•Armed Crossers /timber traders now operate in Cross River State forest – CSOs
Against the continuous depletion of Nigeria’s original forest cover, ecology and environment experts have continued to warn against eminent climate crisis if the massive deforestation activities going on, especially in Cross River State are not stopped.
Experts have also warned that Nigeria has less than 10 per cent of its original forest cover left; a situation that is capable of plunging the nation into climate problems like flooding, reduced rainfall, poor crop yield, extreme hot weather and other health complications.
Although Cross River State holds half of Nigeria’s remaining forest cover, the spate of illegal forest trade and forest activities contributing to the destruction of forests is alarming and worrisome. Recall that the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (UNFAO) had in 2010, warned that Nigeria lost 409,650 hectares of forest yearly between 1990 to 2010.
In a call to the Cross River State Government on the matter, Ken Henshaw, Executive Director of a Civic Society Organization, We The People, called on the Cross River State Government through the Governor Senator Bassey Otu to rise to the occasion and rescue Cross River State and Nigeria from the eminent climate and ecological crisis by stopping illegal logging and timber trade going on in the forest.
“In 2008, arising from an environmental summit, the Cross River state government instituted a moratorium on the forest specifically targeting loggers which it considered the key drivers of deforestation at the time.
“For the government, this action was necessitated by the need to protect the most critical asset of Cross River state which is its vast forests and the wildlife it shelters. Despite the moratorium, the spate of deforestation has rather intensified.
“At the moment, logging activities have taken more alarming and sinister dimensions in the state. In several communities, loggers and timber dealers establish their trading posts close to the forests, and form trade unions to regulate the business.”
Also, in a charge by a collective of environment and ecology-focused Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in Cross River State, a member of the CSOs, Mr Odigha Odigha warned that “the illegal trade in timber has exacerbated insecurity in Cross River state.
“To facilitate the theft of forest resources, the state has seen the emergence of an armed cartel of ‘Crossers’ who take responsibility for arranging consignments of timber from the forest, and conveying them to designated destinations outside the state.”
Although the state government has a few days ago constituted a state anti-deforestation task force to arrest the situation, there are worries about whether the task force will be able to carry out the task.
