From Sylvanus Viashima,, Jalingo
There is no doubt that nature is in love with Gashaka Gumti National Park, located in Gashaka Local Government, Taraba State and a part of Gumti Local Government, Adamawa State. It showers the park with its luxury and stunning beauty!
Established in 1991, the park covers 6731 sq kilometers, boasts of over 1000 plant species, 102 mammalian species, 60 fish species, 477 species of birds and about 300 species of butterflies, some of which are peculiar and exclusive to the park.
Many attest that the park, one of the seven national parks, is a rare gift to the nation and indicated in its features and qualities.
The park is home to the highest peak in the country, standing at about 2400 metres above sea level. It also hosts the hot springs at Metasheriba and the famous German/British Forte, the Yakuba, the ruins of a slave trade forte.
Spokesperson of the park, S. O. Babatola, said: “The park is a place of comfort and a delight for tourists and adventurers. It boasts of lakes, rivers, water springs and waterfalls. Its general topography makes it perfect for both hikers and campers.”
He regretted, however, that the park has been enduring a few challenges in the recent years, adding that some of the wildlife that were there before are almost going into extinction: “For instance, we have not sighted lions here for quite a while now. This is due to human activities and traffic. The park used to boast of a hippopotamus pool in the past.
“Sadly, hippos have not been sighted for more than five consecutive years now. Equally, cheaters that were a common sight have not made appearance for several years now.
“Other challenges include poaching, encroachment, indiscriminate killing of wildlife for meat.” He expressed optimism that if the Federal Government would be more deliberate about the national parks, things would be well again.
Lamido of Gashaka, Zubairu Hamman Gabdo, told Daily Sun that the park was once the pride of the nation, regretting that the park was desperately in need of help: “People need to visit Gashaka Gumpti National Park to see things for themselves. I have been to other places in and outside Nigeria and I can tell you for free that what we have here is a unique park in so many ways.
“Apart from the landmass itself which makes the park the largest in Nigeria, the diverse nature of both wildlife and plants makes it stand out. Unfortunately, the park has been suffering from serious neglect over the years. They used to have very few rangers, who were mostly ill- equipped and de-motivated. We even had situations where some of the rangers were killed while confronting criminals in the park.”
The Federal Government recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with African Nature Investors (ANI) for the management of the park. Spokesperson of the park: “ANI is an NGO that partners with the park service to support conservation works within the national park by providing financial and technical support. ANI is working with us as a principal partner. The national park service has been upgraded to a paramilitary agency, enabling us to carry weapons to do our work.
“The partnership has brought funding for training and purchase of equipment. We have more patrol vehicles, canoes and helicopters. We had a situation where rangers walked for several days to get to certain locations. That has been taken care of. The helicopter is a game changer. It makes it easier to drop rangers at locations for patrols.
“The coming of ANI has improved our operational efficiency and effectiveness. The helicopter is for patrol and surveillance and deployment of rangers. It is not used for lifting gold or diamond or anything as people speculate. Mining is prohibited on the park and we have been arresting illegal miners and prosecuting them.
“Prior to now, the people had access to these forests but that is now controlled, so naturally, there is the tendency to want to resist. However, we know that attitudinal change is a slow process. The park only covers less than a tenth of the land mass.
“We have a tourist camp, camping sites and we have been having both local and foreign tourists coming in. We have hikers also coming in from all over the world. The revenue is too meagre and our tariffs are in the process of been reviewed to fit to the contemporary realities and be able to generate revenue from the park.
“With intervention of ANI, we are able to make inroads in area of training of rangers and provision of equipment for our work. We also provide soft loans for indigenes of surrounding communities as well as agricultural equipment. We also train the locals in various skills and empower them to have other means of livelihood rather than focusing their attention on the park.”