The Minster of Environment, Mrs. Amina Mohammed has canvassed for a clearly defined role for host communities in the proposed commercialization of the Country’s National Parks.
Receiving a delegation from the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), led by its Acting Director General, Dr. Vincent Onome Akpotaire, which paid her a visit to brief her on the planned commercialisation of the seven National Parks in the country, the Minister also urged the Bureau to focus attention on commercializing three out of the seven parks at the first instance. The National Parks are; Kamuku, Kainji lake, Okomu, Cross River, Old Oyo, Chad Basin and Gashaka Gumti.
Mrs. Mohammed, who acknowledged the efforts to reposition the National Parks as contained in the National Parks Policy document presented by the BPE, said this would provide a long term plan on which successive administration would build on. She said though “privatization and commercialization may not totally get rid of issue of corruption; it brings about good governance structure.”
She said rather than pay compensation to host communities and ask them to relocate; they should be allowed to be part of the habitation and could be engaged to compliment the security infrastructure for the national parks as measure against poaching.
The Minister, who noted that Nigerians are not adventurous to explore tourism resources available in Nigeria, decried the long neglect and lack of investments in the national parks and stated that her Ministry is on the drawing board to reverse the trend; adding that the context for the parks has to be reviewed “because even the best parks in the world today are failing because of context”.
The Minister said that in the envisaged reform, the role of the National Park Commission must also be clearly defined, noting that as at present, the Commission does not interface effectively with the Ministry; and that the relationship between states where the parks are situated and the Federal Government must also be defined.
She said the security of Rangers must also be given paramount attention as against the present situation where they are not recognized when they die in active service.
The Minister also canvassed for the setting up of a Trust Fund for the country’s Zoos and National Parks to take care of feeding the animals.
Earlier, the Acting Director General of the BPE, Dr. Vincent Onome Akpotaire highlighted the problems inhibiting the effective operations of the National Parks. These include; lack of appropriate policy, legal and regulatory framework, host communities issues, security, lack of grazing reserves, lack of infrastructure and lack of capacity-building for staff; among others.
Consequently, the Acting DG said it has become paramount for the National Parks to be given priority by way of reforms; including a complete revision of existing policies that would attract private sector participation to ensure sustainable funding to improve infrastructure and make Nigeria a global tourist destination.
According to him, the National Parks needed to be part of the drive to modernize and diversify the economy from sole sponsorship of projects by the Federal Government to commercialization and Public-Private Partnership (PPP) option; and that the major thrust for commercialisation of National Parks is to achieve effective conservation and protection of the rich Nigerian bio-diversity and cultural heritage by providing support infrastructure through restructuring of the parks administration as well as private sector investment in the tourism sector.
Akpotaire noted that Commercialization of the National Parks “is desirable and should be actively pursued since this is in line with the government’s change agenda that places emphasis on utilising our areas of comparative advantage for the growth and development of the country. The National Parks reform is a critical component of this programme”.
