Celebrating 25 Years of Action for Biodiversity

Nigeria contains nearly 853 km of coastline along the Pacific Ocean. Wetlands are estimated to cover 28,000 km 2 , approximately 3 per cent of the 923,768 km 2 land surface area [ ] 171 Innovation in financing National Biodiversity Action Plans Nigeria is implementing new, modern and unique ways to finance the National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs) and biodiversity projects. One of these is promoting participation of the entire gamut of Nigerian citizenry in biodiversity conservation through the mechanisms of crowd funding — a financing method that uses the tac- tics of soliciting moderately modest contributions from a group of indi- viduals to generate funds for a cause. This mechanism will be used to raise funds for NBSAP as follows: • The naming of facilities, sites or visible components of conservation (protected) areas after individuals, firms, or corporations, by way of an organized honour scheme for prescribed sums of money • Operating a build-and-operate scheme for private entrepreneurs willing to participate in the run- ning of visitors’ centres in national parks, forest reserves and other conservation areas where emphasis is on biodiversity conservation • Organizing regular periodic bio- diversity-based lotteries with the guidance of the National Lottery Regulatory Commission. Lotteries will be organized, with a special event on World Biodiversity Day to generate funds for biodiversity conservation. A lottery is a type of betting or gaming with three important features — some pay- ment is required of participants; one or more prizes may be won by participants; the prizes are won by chance. Profits from the lottery will be ploughed into biodiversity con- servation projects of the NBSAP, such as maintenance of infrastruc- ture in national parks and game or forest reserves • The establishment of a mechanism for collection of biodiversity taxes from direct users of biodiversity: Developing and operationalizing a revenue generating system that is based on taxation of the direct beneficiaries from biodiversity exploitation. For example, various categories of visiting tourists such as game-viewers, photographers and researchers, will be made to pay commensurate entrance and usage fee charges. Also various categories of industry will be made to pay biodiversity taxes, com- mensurate with the magnitude of disturbance, such as noise, air and water pollution, that they cause in the environment • Promoting Ecotourism: This will be done through government and private sector support for biodiver- sity- based festivals such as the Ar- gungu Fishing Festival, the Biseni Fishing Festival and others of its kind in the Niger Delta. The Min- istry of Culture and Tourism will take a lead in this activity. Profits from organizing these will partly be used to enhance conservation of biodiversity at festival sites and their environs. Obudu plateau, Cross River state, Nigeria Nigeria N igeria is rich in biodiversity and houses comparable levels of endemism and species richness due to a complex topography and wide variety of habitats. These include coastal creeks of the Niger Delta, the rainforests of the Cross River basin and the mountains along the Cameroun border with Nigeria. The Atlantic Ocean forms the southern border. With its highly diverse marine and freshwater ecosystems, there is an inland array of forest and woodland ecosystems that reach Sudan Savannah and the Sahel/semi-desert belt in the northern part of the country. dotun55 on flickr