Way out of deforestation in Nigeria — Stakeholders
By Daud Olatunji and Seye Adeniyi
Illegal tree felling destroys the forest.
MANY forest experts, businessmen and women
as well as stakeholders in the agricultural in
dustry especially those that make use of trees for commercial purpose recently gathered in Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State, to join their counterparts all over the world to mark this year’s World Tree Day.
At the meeting, all the participants showed their displeasures at the way and manner many Nigerians invade the forest to cut trees indiscriminately, describing it as a bad and uneconomical attitude.
Many of them were also of the opinion that one of the most neglected natural resources in Nigeria is the forest, a major aspect of our agricultural sector, which if well preserved and maintained, could fetch the country good income, rather than depending solely on the down stream sector.
They observed that Nigeria is one of the countries with highest abusers of the forest all over the world. They however traced this problem to lack of adequate knowledge on the benefit of preserving the forest, ignorance on the part of many people and the greedy many Nigerians to accumulate wealth.
The chairman of Bisrod Furniture Ltd, Chief Giwa Bisi Rodipe, who led other stakeholders in the forest industry to the meeting, lamenting said “The problems rocking the forestry sector and its attendant effects on the economy has one of its roots in poverty and to curb this menace, there is need to stem the increasing poverty rate in the country. This becomes imperative because many opportunities accrued to this sector ranging from beautification of the environment, prevention of whirlwind which could cause disaster, poverty alleviation, etc., would be realised and much progress made and sustained”.
He said the country is presently at a crossroad because the unique and important raw materials which the forest supply are not well maintained, adding that, sooner or later if appropriate steps are not taken to protect the forests, many economic trees may soon be extincted and those that are use or work with this renewable economic resource may be out of business.
He urged the government and those that use these trees as their major raw material to protect our forests in order to avoid losing out completely from business.
“The future prospect of our forests are being threatened by our commercial activities. We no longer see forest as something we must nurture and protect, but we must note that calamity may strike anytime. This poor treatment of forest trees is a bad practice common to many people in the country today. Therefore, the slogan of “plant a tree today” should be taken serious as this is the only way out of the looming depletion of our fruits”, he emphasised.
Buttressing the statement of Chief Bisi Rodipe, other speakers at the occasion, like Chief Tunde Oshodi, Professor Segun Odunuga, His Royal Highness, Oba Segun Adesina, Waidi Taiwo and host of others, all emphasised on the need to promote the culture of trees planting in the country. They also highlight the opportunities the country and individual farmers stand to gain from planting rubber trees. Rubber trees it was stated, could reduce unemployment and alleviate poverty in the country if properly earnest.
They said trees are the most effective natural energy resource on the earth, beautifies the environment, prevent global warming, desertification, soil erosion and also guard against natural disasters.
Other experts who spoke on the topic: “Roadmap to Nigeria becoming a forest-sustainable nation”, decried the lackadaisical attitude of the stakeholders in the forest sector and blamed the government for not showing enough interest in the development of our forests.
In conclusion, the chairman of Bisrod Furniture Limited tasked Nigerians to invest in trees planting . He said tree planting is a life long empowerment resource for wealth creation even for generation yet unborn.
“It is an investment that one cannot lose money. It is also a win-win venture of immense proportion, it requires little money when compare to profit that would be realised in the long run. “
“Trees especially forests, regrettably belong to one of Nigeria’s most neglected essential needs. Planting of trees Nigerians should know did not require millions of naira unlike highly valued mineral resources which are very cumbersome and requires billions of naira to execute the project. So I encouraged Nigerians to invest in this aspect of agriculture”, he advised.
Meanwhile, apparently displeased with the way people show uncaring attitude to the culture of tree planting and bombard forest reserves to fetch wood for cooking and commercial purpose, an agricultural expert, Prof Malachy Akoroda, have also called for strict sanction and punishment for any illegal invader of our forest as well as those that abuse trees of commercial values.
Addressing a large group of agricultural experts, consultant and researchers in Ibadan recently, the don at the agronomy department of the University of Ibadan, said, there is need to discourage indiscriminate felling of trees, a bad practice he observed is very common with many Nigerians, especially those who live in the rural areas.
Akoroda said some types of trees could no longer be found in the forest again due to human activities, adding that, there is even a major threat to many commercial trees and like cocoa, coffee, cashew and kola and warned that people should refrain from cutting those trees for cooking purposes.
He also observed that the few land or plantation on which such commercial trees were planted in the past have also been taken over by man either for other commercial/business activities or for architectural purposes.
“Hardly can you see cocoa, coffee, kola and coffee plantation in some parts of the country again. Even it will be difficult to see tea farm like it used to be in the past. Our people, especially the rich in the society have erected beautiful edifice and office building on many of such land or plantation.
“Many farmers or individual that has such agricultural trees on a large hectares of land have also sold some of them to the rich in the society. This is a thing of concern and we as agricultural experts must do all we can do to campaign against such practices and prevent ecnomical trees from going into total extinction”, he counselled.
The don however called for the establishment of seed garden projects in all the states of the federation which should be monitored and coordinated by Tree Workers Society.
He also called on the government to assist the agricultural research institutes in the country with necessary fund to promote tree planting project or exercise and called for strict punishment for illegal tree fellers.
And to sustain the campaign of “plant one tree today” in the country, Prof Akoroda called fore more enlightenment and concerted efforts and also called for a tree cultural workers society to be formed especially for extension workers and field practitioners all over the country.
Furthermore, he advised the government to make tree planting education part of both primary and secondary schools curricula and to plant one tree each of cocoa, cashew, kola, coffee in their schools.
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