Experts lament depletion of natural forests

The participants who explored the need to protect the Cross River Tropical Rainforest from excessive destruction for short-term benefits frowned at lack of political will on the part of government to check this habit of destroying the forest. Executive Director of the Centre Dr. Odey Oyama said that apart from the area under the Cross […]

The participants who explored the need to protect the Cross River Tropical Rainforest from excessive destruction for short-term benefits frowned at lack of political will on the part of government to check this habit of destroying the forest.
Executive Director of the Centre Dr. Odey Oyama said that apart from the area under the Cross River National Park, the natives and other people have encroached into almost all the forest reserves in the state, damaging and transforming them into farmlands.
 Oyama said that forest occupied about 30-32 percent of territorial landmass of the state and that and more than 60 percent of the state population derives its livelihood within and around forest ecosystem but that the people were not interested in sustaining the same forests.
Another expert who was formerly a director of the National Park Services, Dr Clement Ebin said that the nation’s natural forest was lost as a result of acts of deforestation and degradation.
He noted that indiscriminate logging, massive conversion of primary rainforest into mono-culture plantations, “Nigeria is at the brink of completely losing her natural rainforest within a few years.
 “Destruction activities have caused serious environmental impacts. Studies have shown that many environmental problems and catastrophes, with serious adverse consequences on life, including human populations are attributable to vegetation and bio-diversity loss”, he said.
Ebin said that it was the rural poor that were the worst hit by deforestation and climate change.
 He disclosed that: “Disadvantaged communities and women are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change as their livelihoods often rely on climate-sensitive sectors like agriculture and local natural resources. This might hinder development unless vulnerable countries are assisted in enhancing their adaptive capacity.”
 He also attributed the uncontrollable depletion of the country’s natural forests to lack of political will on the part of government and urged policy makers at both state and local levels to take issues of environment seriously, especially that of bio-diversity loss.