10 October 2008
The conservator of the Gashaka-Gumti National Park, Taraba State, Deacon Okeyoyin Agboola, has decried the killings of two rangers at the park recently.
While explaining that poaching can not be totally eradicated in any conservation area, no matter the level of protection, Deacon Agboola said the killing of Hammandikko Umaru and Adamu Hammandikko by poachers was difficult to accept.
"You can not totally eradicate poaching in any conservation area, no matter your level of protection. Conservation is socio-economical, poachers are people that have been hunting for several years, so the only thing is that we are trying our possible best to reduce poaching to the barest minimal."
He said one of the ways they are trying to reduce poaching at the park is through conservation education, "because, a lot of these people don't know the implication of what they are doing, so it is our duty to educate them. It is true they killed some of our rangers and it is a very sad event. It is very sad to loose two rangers at a time".
"But the good news is that the law enforcement agent have arrested about seven and we are sure they will be brought to book. We are trying our best to equip the rangers."
Deacon Agboola noted that, apart from the conservation education, that the management of the country's fauna and flora are also giving park rangers the best incentives to boast their moral and are putting in place insurance scheme for all the staff.
Speaking on the relationship with the host community, Agboola described it as very perfect, as there is a cordial relationship among the park management, local government and the traditional rulers in the area. "There is a good relation-ship among us and this is because the national park, on its own, can not stand without the support of these people."
On the relationship between conservation and tourism, he explained that conservation is the key issue as that is their mandate, "tourism is an offshoot, that is, the resources are to be developed, protected and conserved and one of the ways of utilising them is to allow tourists come in and make use of them for sight seeing which we now call eco tourism".
Deacon Okeyoyin Agbola said, as a way of attracting tourists to the park, they have developed chalets in the two sector of the park. In Gashaka sector, "in Baruwa, where we have the head office, we have 16 rooms available. Then in Gashaka village, we have about 18 rooms again those ones are self catering just like Gashaka. Then, in the Gumti sector, we have developed just 5 chalets we are making efforts to increase the numbers of chalets."
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