CURRENT STATUS OF PLANT DIVERSITY AND CONSERVATION IN NIGERIA

A healthy ecosystem depends on plant diversity amongst other factors. Plant diversity is the variability of plant species and the ecological processes that support them within a specified geographical region.About 7,895 plant species have been recorded with 128 endemic species in Nigeria. Its relevance in any nation to human development is in the areas of agriculture, human health, business and industry, leisure, cultural and aesthetic values and ecological services. Nigeria is gifted with immense flora diversity due largely to its location. However, as the most populated country in Africa, large proportion of this natural resources are threatened by factors such as over-collecting, unsustainable agriculture and forestry practices, urbanization, pollution, land use changes, the spread of invasive alien species, climate change and lack of information about the present status of most habitats, species and other key data. Nigeria plant diversity needs to be sustainably utilized and conserved. In response, both the Government and a number of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), donors, universities, and technical centers in Nigeria have devised and implemented many approaches to protect plant diversity although much work is yet undone. There is a network of protected areas in which encourage sustainable uses of plant and related natural resources so that future generations can benefit. This paper is an appraisal of existing system with the aim to support the improvement of this network and system