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World Pangolin Day 2022: FG Maps Strategies To Halt Wildlife Trafficking, Pledges Support For Pangolin Protection

Published

3 years ago

Mar 1, 2022.

Paul Mbagwu

By Babatunde Kaka

FG Maps out strategies to stop wildlife trafficking and pledges support for Pangolin protection
The outcome of the capacity development is already yielding results with the spate of interceptions and seizures by the NCS in-country and at the borders.

EKO HOT BLOG reports that the Federal Government has disclosed strategies to stem the tide of the trafficking of pangolins and other wildlife through adequate collaboration with relevant government agencies, parastatals and communities both locally, regionally and internationally.

This online media platform reports that the significance of the Ministry of Environment’s inter-agency collaborations has birthed the development and implementation of strategies and far-reaching steps taken at the national and regional levels to wage war against corruption risk associated with transnational organised wildlife crimes through statutory agencies saddled with the investigation, prosecution, and enforcement and stockpile management.

Professor Aliyu Jauro, NSREA DG presented an ambassadorial award to the US Consulate Publicity Secretary, Ms Jeniffer Foltz at the event

The strategies were disclosed in the keynote address delivered by the Honourable Minister Of State For Environment, Barrister Sharon Ikeazor, at the celebration of the 2022 World Pangolin Day, organized by the Pangolin Conservation Guild Of Nigeria (PCGN) held on the 19th February 2022 At the Lagos Theatre, Epe, Lagos State.

Ikeazor, who was represented by the Director-General, National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA), Professor Aliyu Jauro, disclosed the agencies said:

“We are currently engaging with the Inspector General of Police; Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN); as well as the embassies of key European and Asian countries noted as destinations for the trafficked products while we step-up actions to bring the problem under check.

“The collaborative partnerships with United Nations Office for Drug and Crime (UNODC), United States Agency for International Development (USAID), German Government, Born Free America, Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), and Africa Nature Investors (ANI), among others, have resulted in capacity development of the front-line officers of the National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA), Nigerian Customs Service (NCS), Nigeria Agricultural Quarantine Service; Economic and Financial Crime Commission, Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit, Interpol, Judges of the Federal High Court, and other relevant partners.

“The outcome of the capacity development is already yielding results with the spate of interceptions and seizures by the NCS in-country and at the borders.

“EIA has been a strong partner in the ongoing efforts having helped in the provision of periodic investigative reports and recently in collaboration with ANI, in the Analysis of the Legislative Framework for Combating Wildlife Crime in Nigeria. This effort not only assisted in identifying gaps in the wildlife management laws across national and state levels but also helped arriving at the decision to enact a Wildlife Crime Act for Nigeria. This is being pursued and hoped to be transmitted to the National Assembly in due course.”

Speaking further, she said through the Ministry, Nigeria stood tall in the development of West African and African Strategies to combat wildlife trafficking under the auspices of the ECOWAS Commission.

According to her, the regional strategy as endorsed by the ECOWAS Ministers of Environment has been “domesticated and validated as the National Strategy to Combat Wildlife and Forest Crime with the support of the German Government and coordination of UNODC,” stressing that the document is slated for launch on World Wildlife Day which comes up on 3rd March 2022.

Ikeazor hinted that the Ministry has concluded plans to embark on “aggressive public awareness and sensitization campaigns on CITES and Endangered Species Act (ESA) listed species of Fauna and Flora, biodiversity conservation, environmental protection, and sustainable development through International Day Celebrations; community outreach and advocacy visits.”

She, thereafter, said that beyond borders, the most populous black nation in the world is on the verge of signing the Cooperation Framework Agreement with Cameroon on Transboundary Ecosystems Conservation and Sustainable Management of Forestry and Wildlife Resources.

This, she said, is part of concerted efforts to achieve interceptions in the country or at the borders, assuring that the unwholesome practice is nipped in the bud thereby increasing efforts in protecting and preserving wildlife resources within the West African sub-region and beyond.

Earlier, she disclosed that the theme of the World Pangolin Day celebration, “Community Action for the Conservation of Pangolins,” was not only an eye-opener but also a clarion call for collective action for the rescue, protection and expedient conservation of the pangolin.

While she lauded the PCGN for being at the forefront of rescuing pangolins which is in tandem with the Ministry’s resolve to protect and preserve biodiversity, she stressed that the future generation deserves a sustainable ecosystem where the pangolins would cease to be identified on the media as in the case of Dinosaurs and Wooly Mammoths which once existed on the surface of the earth.

See pictures from the event: