The butchering of a crash-landed whale along the shores of the Atlantic Ocean and the hunting down of a chimpanzee in the forest are actions that will be commended by most Nigerians.
Many citizens strongly hold the view that it is humans who are presently endangered in the country and that every edible animal is meant for consumption – not conservation.
Nigeria is among the 131 countries that are part of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS); the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), among other international treaties aimed at conserving endangered plants and animals across the globe.
Despite signing these international treaties and enacting relevant conservation laws, the killing of endangered species has remained unabated in Nigeria.
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Raynus Ebiegberi has spent the last 8 years of his life working to protect manatees, sea turtles, and other endangered sea mammals from fishermen along the Bayelsa State Coastline.
An indigene of Minibie town in Akassa, Brass Local Government Area, Raynus is the Secretary-General of the West African Sea Turtle Conservation Network (WASTCON), a group committed to the conservation of endangered wildlife along the Gulf of Guinea.
“What inspired me to become a marine wildlife conservationist is passion and my affiliation with conservationists.
“Many of these animals are helplessly going extinct, so we sensitize our people on the need to conserve them. We also tell them it’s prohibited by international conservation laws,” Raynus said.
Raynus pointed out that he encounters “community resistance” when he engages fishermen that return with endangered animals from the sea.
He said that sometimes “when people come with endangered species, we compensate them for the fuel they spent to go fishing.
“The Akassa Development Foundation (ADF), which I am the Youth Affairs Coordinator, has started conserving sea turtles. We have four species (green, olive ridley, leatherback, and hawksbills turtles) on our coastlines.
“A major problem is that fishing trawlers kill a good population of sea turtles in the area each year with their dragnets and other fishing gears.”
Raynus disclosed that inadequate funding and sea piracy are hindering wildlife conservation activities and tourism in Nigeria, saying that, conservationists and tourists are afraid of being attacked by gunmen along the creeks.
He, therefore, called on both the federal and state governments to nip the activities of sea pirates in the bud and also fund activities of wildlife conservation.
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“Many countries are generating income through ecotourism,” Raynus expressed. “With research and proper management, the Edumanom Forest Reserve and other conservation activities could attract international tourists to Bayelsa State.”
He further opined that “There won’t be tourism when we treat the issue of sea piracy and other security issues with levity. There won’t be tourism when everybody wants to be in politics.
“We need to make our environment so enabling that people can come, relax, study, have fun, do anything they want to do, go back and still return afterward.
