Stakeholders Fee Nigeria To Invest Heavily In Forestry
Stakeholders in the forest sector have encouraged authorities at all levels to invest greatly in the sector due to the enormous potential in addressing the country's emerging economic, social and environmental challenges.
online news Naija They made the appeal last week in the 14th Annual Chief Shafi Lawal Edu Memorial Lecture, organised by the Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF) in collaboration with Chevron Nigeria Limited, in Lagos, themed: "Valuing Nigeria's Woods: Problems and Circumstance".
The guest lecturer and President, Forestry Organization of Nigeria, FAN, Prof. Labode Popoola said, Nigeria with a total land area of 923,678kilometers square has a forest area that's been on a constant decline owing to its increasing population among other factors.
He explained heavy interest lastest news in Naija construction, wood along Nigerian Newspapers Online Read with other functions by the wood-based industry supported logging which led to large scale deforestation of Nigeria's forests. He noted that non-forest policies, especially, energy policies, continue to present the forest sector grievous dangers.
"The last major forest resources assessment in Nigeria took place between 1996 and 1998 through a $4m grant supplied by the African Development Bank. The database created from that appraisal was anticipated to be updated frequently via a Forest Information System, FIS in every one of the 36 States and also the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, with a terminal at the Federal Department of Forestry," Popoola said.
"The increases of the Forest Resources Assessment of 1996-1998 have been entirely lost. As of today, there is nothing on earth in this regard. Additionally, there hasn't been any updating since then. Woods cover stays under pressure as an outcome of human activities for example agricultural development where vast lands are cleared without conservation thoughts, large-scale per-urban housing project development, fuelwood generation, uncontrolled forest picking, including poaching for logs and poles and urbanization."
He highlighted the environmental, socio-economic, sociocultural services forests provide, however, lamented that the deforestation rate in Nigeria is about 3.5 per annum, including that this translates to a loss news of Naija about 350,000-400,000 hectares of forest acreage per annum.
"Moving forward, Nigeria will have to get heavily in the forest sector due to the continuing topicality in the global discussion for sustainable development along with the built-in enormous potentials the sector has in addressing emerging environmental, societal and economical challenges.
"Forests stay Nigeria's most under-valued resource, and as long as planners and policy makers continue to Naijanews paper disregard the economic importance of the forest sector, in addition to those of sectors and actions that depend or influence it, so will forests continue to be degraded and lost, and their potentially vast economic opportunities is likely to be lost. We can no longer afford the business as usual approach in the forest sector," Popoola said.
Earlier, the Director General, NCF, Adeniyi Karunwi said the NCF has been successful in implementing projects for example restoration and conservation of dry lands and wetlands habitat in the Sahelian area to wetland and coastal restoration for improved support in the coastal area of the state, noting that this has made NCF the leading leader in conservation efforts in Nigeria.
online news Naija They made the appeal last week in the 14th Annual Chief Shafi Lawal Edu Memorial Lecture, organised by the Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF) in collaboration with Chevron Nigeria Limited, in Lagos, themed: "Valuing Nigeria's Woods: Problems and Circumstance".The guest lecturer and President, Forestry Organization of Nigeria, FAN, Prof. Labode Popoola said, Nigeria with a total land area of 923,678kilometers square has a forest area that's been on a constant decline owing to its increasing population among other factors.
He explained heavy interest lastest news in Naija construction, wood along Nigerian Newspapers Online Read with other functions by the wood-based industry supported logging which led to large scale deforestation of Nigeria's forests. He noted that non-forest policies, especially, energy policies, continue to present the forest sector grievous dangers.
"The last major forest resources assessment in Nigeria took place between 1996 and 1998 through a $4m grant supplied by the African Development Bank. The database created from that appraisal was anticipated to be updated frequently via a Forest Information System, FIS in every one of the 36 States and also the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, with a terminal at the Federal Department of Forestry," Popoola said.
"The increases of the Forest Resources Assessment of 1996-1998 have been entirely lost. As of today, there is nothing on earth in this regard. Additionally, there hasn't been any updating since then. Woods cover stays under pressure as an outcome of human activities for example agricultural development where vast lands are cleared without conservation thoughts, large-scale per-urban housing project development, fuelwood generation, uncontrolled forest picking, including poaching for logs and poles and urbanization."
He highlighted the environmental, socio-economic, sociocultural services forests provide, however, lamented that the deforestation rate in Nigeria is about 3.5 per annum, including that this translates to a loss news of Naija about 350,000-400,000 hectares of forest acreage per annum.
"Moving forward, Nigeria will have to get heavily in the forest sector due to the continuing topicality in the global discussion for sustainable development along with the built-in enormous potentials the sector has in addressing emerging environmental, societal and economical challenges.
"Forests stay Nigeria's most under-valued resource, and as long as planners and policy makers continue to Naijanews paper disregard the economic importance of the forest sector, in addition to those of sectors and actions that depend or influence it, so will forests continue to be degraded and lost, and their potentially vast economic opportunities is likely to be lost. We can no longer afford the business as usual approach in the forest sector," Popoola said.
Earlier, the Director General, NCF, Adeniyi Karunwi said the NCF has been successful in implementing projects for example restoration and conservation of dry lands and wetlands habitat in the Sahelian area to wetland and coastal restoration for improved support in the coastal area of the state, noting that this has made NCF the leading leader in conservation efforts in Nigeria.