By Anu Smith
Stakeholders in environmental conservation have inaugurated the Agro-Biodiversity Conservation (ABC) project, to reduce the effects of climate change on the ecosystem, adding that everyone has a stake.
They stated this in Ibadan on Wednesday at an event to commemorate the 2022 GIS Day with the theme: “Biodiversity Conservation”.
Dr Dotun Afolayan, the President, Nigeria Chapter of the Society for Conservation Biology (NSCB) and an Assistant Director of Research, at the National Centre for Genetic Resources and Biotechnology (NACGRAB) said everyone should be responsible for protecting the different biological resources that the nation has.
“We didn’t do anything to have the resources but the world is counting on us to ensure that these resources are not removed, wiped off or go into extinction.
“If we don’t do our bit of replanting trees, protecting against over-exploitation usage of resources, conserving in a gene bank, conserving using technological tools.
“If you are not a manager, you will be a ‘degrader’ not doing anything, being nonchalant is doing something to the environment; because you are promoting things that are degrading the environment by doing nothing,” she said.
Also, the Chief Executive Officer, GIS Consult, Ibadan, Mr David Afolayan said GIS Day 2022, has the theme ‘Biodiversity Conservation’ because plant and animal species were becoming extinct every year.
He said with the use of the Geographic Information System (GIS), it has become possible to map, monitor, model and conserve biodiversity for the present and future generations.
The GIS expert said one of the things recurring at COP 27 was that there had been several promises and minimal results.
He lamented that the little progress made on reversing the effect of climate change has been wound back because of some realities that countries are facing due to the Russia and Ukraine war that has disrupted the availability of fuel, and the food supply chain among others.
“The Russia and Ukraine war has changed the perception of people about the climate goal they set. Presidents and leaders have come to a sad reality; should we keep a promise that we don’t even know whether we are achieving or face the reality that we have to stay alive today?
“European countries are at risk because they are facing winter and power is needed to warm up their homes and now there is fuel challenge, power, and gas distribution,” Afolayan said.
While inaugurating the Agro-Biodiversity Conservation (ABC) project, he said through partnerships the project would ensure that schools plant a garden; where endangered plants would be planted by students who will monitor the growth and challenged fertility of the soil and see the plants and would intervene to make it come back.
“And in that process, the students would learn the hard truth that there is something that everyone can do and that they must monitor it to see it grow. They will plant the gardens, capture information about biodiversity and nurture a garden of endangered plants which would be a learning process which they can replicate in their home.
“The project is on the Geography Green School project, which is all about sustainable development, understanding how the earth operates and what needs to be done,” he said.
One of the participants, Ifeoluwa Ajayi-Obe, a student of the American Christian Academy said the event was an eye-opener and promised to conserve the natural world.
