Victor Uzoho
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), has pledged to provide financial support through its biosphere reserve fund, to tackle issues of environmental challenges in Africa.
Specifically, Director-General, UNESCO, Audrey Azoulay, made the pledge Monday at the 33rd session of the International Coordinating Council of the Man and the Biosphere Programme (MAB-ICC), in Abuja.
Azoulay, who decried the effect of the environmental challenges, assured that UNESCO’s projects on the Lake Chad basin would go a long way to restore the ecosystem, which was fast experiencing degradation.
“The erosion of biodiversity is no longer a hypothesis, but a fact – one that can already be seen and felt in our everyday lives,” she said.
“Biodiversity is collapsing, at an unprecedented speed. But this collapse is not inevitable; there is still time to make peace with the planet.”
In his remarks, President Muhammadu Buhari, represented by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha, expressed worries over the attendant effect of the environmental challenges on human activities and the socio-economic development of the country.
However, he revealed that the Federal Government has embarked on a series of interventions targeted at protecting the ecosystem.
According to him, such interventions, which include tree planting and the creation of national parks and laws, have helped reduce the impact of the harmful effect of the biosphere on the people of the country.
Biodiversity is collapsing, at an unprecedented speed. But this collapse is not inevitable; there is still time to make peace with the planet.
Commenting, the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator, Edward Kallon, called on everyone to rise to the challenge and take responsibility to restore human-nature safe space, by taking responsible steps to conserve biodiversity and restore lost resources.
Also in attendance were the Ministers of Women Affairs; Information and Culture; Water Resources; Environment; Science, Technology, and Innovation; as well as the Permanent Delegate of Nigeria to UNESCO and members of the diplomatic community, among others.
The event, the first of its kind in Africa – was held weeks after the World Congress of the International Union for Conservation of Nature revealed that there was a global diversity crisis.
It seeks to reconcile humans and nature to demonstrate the possibility of using biodiversity sustainably while fostering its conservation.
