The Kwara State Director of Forestry, Alhaji Babatunde Mahmud, has said that forest animals are beneficial to the people and should take good care of them.
Mahmud said this on Tuesday, May 25, 2021 during a visit to Owu Waterfall and its environs with his team on the occasion of International Day of Biodiversity (IDB).
The commemoration was to create awareness, preserve biological diversity and to avoid endangering the lives of plant and animals.
“There should be no interference of man to forest and animals, they are all beneficial to us, let us continue to take good care of them for our own good,” the director said.
The Owu Waterfall is in Isin Local Government Area of Kwara.
The fall is the highest waterfall in West Africa, measuring 120m above water level and cascades 330 feet down an escarpment, with rocky out crops to a pool of ice-cold water below.
This year’s celebration has as its theme: “We Are Part of the Solution”.
Mahmud advised farmers to be cautious of types of chemicals used in planting as it washes down to rivers and streams thereby endangering the lives of animals and the forest.
He said the purpose of the visit was to assess the health of the forest and the animals, as well as to create better understanding of nature by human beings.
The director stressed that the day was to showcase the biodiversity with a view to protect and restore the ecological services it provides.
By Olayinka Owolewa
