The Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF) has raised an alarm over the devastation caused by climate change and stated that “large-scale action is required immediately.”
Chairman, National Executive Council of NCF, Chief Ede Dafinoe, stated this at the 21st Chief S. L. Edu Memorial Lecture held in Lagos, saying, “Desertification, herder-farmer clash, drought etc. are few of the climate change crises staring us in the face.”
The annual lecture was named after the founder of NCF, Late Chief Shafi Lawal Edu, with “Humanity and the Twin Crises of Climate Change and Biodiversity Loss” as this year’s theme.
Dafinone stated that the sustainability of the world is threatened by the danger of climate change and stressed the need to “mobilise urgent action towards saving our world by all and sundry.”
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He said, “Our planet’s biodiversity is in crisis and declining at a faster and unprecedented rate than at any other time in human history.
“Wildlife is disappearing from their natural habitats and species are being decimated and becoming extinct at an alarming rate due to unsustainable utilisation and destruction of wildlife habitats by humans.
“The devastation that climate change is causing and will continue to cause means that large-scale action is required immediately. Desertification, herder-farmer clash, drought etc. are few of the climate change crises staring us in the face.”
The guest speaker, Mr Martin Harper, who is the Vice President of Regions and Partnerships (Acting CEO Designate), BirdLife International, said only through collective actions could the planet be saved from the impending danger.
He called for “lasting collaborations” with stakeholders to sustain the campaign against activities that trigger climate change, saying there were 1,409 globally threatened species with 231 critically endangered.
He added that extinction risk was escalating, stressing that 436 species moved to higher threat categories due to deterioration in status. “For me, hope only comes when it is backed up by actions,” he said.
The NCF director general, Dr Joseph Onoja, said the foundation would continue to create awareness on issues of the environment.
“We need to carry everyone along on the issue of conservation of our environment because we need to protect our environment for our environment to protect us.
“We are faced with a dual crisis which is climate change and biodiversity and by talking about one, it is going to affect the other,” he said.
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