Environmental stewardship key to prosperous future -Salako

By Mashe Umaru Gwamna

Minister for state environment DR. Iziaq Salako, said the delicate art of balancing development with environmental stewardship is essential to ensure a prosperous future for all.
Salako made this known at Africa Natural Resources and Energy Investment Summit yesterday in Abuja . With the theme of the summit, “Natural Resources for Economic Development,”
He said the theme is timely and crucial as we navigate the complexities of economic growth and environmental sustainability in my country, Nigeria and the continent of Africa at large.
He stated that in the quest for a prosperous economic growth, it is imperative to tackle the challenges of climate change and harness our natural resources through sustainable exploration and exploitation, particularly in extractive industry, a sector that has huge potential to significantly impact our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) if managed effectively.
He noted that Africa must be wise, bold and ingenious as the extraction of minerals from our soil not only presents opportunities,
He said It is laden with challenges and risks to sustainable development. “We must therefore, ensure that our development programmes delivers maximum benefit with minimum pain to our people.”
He said “In order to promote sustainable and optimally beneficial economic activities, the legal framework in our countries must be oriented towards sustainable development.
“Having the right legal and normative framework for such activities through the domestic laws of the host country, contracts, international hard and soft laws, voluntary standards by the industry players and customary rules and their enforcement is therefore the first step in the promotion of sustainable development.
“The core instruments for the protection of human rights – the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, as well as the ILO Convention No. 169 on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People and the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights are key international instruments relevant for sustainable economic development. Governments should make their domestic laws and regulations consistent with their international human rights commitments, seek to incorporate principles and guidance from soft laws into their legal and regulatory framework to protect people thay may be adversely affected by economic activities”, he stated.
He said in addressing the issues raised this requires sustainable management practices, conservation efforts, intersectoral synergies, and articulated sectoral policies aimed at reducing anthropogenic activities on the natural capital resources, the environment, and climate in our bid to have a prosperous Africa and a resilient future.
“ We also need strong political will, clear vision, courage and commitment which I am happy to say is being maximally deployed by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to ensure that the natural resources of Nigeria is exploited for the benefit of the people without irreversibly damaging the environment”, he said