Alhaji Haruna Abubakar, the Conservator-General, National Parks, Federal Ministry of Environment, on Thursday canvassed for the establishment of additional National Parks across the country.

Speaking in Abuja on Thursday, Abubakar said the establishment of more parks would help reduce the impact of climate change as more areas would have vegetation cover.

The conservator general said the climate change impact was felt more due to the destruction of forest land.

He said the existing national parks were located at the Chad Basin (Borno), Gashaka-Gumti (Taraba), Okomu (Edo) and Kamuku (Kaduna), Old Oyo (Oyo), Kainji (Niger) and Cross River National Park.

Each of the parks was unique, the conservator-general said, and underscored the importance of efficient management of the facilities.

According to him, the resources in the parks are capable of providing ecological tourism, employment and investment opportunities.

He therefore, urged the Federal Government to scale up funding of the parks to ensure the provision of basic infrastructure needed to run them efficiently and effectively.

Abubakar said: "Because the funding we receive is inadequate, we can't provide sufficient and suitable infrastructure that will attract investments into the parks.

"In the parks, there are a lot of flora and fauna resources, which form most of the attraction people want to see; but without adequate funding most of the resources will be untapped."

He said the activities of poachers posed a serious challenge as many inhabitants living within the vicinity of the parks depended on the resources for their livelihood.

Abubakar, however, said efforts were on to evolve a programme that would checkmate the activities of poachers. He also advocated establishing functional grazing reserves for livestock farmers to prevent animals straying into the parks and guide against the transmission of diseases within the parks. (NAN)