Protecting the natural environment – To enhance tourism

The occasion of the World Wildlife Day, which was marked recently on March 3, offered me an opportunity to contemplate the situation of the natural world, which forms a very significant part of what constitutes the tourist experience, and the native space for those of us who work in tourism. This is so, particularly, as nature continues to witness a series of impacts that have led to the concerns of climate change – evident in heat storms, rising water levels and massive floods, desertification, etc., which are all fundamentally altering the environment that we have come to know, celebrate and work with.

Also, there continues to be a huge biodiversity loss, in terms of the relentless decimation of stocks of wildlife, including the flora and fauna that have enhanced the beauty of the natural ecosystem and brought balance to it.

Our continued preoccupation with experiencing the natural – and even the built – environment through tourism can only be possible and sustainable if and when we are in tune with the emergency that is increasingly getting sounded on its decline, and those of many elements within it, and then making the critical efforts required to mitigate these.

Today, I lend my voice to the advocacy of a range of actors across Nigeria and the world, who understand the stakes that we hold in preserving and protecting the natural environment, the ecosystem – with all its shades of biodiversity, and pushing back their deterioration in very intentional ways.

No doubt, the depletion of the atmospheric ozone layer in the march of the progress of mankind, through the great industrial revolutions and our habits of consumption that followed, resulted in the global warming that has left the climate patterns unhinged. This has been attendant upon the upsurge of greenhouse gases from the burning of hydrocarbons, as much as it has been due to industrial emissions, deforestation, alongside other environmentally-impacting economic activities.

Consequently, in the past century, not only have our rainforests consistently depleted, even the savannahs and mangrove forests have altered considerably, while an increasing hot Sahel has continued its encroachment, in tandem with the loss of our biodiversity – plants, animals, the various species of wildlife, which are either dying or moving elsewhere in huge waves of transcontinental migration.

Nigeria’s biodiversity endowment – and loss

The Nigerian biodiversity endowment has equally been a critical form of the endowment of tourism from time immemorial, motivating people to make journeys to locations where certain species of animals or plants were/are in existence, both for nutritional and therapeutic purposes. And, while the increases in the human population continuously intensified the need for gaming, hunting and the harvesting of these biodiversity resources, it significantly engendered the trajectory of their loss, and hence the resounding need for protection.

The treasure trove of Nigeria’s biodiversity has been documented as including almost eight thousand plant species, spread across over 300 families and more than 2,200 genera. Also, some 22,000 species of vertebrate and invertebrate species, comprising some 20,000 insects, over 1,000 birds, 1,000 fishes, 123 reptiles and 247 mammals. Furthermore, almost 1,500 species of microorganisms have been recorded, as essential to the remarkable biodiversity endowment of the country, from the arid north to the wetlands of southern Nigeria, and the different vegetation subsets in between.

Despite the variety and range of these treasures, the activities of man in driving the wheels of progress and advancement, as alluded to earlier, have led to huge losses in our biodiversity in the past century. While a lot of the species have been lost permanently, many more remain under the continuous threats of poaching, illegal gaming/hunting and climate change, etc. As such, a number of the Nigerian wildlife have been marked as endangered species, including the ostrich, gorilla, grey parrot, genera of crocodiles, African manatee, chimpanzee, giraffe, the white-throated guenon, African bush elephant, hippopotamus, water chevrotain, Ariel gazelle, and African rock python, among others.

Species of plants/trees under the threat of enduring loss include the African teak, the F.White or Diospyros elliotii (Hiern), African whitewood, fennel flower (or Nigella sativa), the sausage tree or Kigelia, traditional chewing stick or Masilania accuminata, and then the Garcina manni, Oucunbaca aubrevillei, Erythrina senegalensis, Cassia nigricans, and the Hymenocardia acida, etc.

Halting the biodiversity decline and loss

It was in recognition of the great value of the animal biodiversity of the world, their invaluable significance, contributions to the balance of the ecosystem, and alarm at their gradual extinction, due to natural and man-made factors, that the World Wildlife Day was finally created in December 2013. This came about as a proclamation of the 68th session of the United Nations General Assembly, which adopted the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and declared March 3 as the day to raise awareness about and celebrate the world’s heritage of wildlife and wild flora and fauna.

While it has been projected that over a million species of wild fauna and flora, alongside wildlife, are critically in danger of extinction, this motivated the designation of the theme of the 2022 World Wildlife Day as “Recovering key species for ecosystem restoration” to promote the need for the conservation and protection of these endangered species. And, this aligns with and enhances the grand objectives of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals 1, 2, 12, 13, 14, and 15, which all affirm the necessity of commitments towards the sustainable use of the world’s resources and their conservation.

As such, the 2022 edition of World Wildlife Day speaks to the urgency of reversing the loss of the planet’s critical biodiversity and the restoration of their habitats and the broader ecosystem. The recognition of the need to conserve our wildlife and other key animal and plant species in Nigeria led to the creation of a network of protected areas, including a biosphere reserve, nine national parks, over 400 forest reserves, about 30 games reserves and close to a dozen nature reserves.

Landscapes of natural tourism assets

Besides the various areas mentioned above, such as the forest and games reserves, some of the major protected areas for wildlife and biodiversity in Nigeria are the nine national parks, which are cumulatively spread across some 2.4 million hectares of land in the country. As remarkable spheres of conservation and eco-tourism destinations, these parks are natural habitats for over 1,300 animal species, including over 800 birds, in addition to hundreds of unique fauna and flora.

These diverse ecological domains, incorporating numerous cultural and historical monuments, comprise the Chad Basin National Park in north-eastern Nigeria, which consists of the Sambisa Game Reserve and the Hadejia-Nguru wetlands; the Cross River National Park, including the Okwangwo and Oban sections that traverse some 4,000 square kilometres of rainforests to the north and central parts and the mangrove swamps in the coastal areas.

There is also the Gashaka-Gumti National Park, which is the largest in the country, as a composite of two games reserves, which run from the eastern parts of Taraba and Adamawa states and as far as the Nigerian borders with Cameroon; and the Kainji National Park straddling Niger and Kwara States. This includes the Kainji Lake, where fishing is restricted, the Zuguruma Game Reserve to the southeast and the Borgu Game Reserve to the west, all spanning an area of 5,341 square kilometres.

The Kamuku National Park in Kaduna state covers a total landmass of 1,120 square kilometres, with ecology that’s mainly of the Sudan Savanna, while the Old Oyo National Park runs through the northern part of Oyo state and the southern part of Kwara state. There is equally the Jos Wildlife National Park in Plateau state, north-central, Nigeria and the Yankari National Park in Bauchi state, extending to the north-eastern parts of the country, and the Okomu National Park in the Ovia south-west local government area of Edo state. This is an expanse of forest that ranges over 1,082 square kilometres of land.

In as much as our current efforts at the conservation and protection of our biodiversity, such as the animal wildlife, alongside the peculiar fauna and flora of our ecosystem, and natural habitats, have a history starting with the earlier British colonial administration in Nigeria, we are certainly obliged to deepen this. And, this has been one of the cardinal objectives of the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari in its policies on the natural environment, whose balance we all need for sustenance on earth and to keep enjoying the experiences of tourism. This not only aligns with international standards and ideals, such as the Sustainable Development Goals, but it is also about real pragmatism and good economics.

Whilst the British established many of the forest reserves that were later turned into national parks and conservation zones, which are growing hubs of tourism, the urgency of now necessitates that we all sustain this legacy by taking our commitments to the preservation and restoration of the natural environment more seriously – as we do and exhort others to at the National Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC) – in order for us to continuously relish all that our biodiversity and environment have to offer.

The future of our world, and tourism, is feminist

I will not end this essaying around the necessity for the protection of nature and the environment without offering a resounding salutation to our womenfolk, who do much of the work of tourism, directly and through its associated sectors, in the spirit of the International Women’s Day 2022 (IWD) that was just held on March 8.

It is without a doubt that women not only constitute about half of the population of the world, and Nigeria, but they are unfortunately still weighed down by the burdens of tradition, conventions and society, which delimits their potentials and possibilities. One way to unshackle the future that we strive towards and enable its diverse prospects is for all of us to become feminists and support our womenfolk in unleashing their various abilities and capabilities, as they keep breaking all the bias strewn in their paths. So help us, God.

Coker, the Baba Eto of Yorubaland and director general of the Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation, is the chief marketer of Nigerian destination