Dec. 29,2025

UNESCO has reiterated its commitment to conserving Nigeria’s biosphere reserves, ensuring environment preservation and discouraging human activities that fuel climate change across communities.

Dr. Jean-Paul Abiaga, Head of Office, UNESCO Abuja and the organisation’s representative in Nigeria, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Abuja.

He said that UNESCO was conserving biosphere reserves, particularly Oban in Cross River, Omo in Ogun State, and Shere Hills in Plateau.

He explained that a biosphere referred to the global sum of all ecosystems, including all living organisms and their interactions with the environment. Abiaga added that UNESCO had engaged communities in the Oban, Omo and Shere Hills biosphere reserves in biodiversity business training

A biosphere, according to the organisation, refers to the global sum of all ecosystems, encompassing all living organisms and their interactions with the environment.

The UNESCO representative said they had engaged in biodiversity business training for Oban Biosphere Reserve, Omo Biosphere Reserve and Shere Hills Reserve communities.

“The training is entitled Biodiversity Business in Oban Biosphere Reserve, Omo Biosphere Reserve and Shere Hills Reserve, Nigeria: A Means to Poverty Reduction, Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainable Development in Nigeria.

“ UNESCO received one million dollars from India-UN Partnership Fund to implement the Biodiversity Business Project in three sites across Nigeria.

“The objective of the project is to support youth, women and local communities to develop biodiversity-related businesses,” Abiaga said.

Speaking on the training for Omo communities, he recalled they selected ten communities to train them in piggery and fish farming biodiversity businesses.

According to him, the goal is to help them create alternative source of livelihood that generate income while protecting the environment.

Abiaga also said that the biodiversity businesses training aligned with UNESCO’s global priority to create a balance between biodiversity protection and sustainable livelihoods.

“This project combines environmental protection with income generation, which supports the UN target of protecting 30 per cent of global biodiversity on land and sea.”

He said UNESCO hoped to scale up the project and continue collaborating with the Ogun State government, other states and private sector who shared the same interest.

He mentioned that the programme which held between Nov. 10 and Nov 15 in Ogun,was being implemented in collaboration with Forestry Research Institute of Nigeria, National Park Service, the Nigerian Committee of Man and Biosphere Reserve.

The biodiversity businesses training is part of UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere (MAB) programme, an intergovernmental scientific programme aimed at establishing a scientific basis for enhancing the relationship between people and their environment.

The programme combines the natural and social sciences with a view to improving human livelihoods and safeguarding natural and managed ecosystems.

It promotes innovative approaches to economic development that are socially and culturally appropriate and environmentally sustainable.(NAN)