Agency
Environmentalists have raised the alarm over the high level of deforestation ongoing in Cross River.
They warned that if nothing is done to address the situation, it might impact negatively on the environment, especially now that climate change is posing a significant challenge globally.
The Executive Director of ‘We the People’, an environmental advocacy group, Mr Ken Henshaw, while speaking on Friday in Calabar at a round table discussion themed, ‘Fostering Strategies and Partnership for Forest Protection in Cross River’, said the current level of deforestation in the state could be described as ‘the fastest anywhere around the world’
Quoting data from the Global Forest Watch Platform, he described the situation as “alarming and disturbing.”
Henshaw added, “Logging has taken an unbelievable dimension since the current administration in the state lifted the ban on it.
“The administration merely set up a new forestry commission without addressing the key drivers of the illegal activity.”
The executive director noted that the state government introduced a scheme that permitted people to log identified trees and pay taxes on them.
“This means that the illegal activity has yet to be addressed. At the moment, the report we get from the field is even worse than that of 2023.
“The state government should not see the forest as a resource that can only bring revenue through logging,” he stressed
Henshaw said other non-timber revenue sources could be legally explored and tapped from in the forests.
He revealed that the challenge of deforestation had taken a new twist as hundreds of young men had invaded the forests mining for solid minerals.
The Chairman of the Cross River Forestry Commission, Mr George Oben-Etchi, on his part said averred that massive sensitisation was needed to educate rural communities on the dangers of deforestation.
He said that the commission was challenged by the issues of poor funding, a dearth of manpower and outdated laws.
Oben-Etchi noted that irrespective of the challenges, the commission would continue to do its best to tackle logging activities in the state.
A Calabar-based environmental expert, Mr Odigha Odigha, called on residents of the state to rise up in defence of their environment by tackling the growing level of logging.
“It will be wrong to blame the government alone, the problem is our own, we should rise up to tackle it,” he added.
Odigha, who is a former Chairman, Cross River Forestry Commission, called for collaborative efforts to fight illegal logging activities in the forests.
“Before now, it used to rain in Calabar all year round, but gradually, the rains are getting scarcer and giving way to intense heat,” he said.
(NAN)
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