 We'll see you back with the breakfast and plus TV Africa. Now, we'll move away from politics and all of the politicking and elections and talk about, you know, the environment. This morning, we'll have a guest joining us, Folake Sawa. Joining us this morning, she's of Green Recovery Niger, a coordinator to speak about wetland as it's been celebrated today, the second of February 2023. Folake, it's good to have you join us this morning. Can you please bring us up to speed with what today is about? I mean, what's the importance of this day and how does that really affect us as humans, especially in Nigeria? Okay, thank you for having me. I work with the Nigerian Conservation Foundation, NCF is the premier NGO in Nigeria at the forefront of promoting environmental and conservation education in the country. So basically today is International Wetland Day and the commemoration is usually done on the second of every February of every year. It started in 1997, one of the outcomes of the ERAMSA International Convention on Wetlands. So it's to raise awareness on the importance of wetlands to humanity and the reason why we should protect the wetlands. And that's the reason why we commemorate today. I don't know, basically in the last 50 years, over 35% of the global wetlands has been lost due to human activities. Hence the need to on yearly basis on this day, we need to come out and create awareness and let people know the importance of wetlands and why we need to preserve the wetlands. And in line with this year's theme, which is wetland restoration, it's all about now we've done a lot of harm in terms of degrading the wetlands. We need to now start promoting the restoration to get the wetlands back to the forms where they will continue to provide the ecosystem services that they provide. For those who are wondering, when we talk about wetlands, what do we mean? Okay, so basically wetlands, it's a distinct ecosystem that's flooded or you know, saturated by water either seasonally or permanently. So what comes easily to mind when you want to give example to people are forest swamps or mangrove forests, like we have along the most coastal areas in the country. And within Lagos, the most prominent would be like the one around the National Theater. There is a wetland, if you notice around the National Theater in Urilegumu, there is this particular expanse of, excuse me, expanse of land, rich in trees and biodiversity surrounding it. It's a typical example of what a wetland is. And why do we need to restore the wetlands? Before you even get there, what is the important role wetlands play in our world, in our society? Okay, so I mentioned that they provide what we call ecosystem services and then the most prominent one would be like they provide the flood and flood control. It's like a place, it's just like a storage where water otherwise that would be a nuisance to people is stored and supports fauna and flora, that's aquatic life. And also wetlands also they perform water purification function. So you know, when Nigerian, I mean I know it's a global event, but let's talk about us. Where can we, you know, spot out, you've just mentioned one in Lagos, the other paths in Nigeria where we can find these wetlands and what are the challenges that, you know, these areas are faced with? Okay, so Nigeria is one of the internationally designated wetland countries. And then wetlands in Nigeria you can easily find prominently in the Niger Delta area along the Benua and Chad basin, as well as the whole length of Nigerian coastal areas, including Lagos state. So we have what we called 11 international designated wetlands in Nigeria. Those are the ones that internationally will recognize. And this includes, it includes the what we call the Adegiang Guru wetlands. It also includes trying to remember some of them. Basically, most of them you can find in the in the Niger Delta area. Okay, really, but let's talk about, you know, the challenges and the human activities that are affecting these wetlands in Niger. Okay, so it all depends on the parts of like, for instance, the Adegiang Guru wetland is situated between Jigawa and Yobi state. And the main human activity impacting it is overgrazing, as well as deforestation. So this impacts the wetland. And once you lay bare, it's unable to provide the water retention, the water purification, the flood control that it does. And then in other areas, for instance, like Lagos, you have persistence, some feeling of wetlands for urban development. So these are the kind of activities that impact wetlands and reduce the amount of wetlands that we have. And also, definitely, and then one of the most important functions of the wetlands I forgot to mention, is all called carbon sequestration. It acts as just like forest, it acts as a carbon sink and helps to provide hair. And this also provides an important role in climate change control. So when we sand few wetlands, when we cut down the trees and wetlands, when we encroach on wetlands, it impacts the ability of the wetlands to provide the ecosystem services that are previously listed to us as humans. But you know that in the course of survival, for instance, there are areas where they are big on the production of rice. And we know that rice and wetlands work hand in hand. So swamp, if this were talking about these swampy areas, for instance, you have them in different parts of the country. And of course, in the state, we have swampy areas where people plant rice or grow rice. So how do we now separate human survival and the protection of these wetlands, because you have to survive? Okay, so as an organization in NCF, our vision is to promote Nigeria where people prosper while living in harmony with nature. There's such concept as sustainable agricultural practices. It doesn't mean that you're able to do your agricultural practices but what we're saying is do it in a sustainable manner. Do it in organic manner. Don't overuse chemicals that impact the wetlands. And whatever you're taking from the environment, make sure you replenish it. When you cut down trees in the parts for you to do your farming, make sure you do another planting of trees in other parts to compensate for the damage you're causing in that particular. So there's such things as sustainable agriculture that also minimizes the quantity of land you need and also improves the yield of the farmers as well. Whilst going through the conversations and some of our programs ahead of during the flooding, recent flooding around the country, we forget so quickly mercy. We moved on from flooding. Now it's Naira, it's petroscacity, it's election. I think we're grappling with it. But we need to remember that people died, people lost their home, property, livelihood. And we've not, we've government has just moved on, left everybody. But when the conversation on floods was on, had to go dig up the legal state development plans, the one that Fashella did, the one that Ambody did, recently someone came up with his, because Ambody is not needed to be upgraded and it's going to be experiment soon. One of the things I saw, I think in the Fashella legal state development plan, what's called master plan, which Singapore has been campaigning with, is they said they were going to try to prevent flooding in legal state. Legal state is under threat of floods. Some communities are just by the water and that they were going to set up a legal state wetlands agency of some sort or think tank or body. I want to talk about how has government, what can government do to make sure that this wetlands, because I haven't heard of this agency. It's important that they move to set up this commission or agency about for wetlands restoration and protection to prevent flooding and then what can government do to make sure that we do not have legal state flooded over in the next few years. Okay, so basically the agency you mentioned has not come on board, definitely. But if he comes on board, it's going to like give priority to wetland conservation, which presently is undue at national level by the Federal Ministry of Environment and also at subnational levels by the state ministries or departments of environment as the case may be. So having such agency will definitely help. But the main way to do this is to promote protection of wetlands. All designated wetlands should be, they are already giving protected status, but the enforcement of the protection of these areas should not be breached. For instance, like I mentioned the National Theater in the last couple of years, we've had to do photo exhibition, do a lot of awareness creation because of the renovation that is ongoing and which is already impacting the wetlands. So now we have to call those in charge of the restoration and get the guarantee from them that you're going to protect this wetland. But normally, statutorily, we shouldn't be conversing for that. It should be part of the building regulations that these designated wetlands don't sandfill, don't build on them, and when you encroach on them, these are the penalties. So what about the other developments? So look at that now around the Lagos where you have sandfilling going on, even public infrastructure projects. This is impacting negatively? Not all the time because... We see around the Oyanoro for instance, I'm sure you know of that part. Yes, so that's part of it. If you look at the statistics of the rate of loss of the wetlands, it's as a result of incidents just like that. I was telling me a lot of people that, as early as 2010-11, people used to paddle boat from Ifako to that Oyanoro. Now everything is sandfilled and those are the wetlands that we're providing ecosystem services to that particular area. Now where will the water overflow from the lagoon? Where does it go? It goes straight to people's houses. Whereas before the construction, that particular expanse of land serves as a storage to take excess water during the rainy season from the lagoon. So it's just a way that we need to enforce the environmental impact assessment, which ensures that building and construction projects do not have adverse environmental impact on the general environment and specifically to very sensitive ecosystems like the wetlands. So not to chew on that and I hope the authorities will take your advice and do something with it. Looking forward to seeing if the legacy government will do what he had said, it will do which itself, this agency, you said. But I would like to encourage you and Nigerian Conservation Foundation to keep up doing the good work and thank you very much for your time. Thank you very much for your time. Well that was a size of our conversation this morning and we definitely let it go at this point in time. We're speaking with an expert if you'd like to see, Folake Salawa. Folake Salawa has been with us this morning and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to be part of the conversation. That's if you missed out on any part of it and do subscribe to our YouTube channel at Plus TV Africa and Plus TV Africa Lifestyle. I am Messi Boko. Have a great morning. Kofi Bartels here. We're back tomorrow. Good morning.