Its president, Nathaniel Atebije, made the appeal at the weekend on occasion of World Wildlife Day. He said there was urgent need to make collective efforts and step up the fight against wildlife crime due to its wide-ranging economic, environmental and social impacts.
He also called on government to invest in physical planning, particularly, regional development scheduling, to promote healthy wildlife coexistence.
Such land use plan, Atebije explained, is to balance needs of plants and animals alongside other environmental, social and economic considerations.
According to him, some practical steps would include exclusion of wildlife from developed areas, improvement of habitat security, reduction of human-related mortality, removal of natural and unnatural attractants in developed areas and promotion of habitats.
The NITP boss equally urged government to increase capacity for enforcement, improve inter-agency collaboration and facilitate effective communications towards fight against wildlife crime.
He described wildlife as ‘one of the best gifts of God to humanity’, adding that it includes undomesticated animal species such as mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish and invertebrates that grow or live in wild places without being introduced by humans.
Atebije continued: “They can be found in deserts, rainforests, grasslands, forests, plains and other spaces on the planet. They are of immense importance to man in view of their economic benefits, conservation of biological diversities, boosting of agricultural production, provision of ecological balance, facilitation of investigatory reports in medicine, promotion of culture and enhancement of sanctuaries for recreation.”
He noted that human actions and inactions have impacted negatively on their existence and survival through uncontrolled hunting and wanton destruction of their habitats for economic and other developmental activities.
Many of the species, he observed, have been facing extinction due to chronic environmental stress such as climate change, disease, pollution and predation.
While the institute appreciates commitments of international organisations against extinction of the species, the NITP president cautioned that this year’s global celebration should remind stakeholders to urgently make efforts at checking wildlife crime.
“NITP views with deep concern the continuous degeneration and reduction of wildlife species, and wishes to draw the attention of all actors on human environment to the fact that each organism on earth’s surface has a critical role to play in the ecosystem,” he added.
