By Mashe Umaru Gwamna
Minister of Environment Balarabe Abbas Lawal, has disclosed that Nigeria is developing a robust updated version of National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAP),that will result in meeting 2025-2030 framework’s global goals and targets.
The Minister stated this yesterday during NBSAP validation workshop in Abuja yesterday.
Lawal represented by Director Forestry Department, Dr. Amah Moses, said
“the Nigeria’s revised and updated NBSAP is broad in its ambition and contains all-embracing targets that, when implemented, will truly make a difference to Nigeria’s biodiversity landscape”.
The Minister stated “the NBSAP target 1 alone will have a massive impact. This target reads: By 2030, all areas are effectively managed to bring loss of areas of high biodiversity importance close to zero”.
He expressed that “ I am truly excited to be a part of making sure that this target and all of the other targets, become a reality”,
He explained that
“NBSAP, Nigeria is blessed with some of the richest biodiversity in Africa, with diverse ecosystems and magnificent wild fauna and flora, including many endemic species.
“This impressive biodiversity is not only interwoven into our economy, our ecology and our culture, it also delivers a plethora of ecosystem services. It ensures we have food to eat, medicine when we are sick, fresh water to drink and healthy soils in which to grow our crops”, the minister stated that.
He emphasized that “The wellbeing of all of us Nigerians is strongly reliant on the health of the environment around us.
He said “Implementing the NBSAP will be a big task, but I feel confident that with perseverance, persistence and dedication from all stakeholders, we can implement this NBSAP for the benefit of us all”.
He said “global attention is focused on an ambitious biodiversity agenda, as we look towards the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and its far-reaching goals.
He said “we our fully committed towards comprehensive national implementation of the global biodiversity framework.
“I am proud to say that we have strived tirelessly to achieve our aims and we have succeeded. Nigeria’s revised and updated NBSAP is broad in its ambitionand contains all-embracing targets that, when implemented, will truly make a difference to Nigeria’s biodiversity landscape”.
Also speaking , The Permeant Secretary of the ministry Mahmud Adam Kambari, stated the need of our collective commitment to safeguarding our nation’s rich biodiversity and ensuring a sustainable future for generations to come.
Kambari stressed that “As a country blessed with diverse flora and fauna, it is our duty to develop strategic frameworks that promote the protection, restoration, and sustainable use of these invaluable resources”.
Meanwhile, Convention on Biological Diversity National Focal Point, Mrs . Sikeade Egbuwalo , pointed out that
“The updated Nigerian National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAP) 2025-2030 is articulated with a whole-of-society approach, embracing a diverse array of sectors and stakeholders.
He said “ the NBSAP is ambitious and fully aligned with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (K-M GBF), with a focus on halting and reversing biodiversity loss by 2030”.
He said Nigeria’s updated NBSAP has been adopted as whole-of-government policy.
“ The 23 national targets are each in alignment with the corresponding global biodiversity targets and goals. Each Party to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) is urged to “contribute to attaining the goals and targets of the framework in accordance with national circumstances, priorities and capabilities”.
He said Nigeria’s national targets have been updated accordingly, in harmony with the present realities in the country.
“The NBSAP will be implemented with a view to conserving Nigeria’s rich natural land- and seascapes and biodiversity and to ensure a sustainable future for our citizens”, she stated.
