By Yemi Olakitan
Over the years, Nigerians have eaten more wild creatures, endangering monitor lizards, antelopes, crocodiles, porcupines, tortoises, and pythons. Hunters kill these animals daily for food and profit.
Poaching for body parts and meat threatens Nigerian wildlife, according to a WildAid survey. As of 2021, Nigeria had fewer elephants, crocodiles, gorillas, antelope, and chimpanzees, and certain species, including pangolins, were endangered or extinct, a condition that has long concerned conservationists. “Nigeria has a problem,” said Greenfingers Animal Conservation Initiative founder Chinedu Mogbo of wildlife endangerment.
Magbo complained that Nigeria had only 50 African lions and chimpanzees, drills, red Colobus monkeys, and other primates were extremely endangered. Nigeria lost rhinos and giraffes in 2006.
African woodland elephants are highly endangered. “The white-bellied pangolin, African crowned crane, and others are smaller species,” he said.
Mogbo was destined for medical success with a first-class degree in Biomedical Sciences from De Montfort University, Leicester, UK, and a master’s in Public Health from Warwick University. He changed careers to rescue Nigeria’s endangered animals from poachers.
He started the organisation twelve years ago to rescue, protect, and rehabilitate endangered Nigerian animals at a wildlife sanctuary, release them into protected areas, and educate the public.
I saw Nigeria’s wildlife issue. I wanted to help improve Nigeria’s wildlife narrative. That sparked the trip. Rescued animals live at our wildlife refuge. He said it holds over 110 wild animals. Poachers and collaborators selling hides and other animal parts is more concerning. Professor of Environmental Law and Policy Olanrewaju Fagbohun (SAN) stated poaching and illegal wildlife trafficking have reached record highs. Illegal wildlife trade is the fourth most lucrative illicit trade after drugs, people trafficking, and weaponry. At the 16th Chief S. L. Edu Memorial Lecture, organised by the Nigerian Conservation Foundation in 2018, former Lagos State University Vice-Chancellor Fagbohun said, “In financial terms, some estimates put the worth of illicit wildlife and plant trade at between €8bn and €20bn annually, while some have placed the estimate at between $15bn and $20bn or $10bn and $23bn per year.”
In addition to bushmeat consumption, WildAid observed that Nigeria had become the key transit hub in Africa for ivory and pangolin scales exported to Asian countries, and that the country was related to approximately half of all pangolin scale seizures globally between 2016 and 2019.
The Nigerian government’s repeated seizures demonstrate the problem’s severity. The Nigeria Customs Service intercepted pangolin scales worth N10.26bn on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway’s Isheri axis in February 2020. It seized N22.3bn in pangolin scales and elephant tusks in Lagos in August 2021.
The Comptroller General of Customs, Col. Hameed Ali (retd.), said the 196 sacks of pangolin scales confiscated in August 2021 weighted 17,137.44 kilos, the pangolin claws 4.60kg, and the elephant tusks 870.44 kg. Nigeria enforces wildlife regulations inadequately and has minimal wildlife education and conservation. The Federal Government amended the Endangered Species (Control of International Trade and Traffic) (Amendment) Act in 2016 to increase fines under the First Schedule from N1,000 to N500,000 or five years in prison, or both, for those who hunt or trade endangered species like pangolins, sea turtles, civets, monkeys, and pythons. The Second Schedule increased fines to N300,000 ($770) or three years in prison. Airlines, shippers, and cargo handlers transporting illegal animal items now pay N2m ($5,128). “However, the law is rarely enforced, as seen with many other wildlife laws, such as the National Environmental (Protection of Endangered Species in International Trade) Regulations 2011, which has a maximum fine of N5m ($13,137) and a three-year jail term for wildlife-related crimes,” the WildAid survey said.
Hunters, poachers, and their accomplices kill endangered species out of greed.
It’s serious. Poachers recognise the value of these animals and their parts. This animal trafficking has another hidden aspect. Indigenous wildlife is captured and exported to other countries for high prices in the international pet trade. It’s unmentioned. “Pangolins and rhinos are endangered in Africa,” Mogbo remarked.
Unfortunately, foreigners employ Nigerians to fuel their trade. The chain includes the hunters. Some of the key players have significant networks and can even influence government officials.
For instance, if materials are taken, they can still get them back. “But it (illegal wildlife) will trickle down to the hunters who will go in search of the animals and gather them,” he added.
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Timi Bomadi, the NCS’s National Public Relations Officer, said illegal wildlife traders captured by Customs tried unsuccessfully to pay authorities to get their seized commodities released or a soft landing.
He stated, “It is something that we have not relented in battling against and I think just last month, the CGC Strike Force in Lagos also had pangolin scale seizures. We have consistently opposed illegal wildlife trade.
International bodies help us. We collaborate with European governments, animal conservationists, and residents. A massive intelligence operation. Traffickers aim to utilise Nigeria as a transit route to Asia or Europe, even though most wildlife lives elsewhere.
We saw non-Nigerians in a court case. Foreigners trade. International police have traced them, making it notorious. We arrested and are prosecuting them.” Cyber-enabled wildlife trafficking
The government’s efforts to end Nigeria’s illegal wildlife trade look to be working, but the criminals are going online.
TRAFFIC, a leading non-governmental organisation working on wildlife trade in the context of biodiversity conservation and sustainable development, warned that unregulated and illegal cyber-enabled wildlife trade in Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, the DRC, and Gabon was endangering threatened African species.
While many countries have laws for physical markets, uncontrolled online market vendors are exploiting a lack of cyber-related legislation. Nigeria, along with Gabon, had the most internet advertisements for live species, with 79%. In this survey, 70% of the products were live birds and monkeys, likely for the exotic pet trade.
“The ongoing concern is that 90% of the sellers were listing on platforms which instruct buyers to meet sellers to exchange and pay for goods in person, making it difficult for law enforcement to intercept packages or even prove the sale,” it said in a July 2022 report on cyber-enabled wildlife trade in Central African countries and Nigeria.
Fagbohun added that relevant agencies in the UK, New Zealand, Austria, Switzerland, Denmark, Germany, and Chile were well-resourced in terms of staff and infrastructure, with technology helping to monitor and detect unlawful wildlife trading.
Nigeria’s environment
Biosecurity risk was a serious issue, Fagbohun said, lamenting Nigeria’s unlawful wildlife trafficking.
Animals have caused 75% of developing infectious diseases in the last decade, according to the WHO. Rhinos, lions, and others have gone extinct due to illegal wildlife. This will cause major economic losses. Illegal wildlife threatens ecosystems and local communities. Rangers, conservation authorities, police officers, and community people aiding these officials face harm and violence. “The large amount of money involved increases the danger of corruption, boosts criminal networks, and fosters social instability,” Fagbohun said.
Wildlife tourism profits nations.
Reports showed that while wildlife struggles in Nigeria, several countries are using their fauna to build their economies and create jobs through tourism.
Tourism contributed $8bn to the South African economy in 2018, 2.8 percent of GDP. According to Investec, anglo-South African worldwide banking and wealth management business, it created 716,000 jobs, 4.6 percent of the country’s total.
In its 2021 economic impact report, the World Travel and Tourism Council said that Brazil earned $103.5bn from tourism and travel, 6.4 percent of its GDP, while Nigeria earned $16m, 3.6 percent of its GDP.
Without solid data, it’s hard to determine Nigeria’s losses from this unlawful activity. According to Fagbohun, Nigeria loses billions of dollars annually.
Conservationists advocate moderation.
Augustine Ezealor, a wildlife conservation professor at the Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Abia State, blamed poverty for Nigeria’s endangered species’ high demand, consumption, and decrease. He advised planning wildlife consumption to ensure their reproduction and survival.
“Poverty is the issue,” he remarked. Bushmeat is meat to some people. We risk destroying animals. Wildlife breathes the same air as humans, therefore polluting their environment pollutes ours. We must live with wildlife.
