The Minister of Environment, Hajiya Amina Mohammed, has decried the severe cases of land degradation and deterioration of habitat for migratory birds due to deforestation resulting from wood-fuel, energy and housing activities.
Speaking at a two-day workshop on ‘Sustainable Land Use’ in Abuja, Hajiya Amina mentioned agricultural expansion as another major contributory factor to land degradation.
The minister, represented by the Director of Human Resources, Mrs. D. L. Braide, said, “The loss of habitat has led to a serious decline of biodiversity in West Africa. Equally, other ecosystem services are destroyed or degraded as a result of poorly planned development,for example, water supply, carbon fixation and soil formation.”
Assuring of the ministry’s commitment to speeding up the resolution, she said the ministry was ready to adopt the declaration on sustainable land use, support programmes for bird monitoring, support the resolution of the land use to CMS COP13 and drive the implementation of related policies.
The Permanent Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Environment, Dr. Bukar Hassan, said sustainable land use was of great importance in addressing the country’s ecological issues like land degradation and erosion.
“Sustainable land use is of the first importance in Nigeria in addressing some of our ecological problems such as erosion, flooding and deforestation. It will deliver long-term sustainable livelihoods for rural people, flourishing biodiversity, strong ecosystem services and resilience to climate change,” he said.
An international partner of the workshop from the Conservation of Migratory Species Animal (CMS), Mr. Borja Heredia, said the workshop was crucial to helping stakeholders develop action plan to secure the habitat for human and animals. “If we don’t protect habitats of the animal species, then the efforts of CMS will be in vain,” he said.
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