National Park Service commits to UNESCO biosphere reserve guidelines

The National Park Service (NPS), on Thursday said it would comply with global biosphere reserve regulations and guidelines as recommended by UNESCO.

CP Joseph Ntui, Conservator of the Cross River National Park, Akamkpa, said this during an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN ) at Akamkpa, Cross River.

He made the commitment on the sidelines of the ongoing UNESCO-supported Biodiversity Business Training for 12 communities around the Oban Biosphere Reserve.

The training focused on fishery, poultry, and piggery as alternative sources of income. The aim is reduce dependence on forest resources and promote sustainable resource management.

The programme was sponsored by the India-UN Development Partnership Fund and implemented in collaboration with Nigerian Man and Biosphere (MAB) committee, Forestry Research Institute of Nigeria (FRIN) and the National Park Service.

Ntui said that part of the biosphere reserve guidelines was engaging in community-based biodiversity business initiatives that promote sustainable livelihoods and environmental conservation.

“The National park is a global project and we are a signatory to a number of conventions on preserving wildlife, conservation of biosphere reserves.

“We have the Wildlife Conservation Society, the UN Climate Change framework, all these organisations and the conventions are geared towards environmental conservation and protection.

“They are all geared towards protecting our environment, reducing the impact of climate change and other consequences and activities that contribute to degrading our environment.

“We have no option than to ensure that we work in line with the Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Programme, an intergovernmental scientific programme run by UNESCO,” he said.

He recalled that the MAB aimed to improve the relationship between the people and their environments by creating a global network of Biosphere Reserves.

Ntui told NAN that protecting the resources within the biosphere reserves would not only benefit the present generation, but for generations to come.

The conservator further said that NPS was in partnerships with NGOs, multinational organisations, among others to empower the communities around the park with sustainable living alternatives.

“We are working with relevant stakeholders to encourage them on practices that are not harmful and negatively impactful to the environment.

“We are partnering with a whole lot of them to see how we can establish this kind of businesses to support communities around Cross River National Park.

“We have about 105 of such communities and we try to empower them, divide them into groups to form cooperatives and introduce them to sustainable, smart agriculture.

“This is to ensure that they are not dependent on the forest for survival.

“When we started in 1991 we were having so much pressure from communities that have been relying on the forest for sustenance, for survival and even for the economic gains,” he said.

Ntui said the pressure and the desire to enter the Oban reserve for resources had reduced due to alternative sources interventions.

He, however, said it was still challenging to convince some women and youths to completely stay away from the forest.

“We are trying to convince them through interventions like this; through aggressive conservation education, because we think that some of them are still ignorant of the benefit of conservation.

“We are carrying out aggressive conservation education to sensitise them to the importance of protecting their environment as well as embracing other options of livelihood,” Ntui said.