The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) has pledged to provide financial support through its biosphere reserve fund, to address issues of environmental challenges on the African continent.
Director-General of the organisation, Audrey Azoulay, made the vow on Monday at the 33rd session of the International Co-ordinating Council of the Man and the Biosphere Programme (MAB-ICC) in Abuja.
She affirmed that UNESCO’s projects on the Lake Chad basin would go a long way to restore the ecosystem which was fast experiencing degradation.
Azoulay, who decried the effect of the environmental challenges, was hopeful that there was still time to make peace with the planet.
“The erosion of biodiversity is no longer a hypothesis, but a fact – one that can already be seen and felt in our everyday lives,” she said.
“Biodiversity is collapsing, at an unprecedented speed. But this collapse is not inevitable; there is still time to make peace with the planet.”
The Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha, who represented President Muhammadu Buhari at the event expressed worries over the attendant effect of the environmental challenges on human activities and the socio-economic development of the country.
He, however, stated that the Federal Government had embarked on a series of interventions targeted at protecting the ecosystem.
Such interventions, which include tree planting and the creation of national parks and laws, according to the SGF, have reduced the impact of the harmful effect of the biosphere on the people.
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