Nigeria may be left without forest by 2010, expert warns
Pastor Dale Morgan
Nigeria may be left without forest by 2010, expert warns*
LAGOS, Jan 18 (AFP) Jan 18, 2007
The head of the Nigerian Conservation Foundation, Phillip Asiodu, has
warned that Nigeria may be left with no forests by 2010 due to ongoing
deforestation, the News Agency of Nigeria reported on Thursday.
"With so much illegal logging going on across the country, coupled with
the very little replanting programmes, there may be no forest left by
2010," Asiodu said at a public lecture.
Asiodu, a fomer chief economic adviser to the president, said contrary
to the recommendation of the UN Food And Agriculture Organisation that
25 percent of the country's land area should be under forest, Nigeria
has only 4.9 percent.
"An FAO country report of 2003 gives total area under forests in
Nigeria, natural and planted, at 4,456,000 hectares (about 11 million
acres) out of a land area of 92,400,000 hectares, which is about 4.9 per
cent," he said, adding that for the same year planted forests accounted
for only 325,000 hectares of the total.
More than 70 per cent of the nation's population depend on fuel wood,
which is not used efficiently without fuel stoves.
Contrary to other countries in the region, Nigeria shows no sign of
moving away from its dependence on wood for fuel, he said.
He said an estimated 484 plant species in 112 families including many
medicinal and fruit trees, are also threatened with extinction because
of habitat destruction and deforestation.
Asiodu listed the consequences of deforestation which include loss of
soil through erosion, reduction in soil fertility and the productivity
of farms.
He advised that the ban on export of logs should be maintained until the
FAO target of 25 percent of land under forest was achieved.