Mainstreaming Biodiversity in Oil and Gas Operations and Policies in the Niger Delta: The Case of Delta State”, Director, Ministry of Environment, Delta State, Dr. Obiebi Emamezi said, “the more we delay enforcing biodiversity laws, the more we are hastening our extinction”.
Emamezi stressed the need to enforce conservation laws that will protect natural resources from poaching, deforestation, contamination and pollution, while regretting that so many conserved areas in the region were now under serious danger.
He added that, “60 to 80 per cent of endangered species of animals in Africa are found in the Niger Delta”, and that, “50 per cent of fish harvested in the Gulf of Guinea breed in the Niger Delta”.
The director recommended the need for collaboration between government and oil exploration and production firms in implementing environmental protection laws and policies affecting their activities.
Similarly, Director of Forestry in the Rivers State Ministry of Agriculture, Mrs Nkemdirim Odoya warned that the expanse of land covering over 46,000 square kilometres in the Niger Delta was under threat because of “over exploitation, over-hunting, and over-harvesting of wildlife”.
She said that, “the over-harvesting of wildlife is such that it depletes the growing areas, and most of our wetlands now are now being converted to waste lands”.
Odoya recommended the urgency for trained manpower, budgetary allocation for environmental protection and the need to enforce existing laws on deforestation and wildlife poaching.
The same view was expressed by former director of Forestry in Bayelsa State, Mr. George Amoru, who lamented that among the 12 conserved sites in the state; only two are existing and are now facing extinction due to human poaching, dredging, oil exploration, and total negligence by the authorities.