The National Parks Service of Nigeria has acquired a drone for gathering of information on wide life, ecosystem and environmental protection.
The Conservator General of the National Parks Service, Ibrahim Musa Goni said in an interview on Voice of Nigeria’s programme “In the News”, that the National Parks had sought approval from the National Civil Aviation Authority, the body responsible for the issuance of drone permits.
Goni said the drones will be used to gather information about the wide life, other resources, trespassers and any unwanted activity in the national parks.
The Conservator General said already approval had been given to acquire three more drones in the 2017 budget act to cover the seven parks across Nigeria.
He said “yes, the drone is packable; once you use it here you can move it to another national park. Currently in the 2017 national budget approval has been given to national parks to acquire three more drones”
The Conservator General said the drones will help in saving a lot of manpower, no fuel all you require is an operator and from the movement of the drone you can monitor what is happening in the field and be able to protect biodiversity of Nigeria.
Alhaji Goni said “there are other ICT materials for space monitoring devices like SMART and camera trackers that monitor the movement of animals that were in use to minimize cost in the parks”
He said Nigeria had been able to minimize poaching to the barest minimum level through effective surveillance using the anti poaching patrol and prosecution of the offenders as they face the problem of afforestation.
Transboundary Park
The Conservator General said the national park is in partnership through International Collaborations using the Transboundary biodiversity reserves and Transboundary national parks especially with Cameroon.
Alhaji Goni said already Nigeria and Cameroon are collaborating to establish the Transboundary national park between Korok park in Cameroon and Cross River park in Nigeria.
Other parks being considered for such Transboundary parks are the Faror in Cameroon and Gashaka Park in Nigeria as well as the Waza park in Cameroon and Chad Basin Park in Nigeria to promote tourism and investments across the border.
The Conservator General of Nigeria National Parks Service said Nigeria covers only 5% of its forest compared to the required 25% forest cover by the biodiversity international convention requirement.
He said Nigeria has the opportunity to raise its forest coverage to between 7-9% if states could create more forest and game reserves.
“If we are able to take over the ten additional national parks states proposed for proper management, the percentage can be increase to between 7-9% and with time and awareness more people will have respect for the environment and interested in environmental conservation and gradually Nigeria will achieve the desired percentage.
He said Nigeria could achieve higher forest coverage, “Korea with 16% is doing well and with the 5%, Nigeria is ahead of many others that have 3% or less in Africa”.
Alhaji Goni called on States government to create more game reserves and see the wisdom in handing over some of the game reserves and forest reserves to the Federal government to be used as national parks to protect the environment in Nigeria.
He said the future of wild life protection in Nigeria is bright as more investors are interested in investing in the country’s tourism sector and assured investors that the law establishing national parks was being amended to provide for partial commercialization as obtained in Kenya and other African nations to attract investors.
Nnenna.O