The Bayelsa State Government has said it has deployed available resources and expertise to produce a policy document that will determine the scope of all environmental activities in the state.
The State Commissioner for Environment, Hon. Iselema Gbaranbiri made the disclosure when he received famous environmental rights activist, Prof. E.J Alagoa and members of the Ecosystem Restoration Blueprint Committee in his office in Yenagoa on Tuesday, August 31.
The committee was set up by the state government on July 11, 2021 and was saddled with the responsibility of drafting a blueprint for restoring the decaying ecosystem in the state.
The Commissioner expressed satisfaction with the way and manner the committee is working to achieve the blueprint in line with the United Nations decade plan on restoring the ecosystem.
While lauding the committee for interfacing with relevant stakeholders like Prof. Alagoa owing to his scholarly experience on the environment, he charged them to speed up their work.
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In her remarks, Chairperson of the committee, Dr. Hephzibah Suobo, revealed that archeological samples showed that the Bayelsa environment is as old as 4.5 billion years with species amounting to 5 billion now has 12 to 14 million surviving with only 1.2 vibrant.
The Chairperson stressed that something fast has to be done as soon as possible and noted that the Governor Douye Diri-led Prosperity Administration is the first civilian government to set up such a high profile team.
Prof. Alagoa in his contributions said the old Rivers State Government had voted funds where archeological samples were taken from different locations like in Bonny, Egwema in Brass, among others which revealed that the Izons migrated from the Jalon region to the central Niger Delta which further migrated to both north and western Delta regions.
He also noted that as at independence, the British Government had already declared Forest Reserves in Nigeria and appoint Forest Guards to drive home government policies on the forest.
According to him, the pre-colonial times had certain control measures preserving the forest such as restrictions, declaring some forests as sacred and other crude methods of sanctioning defaulters.
While noting that the problem is not absence of a framework but political will to implement, he said foremost military administrations in Bayelsa State had set up a committee to come up with restoration plans of the ecosystem that is already losing its taste.
He therefore recommend that to sustain reserves, forest Guards should work with communities and that the system of artisan refineries known as “Kpo Fire” be shut down and be allowed to return to nature as the activities seriously endanger the Niger Delta region.
