The National Park Service (NPS) has raised concerns over Nigeria’s growing role as a transit route for illegal wildlife trafficking, with smugglers allegedly moving wildlife specimens from neighbouring countries through the country to seaports for onward transportation.
The Conservator-General of the National Park Service, Mr Goni, disclosed this while receiving members of the Environmental Correspondents Association of Nigeria (EMCAN).
Goni said traffickers move wildlife specimens from countries including Chad, Niger and Cameroon through Nigeria, exploiting the country’s access to seaports.
To tackle the menace, he said the Nigeria Customs Service, National Park Service, National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA) and the Nigeria Police Force had established an inter-agency committee to combat illegal wildlife trafficking.
According to him, the committee had conducted raids that resulted in the seizure of live animals, carcasses and other wildlife specimens.
He stressed the need for sustained collaboration among law enforcement agencies and the media to expose trafficking networks and strengthen accountability in the fight against wildlife crime.
Beyond wildlife trafficking, the Conservator-General expressed concern over the rate of forest destruction in the country, saying Nigeria was losing close to 300 hectares of forest reserve daily.
He identified illegal logging and hunting as longstanding threats to forest conservation, warning that continued forest loss could accelerate desertification and worsen environmental degradation.
Goni said the expansion of Nigeria’s national park system was partly aimed at restoring degraded vegetation and strengthening the country’s response to climate change.
He disclosed that Nigeria now has 17 national parks, 13 of which are operational, compared with seven before 10 additional parks were established during the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari.
He explained that the expansion was intended to support vegetation regeneration in areas previously designated as forest or game reserves and contribute to Nigeria’s climate commitments.
The Conservator-General urged members of EMCAN to use their various platforms to draw attention to issues affecting forests, wildlife and protected areas, noting that increased public visibility could help mobilise support and encourage stronger institutional responses.
He also called for greater public awareness of environmental pollution, flooding, erosion and other ecological challenges confronting the country.
Goni said the Federal Ministry of Environment had introduced flood-warning equipment in several parts of Nigeria to alert communities to impending floods and enable residents to move to safer locations.
He further appealed to environmental journalists to support public education on Ebola prevention and the relationship between wildlife and the transmission of certain infectious diseases.
The Conservator-General said the National Park Service was willing to work with the media to improve public understanding of conservation and promote responsible interaction with wildlife.
He also pledged to consider issues relating to journalists’ welfare, professional training and participation in conferences within the service’s budgetary framework.
The visit, he said, provided an opportunity to build a lasting partnership through which environmental challenges could receive greater public attention and conservation efforts benefit from stronger media advocacy.
Responding, EMCAN Chairman, Joycelyn Ellakeche Adah, said the association was committed to bridging the communication gap between environmental agencies, including the National Park Service, and the media.
Adah said the association’s new leadership, elected about two months ago, had identified inadequate engagement between environmental agencies and journalists as one of the major challenges affecting effective reporting of the sector.
According to her, EMCAN decided to engage relevant agencies to introduce its leadership, establish working relationships and ensure that journalists covering environmental issues have access to information about their activities.
“As journalists, our job is to report on this sector. In every parastatal, there is an environment correspondent, and the job of that correspondent is to report on the sector,” she said.
The EMCAN chairman noted that although the association had more than 35 members, only three or four media organisations regularly covered activities of the National Park Service, leaving many environmental correspondents without adequate access to information about the agency.
She said the situation limited the visibility of the service’s activities and underscored the need for a more inclusive media engagement strategy.
Adah said the association was ready to partner with the service to publicise its conservation initiatives and educate Nigerians about the institution responsible for managing the country’s national parks and protecting wildlife.
She observed that many Nigerians were not sufficiently aware of the responsibilities of the National Park Service, stressing that improved media coverage would help address the knowledge gap and highlight the agency’s contributions to environmental protection.
The meeting ended with resolutions by the National Park Service and EMCAN to enhance cooperation and strengthen media engagement on conservation and environmental issues.
