The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has called on Southeast Asia to follow the footsteps of China to ban unregulated wildlife trade and consumption of wild animals. Southeast Asia is a key hub of wildlife trafficking and a major pathway for trafficking into China. China banned unregulated trade in wildlife recently after the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in the country.

Scientists are yet to determine the exact cause of the recent outbreak but they believe it could be linked to improper handling of raw meat from wild animals. 

While the WWF commended China’s move on the ban, it held that there is still more to be done. 

Read also: Coronavirus forces China to ban unregulated wildlife trade

“Southeast Asian countries must learn from China’s example and ban the sales of wild meat for the health of their citizens and to prevent damage to their economies, as is happening currently due to COVID-19,” said Christy Williams, the WWF International regional director for the Asia Pacific.

 “This means that they must stop the trade from moving into their territories.”

Williams noted that in the past when China banned wildlife products such as ivory, traffickers shifted their  trade into Southeast Asia. He this held that China’s current ban on wild meat could move the trade to its neighbors, which is why WWF Asia Pacific is urging other nations to follow suit with their own bans. It recommended that governments increase market inspections and raise awareness among the public to stop the sale and consumption of wildlife products.

While the concern around the current coronavirus epidemic is primarily about human health, it may also yield the benefit of having fewer animals trafficked. China has long been a major market for animal products such as rhino horn and pangolin skins. Besides wildlife trafficking among Chinese citizens, this has led traffickers to do business in nearby developing nations, which they can use to source animal products or to transfer the products from farther afield.

In Vietnam for instance, which shares a land border with China, the environmental groups Education for Nature (ENV), Four Paws International, and World Animal Protection are trying to convince owners to give up their sun bears and Asiatic black bears, whose bile is collected and sold for perceived medicinal benefits in China and elsewhere.

“The bear bile industry was once profitable and in-demand,” Nguyen Thi Phuong Dung, the vice director of ENV, said. “However, as more people choose to not buy bear bile, more farmers are asking their bears for forgiveness and giving them better lives at a rescue center.”

Her group said that bears have been tortured and that hundreds remain in cages. Vietnam had thousands of bears 15 years ago, a number that has decreased to less than a thousand now because of the bile trafficking, according to Four Paws.

Environmental groups in Asia have cited ethical reasons in appealing to people to stop the wildlife trafficking. However with the coronavirus epidemic, the groups are now also appealing to people’s self interest. Past epidemics show that just focusing on the containment of infected individuals is not enough, but there needs to be control over the use of animal products as well, said Ron Ryuji Tsutsui, the chairperson of the WWF CEOs group in the Asia Pacific.

The coronavirus has already had some unintended environmental benefits, such as improved air quality in some Asian cities as fewer factories and cars on the road emit less greenhouse gas into the atmosphere. Tsutsui hopes that tighter regulatory control of the wildlife trade in the wake of the virus will be good not just for humans but for animals too.

“China’s decision to deal with the source of the problem — permanently closing markets and banning the eating of wild meat — is a game changer,” he said of the response to the coronavirus. “All Asian governments need to follow this example in the interest of human health, as well as the conservation of wildlife.”

The Niger Government says it has confiscated about 33 trucks loaded with 518 bags of Charcoal suspected to be produce of illegal tree felling in the state.

The Secretary to the State Government, Ahmed Matane, disclosed this in a statement in Minna on Saturday.

He warned that the government would deal decisively with anyone caught engaging in such a destructive act.

Matane said that in spite of efforts by the present administration to fight the trend, there were few unscrupulous elements undermining such efforts.

“Government would leave no stone unturned in ensuring the protection of the forests in the state,” he said.

He said that soil erosion, desertification and land degradation were some of the challenges faced by the people as a result of indiscriminate felling of trees.

Matane said that the act of felling of trees in the name of timber and charcoal remained a threat to the community.

He called on the Ministry of Environment and the Task Force Committee on Forest Exploitation in the state to intensify effort towards putting an end to this unfortunate incident.

Matane appealed to Niger people to report activities of unscrupulous Timber and Charcoal vendors to security agencies for necessary action.

It is another March 8, the International Women’s Day, a time specially set aside to appreciate and celebrate women.

This year’s theme is #EachforEqual and we are commemorating IWD 2020 by celebrating the achievements of three leading women in the field of conservation in Nigeria. These women have given voice to the voiceless flora and fauna of Nigeria. They deserve resounding ovation.

Meet Rachel Ikemeh, Iroro Tanshi and Stella Egbe in our International Women’s Day special.

Rachel Ashegbofe Ikemeh

Rachel is the Project lead/founder of the SW/Niger Delta, a non-governmental organization pioneering conservation actions for a small but unique population of endangered chimpanzees in southwestern Nigeria and for critically endangered Niger Delta Red Colobus monkey across their range – another rare species of primates found only in Bayelsa State, Nigeria. The project’s efforts span over 5,000km² of highly threatened forest landscape.

Read Also: Experts make case for intensified effort in Cross River gorilla conservation

Her contributions and commitments to primate conservation earned her a seat on the International Primatological Society (IPS) Conservation and Education committees. She is the Co-Vice Chair Africa section of the IUCN/SSC Primate Specialist Group and a member of the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development (UNCSD) Education Caucus. She also co-led  the steering committee that founded the African Primatological Society (APS).

Rachel is committed to all of these groups and always seeks ways to maximize her associations with these networks and explore opportunities for collaboration to promote African leadership an enhance primate conservation across board.

She is an alumni of the Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology (DICE), University of Kent, U.K where she studied for a degree in Conservation Project Management. She is a two-time nominee of the Future for Nature Awards and twice long-listed for the Whitley Awards also well-known as the ‘Green Oscars’. She recently became a National Geographic Explorer.

For more than a decade she has worked in the Guinean Forests of West Africa which is home to over 2,200 unique plant and animal species.  The threatened primates on which she has focused serve as a reference point for the broader assemblage of threatened species and bolster her efforts to engage local communities in their protection.  Rachel offers an excellent example of how to combine a specialized education, training and field experience to serve as a conservation leader. Her purpose driven work provides critical link between the Nigerian government and the people sharing the habitat with some of the world’s most unique but threatened species.  

Iroro Tanshi

Iroro Tanshi is an award-winning Nigerian bat ecologist and conservationist, whose interest spans research on landscape, community and population ecology of bats that generate evidence for conservation of threatened bat species. She is also passionate about raising the next generation of biologists and conservationists, while developing local infrastructure for research and conservation. 

Read also: SaveTheVultures: They need all the help

Her career spans more than a decade during which she has a track record of species protection, worked with policy makers and mentored budding conservationists. Iroro is a lecturer at the University of Benin. She is currently finishing a doctoral program at Texas tech University, Lubbock, USA, where she’s also a teaching assistant. She holds two Masters’ degrees in biodiversity and conservation from the University of Benin, and University of Leeds. As part of her efforts to conserve Nigerian bats and raise capacity of local conservation scientists, she co-founded a Nigerian based NGO – Small Mammal Conservation Organisation (SMACON). She is also a founding member and first co-Chair of Bat Conservation Africa (BCA) – a network of bat researchers and conservationists working to protect African bats. During her leadership of BCA, she helped fund raise to support researchers and institutions with important library resources and organized a workshop to train budding scientists on important bat research skills. Iroro initiated the Bats of Nigeria Project and is a strong critic against wide spread misconduct and sub-par research in Nigerian science.

Iroro is currently working on conserving foraging habitat and roosting caves of the range-restricted endangered Short tailed roundleaf nosed bat, Hipposideros curtus. The major threats to the species are habitat loss from wildfires and cave disturbance from fruit bat hunting, which in addition to declining population is driving the species to the brink of extinction. The key strategy to reducing these threats to this species is working with local farmers and fruit bat hunters, through collaborating with other NGOs and relevant government agencies.

Stella Egbe

Stella is a conservation biologist who has worked extensively on maintenance of habitat integrity to avoid loss of biodiversity which — if it happens — would be detrimental to man and wildlife. She holds strongly that continuous research is the key to understanding the landscape and land use interactions which will provide basic knowledge for sustainable habitat use.

Read also: APLORI trains young scientists on field ornithology, biostatistics, others

Balancing the needs of humans while maintaining ecosystem quality in Nigeria is what has kept her forging ahead in the field of conservation. Stella holds strongly that mitigating negative anthropogenic activities, while learning and enjoying all that nature has to offer is a key conservation strategy that should be embedded in the hearts. Stella loves helping new conservationists with fundamentals of field work.

She has carried out her research at the Afi Mountains and Wildlife Sanctuary, looking at the effects of activities on forest edges using birds as indicators. She has also collaborated on projects with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPD), Nigerian Conservation Society (NCF), A. P Leventis Ornithological Institute (APLORI) and so on.

The Honourable Minister of State, Environment, Chief Sharon Ikeazor has called on Nigerians to protect wildlife and plant species and support the Federal Government’s effort at tackling illegal wildlife trade across international ports and border posts of the country.

She said this is in line with the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

Ikeazor made the call on Tuesday during the commemoration of the World Wildlife Day for the year 2020. The theme for this year’s commemoration is “Sustaining all life on Earth”.

Ikeazor stated that the theme is well timed and all-encompassing as biodiversity is critically endangered and there is a need to rescue these natural resources and the planet as a whole. She added that the Federal Government is ready to give maximum support for the protection of wildlife and its sustainability as Nigeria is a signatory to a number of treaties on the conservation of Endangered Species.

While reiterating Nigeria’s commitment to the fight against illegal wildlife trade, she noted that Nigeria joined other 182 nations to sign and ratify the International CITES Convention in 1974, and to give credence to this Convention, Nigeria promulgated the Endangered Species Decree No. 11 in 1985, which is now enacted as Endangered Species Act 2016.

Ikeazor represented by the Permanent Secretary of Environment, Dr. Wadinga Bakari, the minister eulogized Nigeria’s endowment with enormous biodiversity resources of both plant and animal species.

‘‘There are about 7,895 plant species and over 22,000 vertebrate andinvertebrate species which include; insects, fish, birds and mammals, in Nigeria,” Izeakor said.

“This shows the depth of natural resources found within the geographical boundary of the country.

“The effective management of these enormous resources in actualising the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals calls for the celebration of the World Wildlife Day.”

Over the years, Nigeria has been recognized as a transit route by major wildlife traffickers in the perpetration of their illegal crimes. These traffickers according to her, harvest enormous wildlife resources such as Elephant tusks, Pangolin scales, hippopotamus hooves and their derivatives in the Natural Reserves of many East African countries such as Kenya, Cameroun, Tanzania etc. and transport them through our Country’s porous borders.

However, to curb this trend, the Nigeria CITES Management Authority form a Joint Task Force in Combatting Illegal Trade of Wildlife Resources with several Agencies such as the Police(Interpol unit), Nigeria Customs Service, Nigeria Immigration Service, NESREA, FAAN, Ministry of Justice and many more through which proper awareness, dissemination andexchange of information is carried out resulting in strong inter- agency collaboration to curbthe menace of wildlife trafficking in the Country.

This inter-agencies collaborations according to her, resulted in the arrest, seizure andsubsequent prosecution of wildlife traffickers in their numbers at several locations within thecountry with the Nigerian Customs Services in 2019, intercepted wildlife resources worth over 10 million naira. Ikeazor reaffirmed the ministry’s role as focal point of CITES implementation in Nigeria andits commitment to conserve wild species which according to her were now almost driven intoextinction due to over exploitation, habitat change and illicit trafficking.

She, however, addedthat it is the desire of the ministry to continue to create awareness on large scale knowingfully well that solving environmental issues will require truly comprehensive action andresponse at the local and international levels, as the illegal trade in wildlife resourcestranscend borders.

In Nigeria, efforts have been made with considerable successes towards securing the survivalof endangered species of wild fauna and flora through the establishment of National Parksacross the country in an effort to safeguard the surviving endangered species, she added thatformation of Joint Task Force in Combating Illegal Wildlife Trade in Nigeria, training of judges specialised in wildlife related matters, with vigorous awareness and re-orientationamong the citizenry and the proposed drive to include wildlife course in the Para-militarytraining centers.

Ikeazor called for attitudinal change and advocacy to save the environmentand its endangered species.

Some United States (U.S.) based donors have donated field equipment worth about N4 million and 10 motorcycles to the National Parks Service (NPS), to boost the conservation of Africa’s most threatened apes, the Cross River gorillas.

The donors are the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) with funds from the Arcus Foundation, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund and the Rainforest Trust.

READ ALSO: Experts make case for intensified effort in Cross River gorilla conservation

The donation is aimed at helping to support ranger patrols in the Okwangwo Division of Cross River National Park, a statement issued on Monday by the Country Director of WCS, Nigeria Programme, Andrew Dunn revealed.

“The equipment also include tents, rucksacks sleeping mats and rain ponchos to allow rangers to camp inside the national park for up to one week and conduct long-distance foot patrols essential for the protection of the endangered species.

“Three specialised camera-traps were also donated to the National Park Service and WCS is planning to provide specialised training in the use of camera traps in April this year,” Dunn noted.

READ ALSO: WCS celebrates four years of zero elephant poaching in Yankari

He added that due to past hunting, it was estimated that only 300 Cross River gorillas survive in the mountains between Nigeria and Cameroon and the most important site for Cross River gorillas in Nigeria was the Okwangwo Division of the Cross River National Park.

Conservator-General of the NPS, Dr. Ibrahim Goni, commended the WCS for the donation, but urged more support for other parks in the country. Dunn expressed hope that the field equipment would be put to good use adding that additional equipment for the Oban Division of the Cross River National Park would be provided later in the year.

“The most threatened of all African apes, the Cross River gorilla is listed as critically endangered based on its small population size, their fragmented distribution across a large complex landscape and ongoing threats to their survival from habitat loss and poaching.

“About 100 Cross River gorillas are found in Nigeria (with an additional 200 in Cameroon). In Nigeria, Cross River gorillas are restricted to Afi Mountain Wildlife Sanctuary, the Mbe Mountains and the Okwangwo Division of Cross River National Park. “The largest and most important of the three sites is the Okwangwo Division of Cross River National Park, managed by the NPS,” the statement added.

China has declared a comprehensive ban on wildlife trade and consumption over fears that improper handling of raw wildlife meat may be responsible for the deadly coronavirus outbreak.

The country’s top legislative committee approved a proposal “prohibiting the illegal wildlife trade, abolishing the bad habit of overconsumption of wildlife, and effectively protecting the lives and health of the people,” the Chinese state television reported.

Previous temporary bans have been put in place, including after the SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) virus killed hundreds of people in China and Hong Kong in 2002-03 and was also traced to wild animal consumption.

That prohibition was short-lived, however, and conservationists have long accused China of tolerating a cruel trade in wild animals as exotic menu items or for use in traditional medicines whose efficacy is not confirmed by science.

The decision was made by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC), which oversees the country’s rubber-stamp legislature.

The coronavirus epidemic had highlighted “the prominent problem of excessive consumption of wild animals, and the huge hidden dangers to public health and safety,” said the report by China Central Television (CCTV).

Chinese health officials have said the virus likely emerged from a market in the central city of Wuhan that sold wild animals as food.

The coronavirus has killed 2,592 people in China, infected some 77,000 others and paralysed the country’s economy.

It has also infected people in at least two dozen other countries, killing nearly 30, and its rapid global spread has raised fears of a full-blown pandemic.

The committee also on Monday decided to postpone this year’s NPC session — scheduled to begin in early March — which will delay any legal revisions on wildlife trade.

As a result, the Standing Committee issued a full ban immediately until final legislation can be passed, CCTV said.

There already are laws in place against the wildlife trade, but conservationists say they are full of loopholes regarding many species, and that enforcement is episodic or just plain lax.

After the epidemic began exploding across the country, China late last month ordered a temporary ban “until the national epidemic situation is over”.

But conservationists and virologists said a temporary ban was not enough, calling for a permanent prohibition with tough enforcement.

Health experts warn that transporting, butchering and consuming wild species poses a significant and growing public health risk by exposing humans to dangerous animal-borne pathogens.

Conservationists say China is the single biggest country driving consumption of many threatened species, and that animals are routinely subjected to horrible conditions and cruel treatment.

The exact source of the coronavirus remains unconfirmed, with scientists variously speculating it originated in bats, pangolins, or some other mammal.

Scientists say SARS likely originated in bats, later reaching humans via civets.

President of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) Fegalo Nsuke has said the cleanup exercise in Ogoni has failed under the management of Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project, HYPREP, despite the fact that the project had gulped over $350 million since 2017.

He maintained that the amount stipulated for the project had been misappropriated due to corruption perpetrated by the leadership of HYPREP.

READ ALSO: Ogoni cleanup: Group frowns at quality of HYPREP’s work

“Ogoni people still drink polluted water, there is no plan to compensate people whose lands and livelihood sources have been destroyed. There is no plan to construct the Center of Excellence as a training centre to build the capacity of Ogonis to participate in the cleanup exercise as recommended by UNEP.

“HYPREP does not have any plan to build an Integrated Soil Management Center to handle the contaminated soil and wastes from the spill sites,” he said.

During the presentation to the House of Representatives Committee on Environment and Habitat, the Group Managing Director, GMD of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Mele Kyari confirmed that the NNPC and its Joint Venture, JV, partners were up to date on their financial obligations to the clean-up project fund, though the results were still far fetched.

“We have so far disbursed $360 million out of the $900 million recommended to fund the project as prescribed by the UNEP Report. The disbursement was based on the standards set, which required that we release funds based on the implementation parameters of the clean-up exercise,” he said.

He remarked that the NNPC and its JV partners were not responsible for the implementation of the clean-up, all stakeholders must ensure that the project was carried out successfully.

In 2011, the UNEP report warned of catastrophic pollution in soil and water in Ogoniland which Royal Dutch Shell Plc and the Nigerian government were expected to curtail.

Shell accepted responsibility for operational faults that caused two major spills in 2008 and paid a settlement of £55 million to the affected residents, including training youths to establish businesses and fund community patrols to reduce pollution by vandals stealing oil.

The UNEP report on Ogoniland clean-up had estimated initial clean-up costs of over $1 billion for the first five years of a 25 to 30-year process.

The cleanup process was launched in 2017 and spearheaded by the management of HYPREP to implement the recommendations of the UNEP report.

Nsuke blamed HYPREP for breaching the recommendation of the UNEP report which stipulated that the Center of Excellence and the Integrated Soil Management Center were to be in place before the commencement of work but they were not on the ground.

“We were to have an Integrated Soil Management Center to handle the contaminated wastes and the Center of Excellence for capacity building. All of these are not in place in Ogoni including emergency measures including water provision, a health audit and not to give pain relief like paracetamol to people.

“All HYPREP is doing are in deviation from the recommendations of the UNEP report,” he said.

The MOSOP president also condemned the vested interests of the managers of HYPREP who approved contracts to unqualified firms without addressing the fundamental emergencies raised in the UNEP report.

In many vulnerable regions of the world, the climate crisis has exacerbated loss of farmable land and increased water scarcity, fueling rural-urban migration, civil unrest, and violence. As a result, worsening geopolitical instability has aided the rise of terrorism and violence in the Middle East, Guatemala, and the Lake Chad Basin of Africa. Yet when people hear the words, “global warming,” they typically don’t think of terrorism. If they did, politicians would be far more likely to undertake drastic action to address the climate crisis.

Syria after 2011 is one example of how the climate crisis multiplied existing threats. Water scarcity, which had been worsening over the years, contributed significantly to the outbreak of conflict. The increased death of livestock, reduced arable land, and rise in food insecurity made it significantly easier for the terror organization calling itself the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) to locally recruit over two thirds of its fighters. Extreme weather phenomena offered ripe opportunities for ISIS to increase support among locals. When a vicious drought swept through Iraq in 2010, ISIS distributed food baskets to local inhabitants. When high winds destroyed vegetation in 2012, ISIS handed out cash to affected farmers. By offering a source of income and opportunity for people when their livelihoods were destroyed by droughts and other extreme weather, ISIS was able to cultivate support and draw members from local populations. In other words, the climate crisis increased geopolitical instability and aided the growth of terrorism.

The US is vehemently opposed to terrorism as a matter of national security. According to the Pew Research Center, in early 2018, over three-quarters of American adults believed terrorism should be a top policy priority for the government, the highest of any given option. Over 46 percent of American adults favored increasing spending on anti-terrorism defenses, though the US military budget is already larger than the next seven highest-spending countries combined. The same survey showed that less than half of American adults believed climate change should be a top policy priority, ranking the second lowest of given issues.

Most Americans see “global warming” as an environmental, scientific, and political issue. Over half of Americans do not see it as a national security issue. While it is informative to present the climate crisis primarily through scientific data on global temperatures, atmospheric carbon concentration, and emissions levels, it does not galvanize people to action nearly as much as characterizing it as a matter of immediate national security. Doing the latter would make it a much higher priority for people in power.

The U.S. military already quietly recognizes climate change as a matter of national security, in part because it sparks conflict and unrest in other countries. In order to conceptually link the climate crisis to national security for the broader public, climate activists should expand and increase rhetorical focus on how the climate crisis worsens migration, foments geopolitical instability, and thereby aids terrorist organizations. Presenting the climate crisis in security-centric concerns and consequences ensures that all Americans — including right-leaning voters and people who would not be swayed by conventional appeals to ecological conservation or species preservation — become aware of how consequential it is. Security-centric framing would also help to shift the tone of climate activism toward addressing immediate threats, rather than simply encouraging global cooperation for the sake of future generations.

Reorienting climate rhetoric around national security also brings the action to a level that feels more achievable — at the national rather than global level. Whereas preserving the planet for future generations sounds aspirational and spiritually uplifting, it is an intrinsically international goal that calls upon many countries to work together for success. Framing plans to deal with the climate crisis in a way that requires concerted goodwill tends to encourage cynicism and blame-shifting when countries fail to meet carbon emission reduction targets. The vast majority of countries are failing to lower emissions to levels that would keep global warming below 2 degrees Celsius, as the 2015 Paris Agreement aspires to do. This collective failure dissipates blame and often disincentivizes countries from shouldering the burdens of emission reduction. Furthermore, focusing overtly on country-level climate reduction targets conceals the fact that emissions are largely generated by a handful of international corporations — over a third of all carbon and methane emissions since 1965 have been produced by 20 companies, including Saudi Aramco, Chevron, Exxon Mobil, and Royal Dutch Shell.

Holding corporations accountable for emissions requires immense political momentum, which is more easily galvanized by framing climate action as a necessary defense against immediate danger than as a voluntary restriction of certain economic activities for global well-being. While global cooperation to reduce emissions is what the international community should strive for, using nation-centered rhetoric that focuses on security threats can be an effective conduit to achieving this broader goal. Furthermore, linking the climate crisis to terrorism could increase the motivation and capital for countries to press hard in climate negotiations; in the face of immediate danger, the inertia of other countries or companies seems a paltry excuse for inaction.

The Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency says it is set to ban all single-use plastics within its premises from January 13, 2020.

General Manager, LASEPA, Dr Dolapo Fasawe, said in a statement on Friday, that the move was to protect the environment and encourage eco-friendly products.

Fasawe said that there was the need for suitable and multiple use alternatives to prevent pollution and avoid disposal problems.

“As the environmental police of the state, LASEPA should set good record for others to emulate, hence, the reason why we are using our facilities as pilot scheme to drive home our zero plastic waste campaign and its attendant effects on human health and the environment

This move would later be extended for wider implementation in all government premises and the state.

“To achieve the objective of the campaign, all staff and visitors to LASEPA premises are enjoined to support and comply with this holistic directive.

“The agency will be providing multiple use cloth bags to all staff within the first week of implementation to substitute old unfriendly materials, after which same bags can be purchased at the agency’s reception at a minimal fee,” she said.

According to her, single-use plastics represent the epitome of throwaway culture that ends up in landfills, oceans, waterways and the environment, which causes environmental and health hazards.

Fasawe said that replacements such as cloth (cotton) or reusable bags, paper bags, among others can be used several times and naturally decomposes in the environment.

She said that they also guide against dirtiness, flooding, drainage blockade as well as soil and water contamination.

The general manager, therefore, called for societal change against the use of single-use materials.

She urged corporate organisations, companies and industries to embrace the new holistic approach.

Fasawe said they could do so by using recyclable and reusable materials that were cost effective, environmentally friendly and devoid of environmental nuisances and pollution.

She said that the pilot scheme would serve as a blueprint and guide toward government policy on total ban on single-use plastic.

Environmentalists have called on the Federal Government of Nigeria to rise up to its responsibility of tackling environmental challenges in the country in order to leave a sustainable environment for future generations to inherit.

The Environmentalists made this submission while commenting on the haphazard approach of the government to the worsening impact of climate change on the people in 2019.

Nigerian environment is still faced with the debacle of oil spills in the Niger/Delta, unending desertification, losses of natural habitat and flooding.

In addition, the menaces of plastic and air pollutions, blockage of drainages, illegal tree felling, beach/gully erosion, droughts, loss of biodiversity and illegal wildlife trade and food shortages, escalate environmental problems in urban and rural areas.

Nigerians were warned of impending floods, but neither the government nor the people did something substantial to mitigate the impacts.

Unfortunately, floods displaced hundreds of Nigerians and climate change effects worsen. There were weeks of pounding rains last year, which swamped major cities, leaving homes and facilities isolated by floodwater. As the floods stay weeks even months to recede, some buildings become weakened and exposed to the weather.

According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), there were reports of such instances in Lagos, Abuja, Ondo, and Kogi.

Arising from high-water levels in rivers Niger and Benue and heavy rainfall, Cross River, Kogi, Niger, and the Taraba States also experienced flooding.

The floods were widespread with the worst impact on some specific states within the six geo-political zones in Nigeria; North West (five states), North Central (seven states), North East (five states), South East (five states), South-South (five states) in South West (four states) totaling 32 states severely affected out of 36 states of Nigeria and FCT.

Within the year, Nigeria experienced a high level of climate-induced hotness of weather, refugees, and migrations. Many were internally displaced while others seeking to escape the clutches of the disaster, lost their lives in the Sahara Desert or in the Mediterranean Sea.

Based on the flood reports, North-East Nigeria (Adamawa, Borno, and Yobe) have had a total of 21,056 households (HH) residing in IDPs camps and host communities affected by the floods; Adamawa (5,454 HH), Borno (10,757 HH) and Yobe (4,845 HH). There have been joint area-based needs assessments and emergency response actions, with support provided by various aid agencies to 2,360 HHs.

Environmentalists also observed the shrinkage of Lake Chad and the attendant reduction from a size of over 25,000 square kilometres in the 1960s, to a measure of 2,500 square kilometres today.

70 to 80 per cent of Nigerian original forests have disappeared through logging, agriculture, city and road expansion as well as building of industry. This has led to the loss of plants and animals which depend on these forests. With the expected consequences of climate change, these losses are expected to increase what caught the attention of the world towards the end of 2019 were the discussions and efforts to resolve a split between rich and poor nations over climate funding and cooperation rules through the UN COP 25 climate conference talks which deadlocked in Madrid. Many delegates said they were “disappointed” by weak commitments to climate protection globally.

In the course of the year, Nigeria undertook a second issuance; a Series II Green Bond of up to N15 billion following the successful debut of green bond issuance of N10.69 billion in December 2017 – by which Nigeria became the first African country to issue a green bond.

The Nigerian Debt Management Office noted that the Series II Green Bond issuance is a further demonstration of the government’s commitment to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 20 per cent by 2030, as outlined under the Paris Agreement signed on September 21, 2016.

Experts laud the initiative saying that the distinct characteristic of a green bond is that the proceeds are used exclusively to finance or refinance environment-friendly projects, such as clean water, renewable and sustainable energy clean transportation, climate change adaptation, sustainable waste management, sustainable land use, and biodiversity conservation.

An environmental expert, Dr. Ahovi Michael lamented that the flooding of the nation in 2019, which was attributed to climate change, was true in parts, but not fully true.

“The other wing is human shortcomings as Africans. It is because the nation has not to plan properly. We talk about climate change due to the heavy amount of rains that fall throughout 2019 and our dams were also filled and we had overflowed. That is the reason for the disaster that took place. But there is one human aspect that we failed, that is not planning to release water gradually. People in government have not been listening to forecast especially, by Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET). We learn to release the water in dams, in Cameroun and Nigeria. We shouldn’t wait for the dams to be endangered before releasing water in order not to release disaster”

According to him, the communities were faced with the twin devils of saturated natural rains and floods from water released by dams.

“It’s not because of rainfalls or climate change but government has not done adequate intelligent work. We should systemically shield water from the dams and not wait until its overflowed and flood adjoining states. Plastic pollution is still a recurring factor in the country. The plastic we are generating is still heavy and the danger is there even as people are dying silently because we are injecting plastic heavily. Those in riverine areas have been swallowing a lot of micro-plastic and so much of the plastics are on the waterways and fishes are consuming them. Yet nothing serious is done concerning it”.

He said the government should develop a plan of action toward eliminating plastics; by telling organizations that produce plastics to switch their business to others.

“Put machinery in place for enough recycling of plastics. There has to be a concrete plan of facing out the plastic. Air and noise pollution are still strong. Air pollution is strong in Lagos, Kaduna and other heavily populated states. Most of our vehicles produce heavy carbon dioxide and menthe into the atmosphere. More used vehicles are on our roads and 95percent of vehicles don’t have emission sensors that could help to regulate amounts of carbon dioxide coming out from the pipe”.

Dr. Michael said oil spillage is still a challenging problem and from experience, less of the factor blame should be passed on the companies in the oil communities.

“The communities are a challenge to the pipes and some of them that are employed to monitor the pipes don’t report when they are destroyed. When there is sabotage, most of the companies are not aware of time. Sometimes, the organizations turn a blind eye to the spillage because they get frustrated in paying people compensations. The government should have a plan, pick up one or two aspect of the environment, draw out a working plan and ensure that the plan is work upon for solution.”

He said, “Issue of air pollution could be picked, ensure that vehicles are taxed for polluting the environment, you would find out people would seat up and ensure that vehicles on roads are properly serviced to prevent fumes emissions. I expect the government to be practical on climate change. Educate Nigerians to stop what they are doing that encourages climate change. Messages in the form of, “Don’t cut your tress; they are like your lungs. If you drink in bottles, it tastes better.

If we don’t stop actions that work against nature, the world is heading to disaster. People who mess up this world are not likely to be around when the mess up would take place. In the next 50 to 70 years, we will begin to see serious disasters. In the 80/90’s when you read books on the environment, what you see was that animals are been extinct but today, its humanitarian crisis and human beings are challenged by climate change.”

“The amount of greenhouse gases release already into the atmosphere, the effect would come in 30 or 40 years. People could be taxed for polluting the environment. We have an emergency challenge now, people shouldn’t put the economy first before the health.”

Limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius required a drop in emissions of over 7per cent yearly, to 2030 but this still remains a long way to go amid huge emissions in the country.

Lagos-based environment activist and founder, LUFASI Park, Desmond Majekodunmi who expressed dismay that Nigeria didn’t do enough to guarantee a sustainable environment for the future in the outgone year called for immediate action to restore the environment.

“We need to place our assessment against that paradigm that the environment is humans’ life support and it is being seriously threatened. Has Nigeria done enough, no at all. Have we made progress, fantastic progress at least from pronouncement? Our president has made pronouncements about tree planting to plant 25 million trees, which is wonderful and has set up the inter-ministerial committee to that effect. Which is also encouraging, tresses are part of the major solution to solving the problem.”

He lamented that “All that is going on with the Niger/Delta Development Commission and the lack of progress for cleaning up Niger/Delta is extremely disappointing. There is a health emergency going on there and we have known about it for years. Government said they are going to do something but for the last two to three years now, it hasn’t been done. Every child that dies as a result of contamination and poison, that child’s death is on the head of those who haven’t do what suppose to be done.

“Niger/Delta has to be clean up immediately, gas flaring has to be stopped very soon. Whatever it takes, the cleanup must happen. We have the capacity to do that. State of emergency is needed on tree planting.

If China can dedicate over 400,000 soldiers just for tree planting, we can do something similar starting now because the house is on fire. We must recognise also that we can no longer be burning oil because burning it, is cruel for future generations.”

Majekodunmi said protecting the environment is a primary duty for everyone because it’s the human entire life support system stressing that the environment is being damaged to a ‘point of irreparable chaos’ if current negative habits toward the environment continue.

Similarly, the Director, Technical Programmes, Nigerian Conservation Foundation, (NCF), Dr Joseph Onoja, Reiterated that the talk about 25 million trees planting in Nigeria might be a mirage if measures are not put in place to nurture the tree into maturity when planted.

He said, “The government needs to put policies in place that would ensure that trees are planted and criminalise indiscriminate tree clearing. We might continue to have a high heat index in Nigeria if we don’t see that as an emergency.”