Abuja — The Minister of Environment, Mr. John Odey, yesterday inaugurated the eight-man board of the National Parks Service in Abuja.

At the occasion, theminister challenged the new board members to brace up to the challenges because the National Park has almost been abandoned in terms of management and in terms of funding as well.

He said the National Park was established in 1992 with the mandate to conserve Nigeria's bio-diversity and promote eco-tourism and research. "In view of the challenges of climate change and the huge impact it will have in Nigeria, the need to conserve our bio-diversity and protect our parks cannot be over emphasized.

"The world is at risk because of the manner in which our ecosystem are being used. Nigeria has witnessed great increase in span of degraded land while the rate of deforestation and natural forest is as high as 3.5% annually," he said.

Arc. Dejo Omotosho, who spoke on behalf of the Chairman of the new board, thanked the federal government for the privilege and promised to bring a lot into the improvement needed by the Nigerian National Park Services. Members of the board include Sen. Hamisu Musa, Chairman, Alh Isa Abdullahi Soba, Arc. Dejo Omotosho, Sen. Musa Adede, and the Conservator General of Nigeria, Alh. H. Tanko Abubakar.