The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Calabar (UniCal), Prof. Offiong Offiong, has charged stakeholders to adopt practical measures to protect the environment and promote sustainable development.
Offiong gave the charge on Saturday at the second International Conference of the university’s Faculty of Environmental Sciences.
The theme of the conference is “Man and the Environment: Interactions, Impacts and Pathways to Sustainability.”
Represented by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Research, Linkages and Collaboration, Prof. Egrinya Eneji, the vice-chancellor described the environment as fundamental to human survival and development, hence the need for deliberate actions to protect and improve it.
He urged participants to pay attention to the issues discussed and leverage the platform to share knowledge, foster collaboration, and develop practical solutions to environmental challenges.
He commended the faculty for organising the conference, describing it as “timely and academically significant.”
He expressed the optimism that the deliberations and resolutions would contribute to efforts to safeguard the environment.
Earlier, the Dean of the faculty, Prof. Francis Okpiliya, said the conference was organised at a time humanity was confronted with environmental challenges, including climate change, pollution, biodiversity loss, rapid urbanisation, resource depletion, and environmental health concerns.
Okpiliya said the challenges required interdisciplinary knowledge, innovative thinking, effective governance, and collective action to develop sustainable solutions.
He described the conference as a platform for knowledge exchange, presentation of research findings, critical dialogue, and collaboration among academics, industry operators, government, civil society organisations, and other stakeholders.
Also speaking, the Chairperson of the Local Organising Committee, Prof. Elizabeth Andrew-Essien, said interdisciplinary engagement was essential to understand and address environmental challenges.
Andrew-Essien explained that the environment encompassed both physical and human-made systems, making collaboration across disciplines necessary to understand the relationship between human activities and the ecological systems that sustain life.
She said the conference sub-themes covered human environment and governance, land-water ecosystems, built environment, health, energy, pollution, climate and environmental economics, digital innovation, and creative arts.
She urged participants to combine specialised academic research with cross-disciplinary engagement, adding that the complexity of environmental challenges required experts to learn from one another.
She expressed the hope that the conference would generate new research findings and practical knowledge to promote a sustainable future for Cross River, Nigeria, and the wider world.
The conference featured panel discussions, scholarly presentations, and interactive sessions aimed at strengthening environmental knowledge, policy and practice, as well as promoting sustainable development.
