The Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN), has emphasised the need to urgently protect the ecosystem (environment) and lives from total extinction.
Dr Godwin Ojo, Executive Director ERA/FoEN made this known in a press statement he co signed with Chief Saint Emma Pii, chairman, Board of Trustees of the organistion and made available to Info Daily to commemorate this year’s world environment day with the theme: ‘Ecosystem Restoration.’
June 5, every year has been set aside by the United Nations as a day of shared global reflection and action towards protecting the environment.
Dr. Ojo who said this year’s world environment day theme was incredibly significant as it calls on all to do their parts in protecting the ecosystem, noted that restoring the ecosystem will enhance biodiversity, clean polluted rivers and contaminated soil and improve local livelihoods of the people.
He said, “Ecosystem restoration will enhance capacity of our soils and forests to store greenhouse gases rather than the false solutions of carbon capture and storage facilities that do not cut emissions at source and poses grave danger to ecosystems.
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“The crucial challenge requires a post petroleum economy through deep transformation in global production and consumption patterns. Therefore, ecosystem restoration requires concerted actions at local, national and international levels focusing on a pragmatic shift towards a sustainable decarbonized development pathway before it is too late.”
Quoting Intergovernmental Science -policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, the Executive Director said millions of species are threatened with extinction due to human activities.
“Seventy-five per cent of our land has been severely altered in the last five decades; 66 per cent of our ocean area is experiencing cumulative impacts; and more than 85 per cent of our wetlands have been lost,” he lamented.
On his part, the BoT Chairman, ERA/FoEN, asserted that the surest way of escaping the looming danger is to live in harmony with nature, just as he added “our survival as a species, the survival of other organisms and the future of our planet can be restored if communities are allowed to manage their resources and involved in environmental protection and conservation.”
He said ecosystem restoration work should focus on addressing the actual sources of environmental degradation, so that the removal mechanism does not become business as usual in the continuation of carbon emissions released into the atmosphere.
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He urged the “Nigerian state, (local, state, and national) to put in place clear policies and regulations that would ensure the sustainability of our ecosystems in line with the United Nations policies on ecosystem restoration by setting achievable targets for implementation.”
He further called on the Federal Government to end gas flaring inorder to restore Niger Delta ecosystems and also restore the polluted Ogoniland ecosystems and the entire Niger Delta region ecosystem within the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021-2030.
He father called for “Commitment to energy transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources to reduce the rate of environmental degradation and ecosystem disturbance.”
He also urged the government to “Put in place proper land governance legislation that would enhance proper land use and planning. This will require radical reform or wholesale abrogation of the current Land Use Act which has led to dispossession and caused untold hardship to our communities.
“Put in place rules that addresses land grabbing, solid waste management and grant easy access to justice for people and communities impacted by the deleterious actions of corporations.
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“Set up Community Resource Centers that would train communities to manage ecosystem resources and share local best practices on living in harmony with nature and community based forests management systems that ensures environmental sustainability.”
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