The National Park Service says its parks need serious investment from both government and private sectors to bring eco-tourism on stream as additional source of government revenue generation.
Dr Ibrahim Goni, Conservator-General of the service made the call during the Naija Seven Wonder Webinar with the theme, “Eco-tourism in Nigeria with the National Park Service”.
Goni who was represented by Assistant Conservator-General, Yakubu Kolo said that more investment in the seven National parks available in the country will position them to attract more tourists.
He said this is necessary now that so many nations are gradually disengaging from use of fossil fuel.
He explained that the National Park played immense roles in medicine, research, education, agriculture, tourism, and spiritualism are critical components in the achievement of the sustainable development goals.
The C-G also urged that present efforts at improving security should be enhanced with regard to insurgency and banditry and ensure that good road networks are also developed inside and outside the parks.
According to him, these would help in reshaping the national parks to attract tourists while improved funding of the Nigeria National Park Service is also looked into.
“The National parks are open for private sector partnership, especially through the partial commercialisation programme of the federal government. ”
“Public-spirited individuals and organisations can also come to the aid of the Service by donating projects and programmes that will foster conservation and eco-tourism in our National parks. ”
“All these need improved funding, and we want the federal government to look into this. ”
He said: We have seven National parks in the country, covering a total land area of 22,000km² representing about 3 per cent of the country’s total land mass,” .
Goni gave the patronage statistics of tourists influx into the various parks as 2017- 8,111; 2018- 10,371 and 2019- 11, 487 adding that the patronage statistics were low due to the security challenges the country was confronted with as Boko Haram had taken over some of the routes to the parks.
He noted that the Service generated N26,945,444.87 in 2017, N60,394,410.38 in 2018 and N41,322,669.04 in 2019.
The CG said that the parks are capable of generating more if the security challenges are subdued and the parks are better funded. ”
“We have been confronted with series of challenges such as insecurity, poor park infrastructures, lack of private sector involvement, poor domestic tourism by Nigerians, poor communication facilities in parks, low manpower and more. ”
“We want government to wade into most of these challenges so that we can be more productive and efficient in service delivery as well as enabling government to generate revenue from its floral and fauna assets,” he said.
He explained that the parks are endowed with beautiful landscapes and diverse scenic ecosystems that provide unique opportunities for local and international tourists to experience active outdoor recreational inspiration and tranquility.
The parks are Chad Basin National park located between Borno and Yobe states, Cross River National Park in Cross River state and Gashaka Gumti National Park situated between Adamawa and Taraba states.
Others are Kainji Lake National Park located between Niger and Kwara states, Old Oyo National Park in Oyo state, Kamuku National Park in Kaduna state and Okomu National park located in Edo state.
