THE UNDERLYING FACTORS

World Rainforest Movement (1999) records show that 70-80% of Nigeria’s original forest has disappeared and presently the area occupied by forests is reduced to 12%. In the period between 2000 and 2005, Nigeria has lost about 2,048ha of forest (FAO, 2005). Although the Nigerian government established several forest reserves for conservation of forest resources, these forest reserves have been seriously neglected and received little or no improvement in terms of investment and management (Pelemo et.al, 2011). The implication of these loses is that many plants and animals, including many potentially valuable species are on the fast track to extinction. The USAID Report on Biodiversity and Tropical Forestry Assessment (2002) recorded that there are too many – too many environmental threats in Nigeria affecting Biodiversity. A National Assessment (NFC, 2012) confirmed the reality of high rise and fast tracked increase in biodiversity loss in Nigeria. An analysis of the major underlying factors responsible for the continuous degradation of biodiversity in Nigeria, were categorised as follows:

High Population Growth Rate

Biodiversity loss is a problem in other countries in the world and most particularly developing countries where poverty is still pervasive. Nigeria is the most populous African country and has one of the highest growth rates in the world. The population of Nigeria is estimated at 183, 523, 434 people as at July 2015, which is equivalent to 2.51% of the total world population and makes Nigeria number 7 in the list of total world population (Source: Worldometers). More than 70% of Nigerians live in rural areas where they depend on agriculture and other natural resources for their survival (FEPA, 1992). Biodiversity supports the growing populations in rural and urban areas but the pressure is becoming increasingly higher due to overexploitation occasioned by high demand.

Nigeria’s large population is characterised by high percentages of illiteracy, unemployment and poverty, which act as powerful drivers of increasingly severe demands on the remaining biodiversity in Nigeria. Evidence-based field studies have confirmed that natural regeneration is not able to cope with the over-exploitation in high magnitude (Happold, 1987). Associated with this effect, is urbanisation. Towns are becoming larger, new villages are being established; farms and wood cutting activities are extending further and further from each settlement. New roads and tracks enable farming, hunting and wood cutting to occur in previously undisturbed habitats.

Poverty

According to the Human Development Index Report (UNDP, 2008-2009), the number of poor people in Nigeria remains high and the level poverty rose from 27.2% in 1980 to 68.6% in 1996, an annual average increase of 8.83% over a 16-year period.

To a large extent, poverty contributes a major threat to biodiversity and in other ways continues to further deepen the level of poverty in most rural areas. As an underlying factor for biodiversity degradation, poverty causes threats to biodiversity in two ways. First, the poor are pushed by the affluent and influential to destroy their own source of livelihoods for meagre financial returns and the poor, due to deprivation find it difficult to secure any other alternative than to erode the very foundation of their own long term survival. Biodiversity is always at the receiving end being the readily available option for food, fibre and minimal commercial gain by the rural poor.

Policy and Legislation Constraints

The environment and by implication, biodiversity, lags behind other sectors in policy and legislative reforms. The underpinning value elements of biodiversity as a life support system for millions of Nigerians is yet to receive recognition and serious consideration in national policy and legislative action. The existing laws relating to biodiversity are obsolete, with the exception of the new laws establishing the National Environmental Standard and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA); that on climate change; the new law establishing the National Bio-safety Management Agency (NBMA) and possibly the Grazing Commission. The process of policy review on biodiversity related issues is very slow and given little or no consideration in major policy and strategic national discourse. Biodiversity issues have been relegated into the background and have only been the concern of conservationists, scientists and environmentalists despite its significant contribution to the livelihood and commerce of rural and peri-urban communities.

International laws and treaties are entered into by the Federal Government of Nigeria, but implementation has been slow, with huge backlogs of annual contribution to the respective trust funds of these conventions.

Low budgetary allocations to implement decisions of the various conferences and meetings of the Parties of these conventions and agreements, coupled with low capacity have resulted in poor implementation. Poor legislative enforcement has been and still is a glaring setback for biodiversity conservation in Nigeria. The National Parks that are repository of much of Nigeria’s biodiversity have faced serious threats of poaching in recent years, losing not only wildlife but also Rangers to poachers. Everywhere in Nigeria, biodiversity-related laws are broken openly in the face of low public awareness on biodiversity and lack of capacity for law enforcement agents to deal with issues of concern. Poor law enforcement on biodiversity has occasionally caused embarrassment for the government and the people of Nigeria.

Poor land use planning

USAID (2002) observed that no land use policy exists in Nigeria, despite the existence of a land use Act. Instead, states are encouraged to derive their legislation from the Federal legislative framework. While some states have taken steps to develop legislation to improve (from an environmental perspective) resources management through laws against bush burning and agricultural expansion into forest lands, major impediments to sustainable environmental management still exist.

Land use and land cover change have emerged as a global phenomenon and perhaps the most significant regional anthropogenic disturbance to the environment. As is the case of Nigeria, rapid urbanisation/industrialisation, large scale agriculture and major changes in human activities have been identified as the major causes of the dramatic changes in the land cover and land use patterns globally. Africa is said to have the fastest rate of deforestation in the world due to mainly overdependence on primary resources with direct effect on the biodiversity.

For Nigeria, the rate of deforestation due to poor land use planning has been alarming. Bisong (2002) reported that “Nigeria’s forests are threatened as the forest cover declines from approximately 24 million hectares in 1975 to 15 million hectares in 1995 and down to 9.6 million hectares in 2011.” This alarming rate of deforestation was caused by poor land use planning and has made habitat loss one of the most significant threats to biodiversity in Nigeria today.

Competing land uses such as agriculture and human settlements are contributing to the decline of forests and woodlands together with the rising demands for fuel wood and charcoal. Over harvesting, agricultural encroachment and unregulated burning are believed to be contributing to the decline of many species in the wild. The depletion and degradation of the natural resource base has extended to less stressed areas in the different ecological zones of Nigeria.

Socio-cultural characteristics, food and trade connections

As a set of practices or ways of doing things, cultures shape biodiversity through the direct selection of plants and animals and the reworking of whole landscapes (Sauer, 1965).  Such landscapes have been described as anthropogenic nature, their composition, whether introduced species, agricultural monocultures or genetically modified crops, being a reflection of local cultures and a product of human history including the context in which individuals and groups live their lives (Milton, 1999).

Some cultural practices that existed in Nigeria encouraged the use of specific species for festivals and they often limit the population of species occurring in a narrow ecological range. While it is important to remark that in some Nigerian societies, cultural taboos and their sanctions have helped to check abuse of the environment at least among the local people. The abandonment of these traditional cultural practices have done more harm and posed serious threat to natural environmental structures.

Many Nigerians, especially in the southern parts view the consumption of wildlife resources as normal and in some cases a delicacy. Bush meat consumption is high and has only reduced in the past few years due to scarcity occasioned by pressure on wildlife resources. However, field reports on bush meat trade have confirmed that apart from primate species, other large games and a large variety of flora are used as food and traditional medicines in northern Nigeria. The ‘juju’ market or traditional medicine market is also responsible for a larger percentage of biodiversity in-take from the wild in Nigeria. The current report on global scarcity of vultures by Birdlife International is a special case for concern.

In Nigeria, field reports continue to support the fact that vultures are mostly harvested and used in traditional medicine. A study of the national status of vulture species in Nigeria revealed that there is large scale utilisation of vulture body parts for traditional medicine.

Effect of climate change

The National Adaptation Strategy and Plan of Action for Climate Change in Nigeria (NASPA-CCN, 2011) revealed that climate change is already having significant impacts on Nigeria. According to the report, recent estimate suggest that in the absence of adaptation, climate change could result in the loss of between 2% and 11% of Nigeria’s GDP by 2020, rising to between 6%-30% by the year 2050. The impacts of climate change are expected to exacerbate the impacts of human pressure on biodiversity. This will further diminish the ability of natural ecosystems to continue to provide ecosystem services and may cause invasion of strange species that are favoured by climate change.