The Minister of State for Environment, Dr Iziaq Adekunle Salako has appealed for urgent global response to biodiversity crisis and seek more financial support for ECOWAS to realize the 30 by 30 Vision.
The Minister said this at the ECOWAS coordination meeting on expanding and strengthening ECOWAS Protected Area (Mapping out ECOWAS Contribution to 30 by 30) going on in Abuja.
Ibrahim Haruna, Head, Press and Public Relations Unit in the Ministry revealed this in a statement.
Salako said that the vision of Nigeria and the rest of ECOWAS was to ensure that the World truly united and responded as one on biodiversity crisis.
Salako said: “By launching the ECOWAS appeal for an ambitious global response to the biodiversity crisis, our region played a significant role in securing the adoption of this commitment in Target 3 of the Global Biodiversity Framework. For this I warmly congratulate you and invite you to please stand up and thumb up for West Africa.”
He said that Nigeria would continue to champion her leadership role in mobilizing and organizing West Africa to protect its regional biodiversity.
He said the meeting was to plan the next steps and to turn Africa’s ambitions into concrete actions.
The Minister reiterated that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu who is also the Chairman of ECOWAS was a committed environment advocate and climate hero who has prioritised sustainability as a core principle of his economic agenda.
He said that the three planetary crisis of Climate Change, biodiversity loss and pollution were therefore receiving adequate attention in the Presidential deliverables of the Federal Ministry of Environment.
The Minister further said that the healthier our region’s biodiversity was, the better it would be in withstanding future climate and biodiversity shocks and the more resilient to continue to deliver for the people.
The Minister said: “The ECOWAS region is the only part of the world that is looking at its contribution to halting biodiversity loss through a regional lens a template critical for global success and to securing nature for future generations”.
The Minister therefore commended the partners; United Nations Development Programme, Bloomberg ocean, Campaign for Nature for providing both financial and technical support.
ECOWAS representative, Benard Koffi, in his presentation said that the ECOWAS countries have played a significant role in securing the adoption of the global commitment to expand protected areas to 30% of the Planet by 2030.
Koffi said the regional body had demonstrated collaboration, expertise, and strength in our advocacy for the protection of our natural heritage.
He said: “We are matching good intentions with concrete actions to show the World that we are ready to expand our protected areas and strengthen their effectiveness.
“Today, we pave the way towards achieving a bold new vision to cooperate to protect 30% of our ecosystems so that we benefit now and so that our children and grandchildren will share in those benefits long into the future, when we set aside biodiverse areas for protection.”
He said the ECOWAS must commit to protect biodiverse areas effectively by ensuring no environmentally damaging activity is allowed.
Kofi said: “Through this meeting, you will work together on four major steps towards protecting 30% of the ECOWAS region.
“You will first develop a process to undertake an assessment of the gaps in our regional network of protected areas to identify where we may expand and improve them.
“Then you will launch the development of a short and medium term regional action plan to address these gaps.
“Next, you will propose mechanisms to monitor and fund the expansion and strengthening of our protected areas.”
He also urged all participants at the meeting to work together to provide targeted support and guidance for updating and harmonizing sections of our countries’ National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans launching the development of an ECOWAS.
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