The United Nations has been consistent in its commitment to highlighting issues relating to the environment. It has sustained its advocacy for proper and balanced exploitation of the resources of the earth in a sustainable manner that takes into the account the health of the environment and future generations.
It was for this reason that it established the United Nations Environment Programme, to serve as a focal agency on matters relating to the environment. It has energetically advocated for appropriate national legislations that promote good management of the environment. Every year, the World Environment Day is usually celebrated on June 5 by member-states. Nigeria as a signatory to UN environment protocols, established the Ministry of Environment and the various subsidiary agencies under it, to coordinate issues related to environmental management. These include the National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA), National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) and National Biotechnology Management Agency, to name a few.
In continuation of the country’s engagement in matters concerning the environment, it is heart-warming to note that stakeholders will hold a major virtual discourse on biodiversity and the health of the earth in Lagos on September 17, 2020, with the global participation of several other climate-focused non-governmental organisations from within and outside Nigeria, under the joint aegis of the Nigeria Maritime and Safety Administration (NIMASA) and Nigerian Conservation Foundation, which for more than 40 years has been at the vanguard of protecting Nigeria’s biodiversity and providing vital research to guide government policies that impinge on the local environment as well as serving as a platform for educating Nigerians on how to properly interact with the environment in a sustainable manner.
The essence of the biodiversity webinar is to play up the much needed awareness of the dynamics of the continually evolving and interconnected nature of people and places, and the notion that social and biological dimensions are interrelated. Understanding that the relationship includes the species, land and seascapes and the cultural links to the places where we live is important to our wellbeing as they all play a role in maintaining a diverse and healthy planet.
It is very commendable that NIMASA, the focal agency of the Federal Government driving the Blue Economy Initiative of the Muhammadu Buhari Administration has undertaken to give live and actualisation to the webinar and thereby use it to project to a global audience the investment opportunities in the country’s emerging blue economy ecosystem.
• Enyeribe Ejiogu, a media practitioner, wrote from Lagos