Govt seeks donor agencies support to upgrade National Parks

The Minister of State for Environment, Alhaji Ibrahim Jibrin, has advised donor agencies to invest in the country’s National Parks to meet international standards.

The minister made the call at a round-table meeting and dinner for donor agencies support to National Park Service and Trans-boundary collaboration Initiative in Abuja on Thursday night.

He said that the contributions of National Parks to human livelihood and development could not be over-emphasised as they provided the most natural and cost effective means of climate change amelioration.

According to him, National Parks equally provide conducive habitats for bees, bats and other agricultural purposes to improve the nation’s food security.

“National Parks provide golden opportunity for investment in tourism. When fully developed and harnessed, they have the capacity of turning Nigeria into a tourists’ haven.

“However, Nigerian National Parks are faced with numerous challenges which militate against their accelerated development.

“Prominent among these are insecurity, inadequate funds for developmental projects, trans-boundary conservation activities, deterioration of infrastructure among others.

“Already, the National Council on Privatisation has approved the partial commercialisation of the service.

“The council has also approved the immediate commercialisation of the Eco-tourism components of three National Parks namely- Gashaka Gumti, Cross River and Kainji Lake National Parks for pilot scheme,” he said.

Jibrin said that in a bid to reverse the trend and raise the standards of the National Parks to global best practices, the Federal Government recently unbundled National Parks to encourage private participation in their development and management.

“This is the reason why the management of the National Park Service is working with relevant government agencies to ensure a secured investment friendly environment around the parks.

“I therefore urge potential investors to take advantage of this window and invest in the upgrading of National Parks across the country.

“It is our conviction that with the support of development partners like you here today, the National Park Service will overcome these challenges and contribute significantly to both national and global economies, security.

“I therefore seek your support in the areas of funding development projects, technical assistance and direct foreign investments into the National Parks to benefit the citizenry, ” he said.

The minister however urged the National Park management not to rely fully on the donor supports but also show some level of seriousness by looking for alternative to solve some of the challenges.

The Conservator-General, National Park Service, Mr Ibrahim Goni, said that the essence of the roundtable was to solicit support from the donor partners for the upgrading and development of National Parks to meet international standards.

He said that the Federal Government on its part would uplift the standard of the National Parks by investing in them through the annual budgets, adding however that the budget was not enough to provide the massive infrastructure required.

He said that some areas the parks needed support by the donor partners include training of rangers by establishing rangers training school, sponsoring researches, upgrading and total overhaul of all the National Parks in the country.

Goni added that efforts were underway to establish a Marine National Park in Bayelsa to attain the full complement of its biological diversity.

“The service manages seven National Parks spread across all the ecological zones except the marine and mangrove ecosystem and each park has unique features.

“Each of these parks has attraction capable of attracting potential tourists and researches to the country and this will be a plus to our economy.

“We have been doing well in terms of protecting National Parks since the service was established in 1991 and we can do better if they get the necessary support we are looking for in line with the global standards,” he said.

Mrs Regine Hess, the Deputy Head of Mission, Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany, Abuja said the German government deemed it fit to collaborate with the Nigeria government to ensure development in the sector.

She said that the German government was already partnering with the Cross River government on the need to protect wildlife used for consumption.

“We are sponsoring community radio jungles known as `My Gorilla My Community’. We want people to understand that gorillas are not for bush meat but are for biodiversity and they need to be preserved. Cutting down trees is not acceptable too.”

NAN reports that the minister of environment and the donor partners were hosted to a dinner by the management of the National Park Service.