‘Nigeria’s forest reserve has dwindled significantly ‘ Written by Alex Abutu Nigeria is today rated as the country with the highest rate of deforestation. In this interview with Daily Trust, Mr Salihu Dahiru, acting Director of Forestry, Federal Ministry of Environment and the National Coordinator of the United Nations Reducing Emission from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD) programme in Nigeria, gave an overview of the nation’s forest and why the country is so rated and concluded that all Nigerians are responsible for the deforestation going on in the country. What is the state of the nation’s forest? Nigeria’s forests and woodlands provide significant economic and ecological benefits. They play important role in protecting soil and water resources and provide a vast array of products and services for the population. Forestry contributes about 2.5 per cent to the GDP. This however is not the forest’s largest contribution to the economy, as numerous other forest products and services not accounted for in the GDP are of great importance to both rural and urban livelihoods. Approximately 70-80 per cent of Nigeria’s poor depend on the forest for domestic energy supply (fuelwood), food, fodder, constructions materials income and medicine. Nigeria is said to be the country with the highest rate of deforestation globally. How true is this? Nigeria is estimated to lose about 350,000 - 4000,000 ha annually and this is regarded as one of the highest rates of deforestation in the world. Other countries with high deforestation rates include Honduras, Philippines, Republic of Benin and Ghana. Is it true that we have lost over 40 per cent of our forest coverage since the colonial masters left? The records of deforestation and forest degradation are available up to 2005 only. Current data is not available, however, based on estimations and extrapolations, the situation is as follows: The ministry carried out two studies that provided the much needed quantitative data on the state of our forest resources. The first study, under the Environmental Management Project (EMP) focused on the determination of the changes in land use and vegetation types of the country between 1976/78 and 1993/95 using aerospace data. The second project, the African Development Bank (ADB) assisted Forest Resources Study (FRS) in 1998, which involved the assessment of the forest resources situation in the country. A third study was carried out by the World Bank (2005) on sustainable forest revenue generation in Nigeria’s productive forests. The FRS covered most parts of the country (about 28 out of 36 states). The output of these studies have provided tremendous amount of data for a better understanding of Nigeria’s environment and forest resources status and the rate of environmental and forest resources depletion in the country. The current situation of land use and vegetable depicts that the forest resource base of the nation has dwindled and the environment very degraded. Some of the indices of change between 1976/78 and 1993/95 include: decrease in natural forest from 23,429,100 hectares to 15,097,900 hectares of the ownership land area; decrease in shrub/grassland from 13,441,200 hectares to 11,774,300 hectares; decrease in water bodies from 2,970,100 hectares to 2,088,700 hectares; increase in agricultural landuse from 50,293,500 hectare to 58,497,700 hectares; increase in degraded from 284,500 ha to 2,650,900 ha; increase in built-up area from 208,300 ha to 544,400 ha and increase in forest plantation from 162,500 ha to 272,900 ha. What in your opinion are the drivers of deforestation in the country? In a recent stakeholder workshop, experts ranked agricultural expansion, use of fuel wood as the predominant domestic energy source including charcoal, urbanization, mining and bush fires, we also have uncontrolled timber extraction. These also vary from state to state and from locality to locality. In the South-east for instance, the main driver of deforestation may be oil exploration activities. In the last few decades, we have observed and had the national Tree Planting Day. How has this day contributed to increasing our forest cover? The Tree Planting Campaign was designed to serve as a public sensitization and mobilization scheme towards promoting tree planting in our daily life. Several afforestation projects in the form of plantations have been established by federal, state and local governments across the country over the last few decades. Between 1978 - 1995 increase in forest plantation from 162,500 ha to 272,900 ha, and current figures could be higher. The National Council on Environment that held two years ago in Kaduna took the decision to place a total ban on charcoal export but this has continued unabated. What is your department doing to stop this? The Minister of Environment is determined to end all harmful environmental practices in Nigeria, including the exportation of charcoal, which accounts for massive killing of growing trees. The enforcement arms of the ministry such as NESREA are working very hard towards enacting the necessary laws and regulations needed to impose the ban. Again, state governments need to collaborate with the ministry in this respect. Firewood for domestic use is acknowledged as one of the drivers of deforestation. How do you think this can be addressed? It has to be through a combination of approaches which include provision of wood efficient cooking stoves; increased access to clean sustainable energy sources such as gas, provision of renewable energy such as solar, Jathropha, Bamboo charcoal and development of community woodlots, etc. Forest guards in the country are said to be one of the most poorly paid globally, is this true? Forest Guards exist only at the state level since the federal government does not own any forest, and their wages are paid by the states, local governments. Could the poor pay be responsible for the high rate of deforestation? All citizens are directly or indirectly responsible for the high rate of deforestation in Nigeria. If you look for the drivers of deforestation, everybody is involved and this include the poor and rich farmers who are expanding their farms. Many houses, including those of the rich and poor, are still using firewood for cooking. Take the case of Lagos as an example; over 12 million people are living there and a huge majority of them either use firewood or charcoal for their cooking including most of the eateries patronized by the rich. So every Nigerian in one way or the other is involved. Nigeria got about $4 million for the implementation of Reducing Emission from Deforestation (REDD). How will this assist in saving our forest? It will help in improving the capacity of Nigeria’s forest dependent communities to conserve and protect the remaining natural forests and also earn carbon credits, by addressing the drivers of deforestation, providing alternative livelihood for the communities and enhancing other ecosystem services. A United Nations convention known as Nagoya Protocol seeks to involve the forest communities in the management of forests within their location. Where are we on the domestication of this convention? The Nagoya Protocol is related to what is known as Access and Benefit Sharing of genetic resources. Nigeria as a member of the UN has advanced in its efforts towards domestication of various conventions and protocols including the Nagoya Protocol. These have been compiled and forwarded to the National Assembly for the necessary legislative attention. Source: Daily Trust
Posted on: Wed, 07 Aug 2013 12:44:37 +0000
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