By Esseh Ikora, Uyo
THE Nigeria Society for Conservation Biology (NSCB) has appealed to Federal government to give more attention to the development of biological diversity as a away of boasting the nation’s Internally Generated Revenue(IGR) than relying on crude oil to fund it’s budget.
A press statement by the chairman of the Local Organizing Committee (LOC), Dr. Eniang Edem said that the society had concluded plans to organize a Biodiversity Conservation Conference, tagged “Uyo 2018”, adding that the event would engage conservation indigenous and foreign professionals on topical issues facing biodiversity conservation and proffering practical strategy in tackling it underdeveloped.
The group maintained that the country’s over-dependence on crude oil as source of its IGR would be a thing of the past if the biological diversity that abound in the country were properly developed.
It added that the country was endowed with lots of biological diversity, which if properly developed, would ease the over-dependence on the fluctuating revenue from crude oil for funding of the country’s budget.
“As conservationists we are worried that these naturally endowed resources are faced with various challenges resulting to their loss.
“We have identified some of the challenges faced by biological diversity to include pressure from increasing population, direct and indirect consequences of economic development, socio-cultural problems, competition from invasive species, among others.
“To worsen the situation, there has been a general institutional weakness and lack of technical capacity to effectively tackle the nation’s environmental issues,” Edem stated.
He stressed that the conference would provide practical strategies that could foster intervention and development of biodiversity conservation in Nigeria and beyond.
