By Yemi Olakitan
A song of repentance and action plans are due for Okomu National Park, the last remaining example of Nigeria’s fully mature forest ecosystem, which is situated in Udo, Ovia Southwest, Edo State.
Live medicinal plants with significant pharmacological potential and interest can be found in its strategic guts. It is a natural resource catchment area that supports the growth of significant and rare species of fauna and flora that are still undiscovered by science. It is also the pristine (used to be) habitat of white-throated monkeys, elephants, rich and diverse bird life, and other animals and plants. Additionally, it is a haven for ecotourism vacations.
Its original land mass of around 418 square metres, which was created and preserved by the Nigerian Conservation Foundation, has decreased over time as a result of human encroachment, illicit logging, poachers’ invasion, and land-grabbing mercenaries.
This heritage biosphere space has two notable tree homes, one Olympian at 140 feet high erected on a silk cotton tree, which allows for a forest cover bird watching adventure, and Ossie River on its eastern and western borders.
There are silt-based cabins, an Olympic-sized pool, termite nests, some of which are as tall as buildings, and natural pathways that allow for ecotourism excursions across this biosphere.
This stunning scenery is surrounded by about six communities: Nikorogha, Okomu, Udo, Iguofole, Iguowan, and Ugolo. Over time, these villages turned into a problem rather than a solution for Okomu National Park.
These communities provide organised rings of illegal loggers with illicit intel, and the grave repercussions are brutally obvious. Despite the National Park Service’s very best efforts and intervention to preserve Okomu National Park secure and protected as required, it is undeniably threatened and on the point of extinction.
Support zone communities are critical to limiting the actions of illegal loggers and resource speculators, according to experts in global environmental management. Such aspirations have peculiar faces in the wooded setting of Okomu.
Who are the saboteurs, where are they located, and how do loggers enter the park? Are there state players, those with connections to forestry officials, forestry resource licence racketeers, community-powered land-grabbers, and poachers with an unwavering objective to obliterate the wildlife resources, especially the endangered white-throated monkeys?
The Conservator-General of the Federation, Dr. Ibrahim Musa Goni, has strategically redeployed the unit park management ecosystem in response to this alarming situation since he is in critical need of a plan for saving this famous biosphere boundary in southwest Nigeria.
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The recent destruction of the 140-foot tree house by suspected armed illegal loggers with the help of strong community leadership has left behind a cascade of immediate and long-term environmental conservation consequences that are likely to erase Edo State from the map of the world’s eco-green economies and travel destinations.
It is also distressing that Nigeria (Edo State) might not be able to secure climate change funding if urgent action is not taken to stop illegal loggers’ dangerous propensity to destroy local flora resources, endangering endangered mona monkeys, elephants, birds, antelopes, and many other undiscovered fauna resources.
One began exchanging ideas with the leaders and representatives of the six communities listed previously with some apprehension and awareness of the effects of complete annihilation of Okomu.
Talking to communities that had established their goals and priorities, as well as those with historical ties to the park, was not a simple assignment.
One has used clinical trials to raise community knowledge and interest in resource management expectations and remuneration for more than 20 years. Without a doubt, the National Park Service’s forefathers foresaw the future when they consciously established a win-win collaboration agenda with all communities where parks are located, geared toward achieving the true goals of designating a portion of our earth and marine areas for conservation ecology.
However, the demands of an expanding population, wasteful flora resource destruction, rising “bush meat” demand, and land grabbing signal the need to implement fresh strategies to deal with these problems.
To address the Okomu problem, the National Park Service established a local advisory council in 2010. Win gains—were there any? No and yes.
My involvement in conservation, which was fully supported by the Goni-led National Park Service, changed for the better thanks to Osaze Lawrence, the new sheriff in charge of Okomu. With the six villages’ enthusiastic participation, the meeting got underway in earnest.
Sharing with the communities the dire implications that can befall them and their unborn children if Okomu is allowed to become an empty environmental bowel was done so without holding back.
Knowing the importance of our native speech, I asked Osaze Lawrence, the Conservator of the Park, to translate what I had said. The facts and the solutions gained centre stage because of the magic.
The community leaders’ incredibly patriotic contributions during the Okomu-must-stay-alive discussion should be kept out of the public eye, but what was equally interesting was how everyone in attendance agreed to work with the management of Okomu National Park to root out illegal loggers and land grabbers.
Significantly, the Okomu recovery road map has officially started with the deployment of CP Osaze Lawrence, a native son who played a key role in the transfer of Okomu from the Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF) to the federal government as a wildlife sanctuary.
