Agency to conduct wild animals, rare plants survey

Category: News Published on Wednesday, 27 February 2013 05:00

The National Biotechnology Development Agency (NABDA) said it will carry out a survey of wild animals and plants across the country through DNA bar-coding to prevent their poaching.

NABDA’s Director General Professor Bamidele Solomon said this in Abuja yesterday when experts on DNA bar-coding met to discuss Nigeria’s participation in world bar coding programme.

He said that DNA barcoding is a new tool or technique proposed about 10 years ago by world scientists for identifying biological specimens and managing species diversity.

He said Nigeria is adopting the new tool to conserve and prevent some rare species of animals and plants from going into extinction.

He said the new animal and plant identification tool would be beneficial to Nigerian consumers as it could be used to know the flesh of various animals even after they have been killed.

He said when fully adopted in Nigeria, the Nigeria Immigration Service would be able to stop illegal entering into and exit of animals and plants from the country, adding that it would also prevent illegal poaching of animals in the forests.

The executive secretary of Consortium for the Barcode of Life, Dr David Schindel said Google has given $3million through his organization for six selected countries: Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Mexico, Brazil and America for DNA bar-coding in their respective countries.