As the global community celebrates the World Wetlands Day 2023, stakeholders have agreed that there was the need to work together to protect and preserve the environment.

This was the consensus reached on Wednesday, February 1, 2023 at a Stakeholders Meeting organized by the Finima Nature Park in conjunction with the Bonny Local Government, which held in Bonny, Rivers State.

The stakeholders at the event include the Bonny Local Government, Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG), Finima Nature Park, Bonny Environmental Consultants Committee (BECC), Environmental Health Office (EHO) of the Rivers State Government, National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), and various schools in Bonny LGA, amongst others. 

The Chairman of Bonny LGA, Dame Anengi Barasua, was represented at the event by her Deputy Press Secretary, Boma Waribor.

Addressing the participants, Dame Barasua said her administration, which she described as environmentally friendly, pursued the agenda of protecting the environment on a three-pronged approach, listing them as “policy, collaboration and engagement”.

She indicated that her administration was open to partnerships and collaborations geared towards preserving the environment, harnessing its derivatives for the benefit of the populace, adding that protecting the environment was task for all.

“Just to give you a snippet of what we’ve been doing within the context of the environment, when we came on board on the 14^th of October, 2021, she realised a very conspicuous lacuna in terms of the environment and she took up a big bone strategy to address this problems, that was policy, collaboration and engagement.”

“We realised that our environment in Bonny was very dirty, those of us that know how it use to be, we didn’t have a sanitation culture, so we set up a policy to ensure that the monthly environmental sanitation becomes comprehensive, competitive and compulsory. “

Lead Presenter at the event, Dr. Akie Hart, who alerted that wetlands were already threatened, called for concerted efforts to preserve them for the long term benefit of mankind, stressing that the conservation process should begin with sensitization and awareness creation.

“To achieve this, it must be an all-stakeholders inclusive partnership to protect the wetlands. Corporate organizations, communities, CBO’s, NGO’s and social groups should work together to address these common challenges.

“We have passed the era of blame games, saying it is the corporate world, it is the community, it is the students. The wetland is threatened already; so, all of us need to work together to identify these problems and how to solve them.

“The first way to go about it is by enlightenment and this should not be an urban based enlightenment alone, it should be urban based, it should also be rural based. We should take the message to the villages.

He commended the establishment of conservation clubs in schools across Bonny LGA by the Finima Nature Park, urging the organizer to cascade it to the community for better cross fertilization of ideas between the pupils and students and their parents and other community members.

On his part, Head of Department, Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) of the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Limited (NLNG), Ndukaku Ohaeri said his company was doing a lot through the Finima Nature Park to conserve the environment, stating that preservation of biodiversity, reforestation, and carbon capture are some of the big wins through the FNP.

“The Finima Nature Park is powered by the NLNG; it’s a park that is managed by NCF for NLNG. We have approximately 1000 hectares of wetland that we manage. We try to conserve, we also carry out reforestation in the event we have trees, and plants and vegetation that die as a result of old age or something happens.”

“We also ensure that people don’t come in there to hunt or to fell trees. So, the intent is to conserve it the way it is, and that for us it’s a huge contribution as far as preserving nature and biodiversity is concerned.”

Speaking, Coordinator of the National Orientation Agency, Bonny LGA, Iwarilama Brown informed that his agency was upfront in concert with relevant stakeholders in creating awareness on the need to conserve the environment and eschew practices that undermine the pristine and verdant nature of wetlands.

In her remarks, the Environmental Health Officer (EHO) for Bonny LGA, Rachael Banigo admonished citizens to join the campaign to sensitize everyone on the need for wetlands conservation, saying that planting gardens, waste management, especially, recycling and segregation, and pets’ management are some ways everyone can contribute to wetlands conservation.  

In his welcome address, Hyginus Osuagwu of the NLNG HSE Department said wetlands conservation and environmental protection were key items of interest for his company, positing that this informed why “NLNG is participating and encouraging every one of us to take active part in ensuring that we protect and guard our environment religiously, because as they say, we have only but one earth”.

Responding to a question on ways to protect the Nature Park, a representative of the Bonny Environmental Consultants Committee (BECC), Ibifubara Allaputa advised against poaching of animals in the park, stressing that depletion of the animal species at the park was a worrisome situation.

Pupils drawn from various schools in Bonny LGA made presentations during the event.