The Challenge of Deforestation
The Challenge of Deforestation in Nigeria
By Rukayat I. Olanrewaju
Nigeria is highly endowed with a lot of biological resources.
The nation is one of the richest biodiversity hotspots in the
world.
During the pre-independence era, massive forest reservation took
place, about 96,518 square kilometres of land representing 27% of
the total forest cover and 10% of the total land area was reserved
as protected area. 66 percent of the forest reserves lies in the
savanna region of the country, 20% falls within the humid tropical
forest zones in southern Nigeria and 4% was fresh water swamps and
mangroves of the coastal south of the nation.
When we gained our independence and became a sovereign state, we
inherited eight (8) national parks, four hundred and forty five
(445) forest reserves, twelve (12) strict nature reserves and
twenty eight (28) games reserves from the colonial administrators
for the protection and conservation of the forest biodiversity in
the country.
Unfortunately, the vast area of forests reserved in the 50s are
nowhere to be found. This legacy has been greatly destroyed, the
protected areas has been deforested, degraded, encroached and
converted to other land uses as a result of increased pressure from
the rapidly increasing population.
The Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF) reported that Nigeria
has lost 96% of its natural forest cover and deforestation rate is
at an alarming 11.1% per annum. This prevalent problem of
deforestation, fragmentation and land conversion for agricultural
purpose and other uses has affected adversely the forest
biodiversity in the country.
Although nature is resilient and forests have the ability to
recover from negative changes, unfortunately the rate and extent of
damage and destruction is more than the forest can offset at a
particular time. In recent times, the deleterious effect of our
attack on the forest can be seen all over the world.
The frequent disasters experienced in some parts of the world
can be traced to climate change, which has been aggravated by the
increased emission of greenhouse gases and loss of forest cover all
over the world.
The global challenge of climate change and biodiversity loss
necessitates the need for sustainable forest management.
Sustainable forest management is simply the utilization of our
forest resources in a way that it would be available in perpetuity.
Sustainable management of our forest resources has been the
objective of both the state and Federal Ministry of Environment,
ENGOs and other conservation agencies.
The federal government has increased afforestation and
reforestation efforts under various projects and programmes to
augment natural regeneration processes but the rate of
afforestation is not commensurate with the rate of deforestation.
This calls for a state of emergency in our forestry sector.
This problem would persist unless the forest stakeholders put all
effort to combat this scourge. Sustainable forest management would
only be achievable if the institutional framework is put in
place.
The forestry policy of 2006 should be reviewed and appropriate
laws enacted and the obsolete forest laws reviewed. This will
reduce incidence of illegal logging from concession owners, timber
contractors and other forest users. Also, there is need for a
nationwide comprehensive ecological survey, forest inventory and
mapping to provide information on the current status of forest
biodiversity in Nigeria to provide a baseline information for
forest management planning.
A national forest management plan, with clear objectives for
conservation, utilization and sustainable management should be
developed and from this, the state forestry department can develop
their own site specific forest management plan taking into account
the three aspects of sustainable development (social, economic and
cultural). More efforts should be put into the sensitization of
stakeholders about the importance of trees, tree planting and
conservation.
Community forests and private forests establishment should be
encouraged to complement government efforts. Private forest
plantations will reduce pressure on reserved forest for timber
thereby reducing logging in our protected forestlands. Conservation
education should be included in school curriculum to teach children
about conservation of biodiversity to prevent future reoccurrence
of deforestation and forest degradation in our protected
forests.
Nigeria’s forestry sector has a great prospect for biodiversity
conservation and revenue generation. We have vast land mass and
good climatic condition to support diverse vegetation. In spite of
the great disservice done to our forest lands, we still have
pockets of forest lands that can be reclaimed and developed. With
about 20 universities with a forestry department and several
colleges of forestry for capacity building we have the needed human
resources to reclaim our forestlands, and several community owned
sacred grooves with diverse tree species to serve as seed bank, we
can put a stop to deforestation and reclaim, develop and conserve
our forest resources.
Rukayat I. Olanrewaju
PhD Student on Forestry Management
University of Ibadan
olanrewajuifedapo@gmail.com