Deforestation in Nigeria

From year 2000 to 2005,[1] Nigeria had the highest rate of deforestation in the world as 55.7%[2] according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO). Nigeria has biodiversity in abundance which makes it thrive consideringly well. In 1950s, large areas of land were quite reserved as a protected area but unfortunately they no longer exist.[1] Biodiversity has been greatly destroyed by deforestation, degradation, encroachment and conversion of land into other uses due to the increase in demand of the fast rising population in the country.[3]

The Global watch forest reported that 567,371 out of 10,048,732 hectares of forest has been lost to deforestation as at 2006,[4] Also between the year 2000 and 2005, the rate of forest change increased from 31.2% to 3.12% per annum.[5] Nigeria lost 14% of her primary forest between the year 2002 and 2020.[6] Forest has always been cleared for logging, timber export, subsistence agriculture and notably the collection of wood for fuel which remains problematic in Western Africa. The high demand for fuel wood which is a source of energy for cooking and also a major source of income in the rural areas increased the rate of deforestation.[7]

Deforestation has numerous adverse effect on the environment such as desertification, loss of ecosystem, loss of biodiversity, land degradation, soil erosion, etc.[8] Deforestation threatens the sustainability of the environment and puts the economy and the citizens of a country at risk.[9][10]

A possible response to deforestation is to educate the society on the sustainable use of natural resources, forest management, improved technology, alternative energy source and many others.[11]

Logging, subsistence agriculture, and the collection of fuelwood are cited as leading causes of forest clearing in the West African country.[12][13]

History
Clear cutting in Nigeria

Nigeria[14] is highly endowed with biodiversity.[15] The nation is one of the richest biodiversity hotspots in the world. The country thrives particularly because of this aspect.

Before the independence era, massive forest reservations took place, about 96,518 square kilometres (km²) of land representing 27% of the total forest cover and 10% of the total land area were reserved as a protected area. Sixty-six percentile (66%) of the forest reserves lie in the Savana region of the country, 20% falls within the humid tropical forest zones in southern Nigeria and 4% are fresh water swamps and mangroves of the coastal south of the nation.[16]

When Nigeria gained her Independence (1960) and became a sovereign state, she inherited eight (8) national parks, four hundred and forty-five (445) forest reserves, twelve (12) strictly nature reserves and twenty-eight (28) game reserves from the colonial administrators for the protection and conservation of the forest biodiversity in the country.[17]

Unfortunately, these vast areas reserved in 1950s no longer exist. This legacy has been greatly destroyed, the protected areas has been deforested, degraded, encroached on and converted for other land uses, as a result of increased pressure of the rapidly increasing population In the country.

The Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF) reported that Nigeria has lost over 96% of its natural forest cover and deforestation rate is at an alarming rate of 11.1% per annum.[11][2] This prevalent problem of deforestation, fragmentation and land conversion for agricultural purpose and other uses, have affected adversely the forest biodiversity in the country.[18]

In 2005, 12.2% which is the equivalent of 11,089,000 hectares (27,400,000 acres) had been deforested in Nigeria. Between 1990 and 2000, Nigeria had lost an average of 409,700 hectares of forests each year equaling an average annual deforestation rate of 2.38%.[19] Between 1990 and 2005, Nigeria lost 35.7% of its forest cover in total, or around 6,145,000 hectares.[20]

Impact
Achara Amamba

Deforestation can be defined as a process where vegetation is cut down without any simultaneous replanting for economic or social reasons. Deforestation has negative impacts on the environment in terms of soil erosion, loss of biodiversity ecosystems, loss of wildlife, land degradation and increased desertification among many other negative impacts.[21] Deforestation also has great impacts on the social aspect of the country, specifically regarding economic issues, agriculture, conflict and most importantly, quality of life. According to the data taken from the year 2000 to

2005 in Nigeria, which is located in the western region of Africa, has the largest deforestation rates in the world, having lost 55.7% of their primary forests.[21] Mongabay defines primary forests as forests with no visible signs of past or present human activities.[21]

Men loading squared logs in a truck in Nigeria

The annual rate of deforestation in Nigeria is 3.5%, approximately 350,000-400,000 hectares per year.[22] The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations lists the requirements of sustainable forest management as; extent of forest resources, biological diversity, forest health and vitality, productive functions of forest resources, protective functions of forest resources, socio-economic functions and a legal, policy and institutional framework.[23] Many aspects of the outline are currently not being met and will continue to have detrimental effects if not quickly addressed.[24]

A lot of damages has been done to Nigeria's land through the process of deforestation, notably contributing to the overwhelming trend of desertification. Desertification is the encroachment of the desert on land which was once fertile.[25] A study conducted from 1901 to 2005 gathered that there was a temperature increase in Nigeria of 1.1 °C, while the global mean temperature increase was only 0.74 °C. The same study also found in the same period of time that the amount of rainfall in the country decreased by 81mm. It was obvious that both of these trends simultaneously had sharp changes in the 1970s.[26]

From the year 1990 to 2010 in Nigeria, nearly halved their amount of forest cover, moving from 17,234 to 9,041 hectares. The combination of extremely high deforestation rates, increased temperatures and decreasing rainfall are all contributing to the desertification of the country.[27] The carbon emissions from deforestation is also said to account for 87% of the total carbon emissions of the country.[28]

Nigeria's wide biodiversity of 864 species of birds, 285 mammals, 203 reptiles, 117 amphibians, 775 fishes and 4,715 species of higher plants will also be strongly affected by the negative impacts of deforestation.[29] The numbers of the rare Cross River gorilla have decreased to around 300 individuals because of poaching by locals and mass habitat destruction.[30] Although, much of the motivation of deforestation stems from economic reasons, as it has also led to a lot of economic problems in an already unstable country. Along with economic issues, deforestation has made it so difficult that the land is incapable of as much agricultural production which is part of many people's survival. Issues such as these and the subject of the environment itself has contributed to many conflicts in the country and even executions of environmental activists, such as Ken Saro-Wiwa, a Nobel Peace Prize nominee.[21]

Much of the allowance for deforestation in Nigeria comes from their demand for fuel wood. 90% of the Nigerian population stated that they relied on kerosene as the main energy source for cooking but because it is expensive and often unavailable, 60% said they used fuel wood instead. The usage of fuel wood for cooking is higher in rural areas of the country where more of the population is concentrated.[31] There are also motivations to people living in rural areas surrounding the process of deforestation because it is a source of income to many of them. The extremely high levels of poverty in the country are very much connected to the issue of deforestation.[1]

Although the national parks and reserves have increased in the country only 3.6% of Nigeria is protected under IUCN categories I-V.[9] The current state of the environment has been allowed by the State Department of Forestry who have not implemented any forest management policies to aid efforts to reduce deforestation since the 1970s.[22] Without any conservation efforts or education, the society is not aware of how to properly treat finite natural resources. Very few steps have been made to try to lower the deforestation]rates and to stop illegal logging.[1]

All over the globe, Deforestation has been a threat to the sustainability of the environment and it has resulted into diverse bad effects in Nigeria due to their high rates. Deforestation puts at risk all aspects of the environment, the economy and of the citizens of the country.[9]

Root causes in Nigeria

Deforestation in Nigeria is as a result of many agents which includes: climatic agents, biotic agents and man. The activities of man like logging, agriculture, petroleum exploration, urban migration, word burning, grazing etc are the most common cause of deforestation in Nigeria among other agents.[32]

Agriculture

There has been a rapid growth in Nigeria's population and this has necessitated the rise in the demand of more food for the country. In order to meet the demand for food, large areas of forests are destroyed yearly either by bush burning or logging in a bid to make provision for farming lands.[33] Also, farmers while practicing shifting cultivation, slash and burn bush which is dangerous to the tropical rainforests . Some weeds and diseases have become threats to the plants in Nigeria's forests as a result of man's agricultural practices. For example, Eupatorium adoratum (Siam weeds) from south East Asia.[32]

Petroleum Exploration

Petroleum exploration, spillage and exploitation in Southern Nigeria has affected the swamp forest of the region. These oil exploration activities have also affected the mangrove forests in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. According to the department of Petroleum resources, "about 419 oil spillage have occurred on land leading to the loss of between 5% to 10% of the mangrove forest.[32][33]

Wood Burning

Nigeria, according to worldometer is a leading producer of Liquid Petroleum Gas(LPG) and has a large reserve of natural gas.[34] However, the high cost of cooking gas and kerosene has moved majority of Nigerians dwelling in rural and semi urban area to resort to using woods for cooking. The International Energy Agency said; over 120 million Nigerian rely on firewood and charcoal for their cooking needs.[35] A research was also carried out by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and it was deduced that the woods used as cooking fuel accounts for about half of the trees that are removed illegally from the forest, with a majority coming from developing countries such as Nigeria.[32][33]

Urbanisation

As a result of the high influx of people to urban areas, there has been the need for rapid development and provision of necessary social amenities like roads, airports, railways, bridges, schools, in these parts of the country which are now threats to the forests areas as trees and vegetations are cut down or burnt to achieve these development plans.[32][33]

For instance, most first generation and second generation universities like University of Calabar were highly forested areas but the need to establish these schools made way for the destruction of these forest areas.[32]

Most affected parts in Nigeria.

The prevalence of deforestation in Nigerian states and it's communities is quite alarming with its consequences. From a study carried out between 2001 and 2020 by the Nigeria Deforestation rates & statistics, it was deduced that the five most affected states are Edo, Ondo, Cross river, Taraba and Ogun states respectively with Edo state sustaining the highest forest loss of 268kha as to an average of 28.2kha. Other affected states in Nigeria include Delta, Kogi, Osun, Ekiti, and Oyo states respectively.[5]

The demand for cocoa and palm oils in Cross River and Ondo State has led to environmental degradation in this area.[36][37][38]

Solution

The following are ways to fight deforestation in Nigeria

  1. Adoption of alley cropping, planting of Timber trees, rehabilitation of mined areas with vegetation and planting of trees by private sectors.[39][40]
  2. Enforcement of laws and regulations by government, practice of eco-forestry.[41] [42]
  3. Encouraging the use of stove instead of firewood,also there is need to harness the use of wind and solar as a source of energy.[43]

Response
The Forestry Research Institute of Nigeria provides an academic and hands on practice environment for Nigerians to learn about sustainable forestry practices in the country.

Possible Response

Any solution to the problem of deforestation in Nigeria must be an approach that incorporates and aggressively targets all aspects that are related to the problem. Teaching should include areas of energy alternatives, improved technology, forestry management, economic production, agriculture and security of the locals that are dependent on the land. Energy alternatives include hydro power, solar energy and wind energy. Solar energy is a great option for Nigeria and will have exceptional results due to its geographical location. Nigeria has already implemented windmills in some of its states but the more this approach is taken on the more energy that will be produced in an environmentally sound and efficient way. Each of these proposals is accepted globally as good alternatives to current energy production methods and have been encouraged by many environmental organizations. Improving the technology of cook stoves will be especially effective for Nigeria which currently has many households that require fuel wood for their cooking methods.

In 2005, a group of countries, called the Coalition for Rainforest Nations,[44] developed a program to reduce the rates of deforestation that contribute to CO2 emissions. The program is designed for all developing countries with a rainforest. The developing countries receive money upon successful completion of lowering their country's emissions.[45] A similar concept has been designed by REDD, Reducing Emissions from Deforestation in and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries.[46] In REDD the countries are able to receive much more money in the form of carbon credits which can be spent on more environmentally safe practices.[45]

The federal government of Nigeria in conjunction with West Africa pledges to restore 4 million or nearly 10 million degraded land as part of a project of African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative (AFR100) and Bonn challenge.[47][48]

Also kwara state government has made plan to plant 2.5 million trees to combat deforestation by 2047 in partnership with Nigeria Conservation Foundation (NCF) .The Initiative has started with the planting of 15,000 seedlings in three communities: Latayi, Agboro and Koro in the Pategi area of the state.[49]

The non-governmental organization Folliage (Fold for Liberal Age Charity Initiative) in partnership with Ondo State pledged to embark on planting of million trees across the state with the theme of "Plant a tree, Save a life".[50]

World leaders including Nigeria pledges to end deforestation by 2030 with the raising of $19.2 billion in order to halt and reverse lost of trees.[51]

See also

References
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  46. "Background - UNFCCC". unfccc.int. Retrieved 15 April 2018.
  47. "Nigeria pledges to restore nearly 10 million acres of degraded land". landportal.org (in French). 2017-12-12. Retrieved 2022-03-31.
  48. "FG to restore 4m hectares of degraded land". Daily Trust. 2022-03-09. Retrieved 2022-03-31.
  49. "Kwara, NCF plan to plant 2.5m trees by 2047". Tribune Online. 2022-03-24. Retrieved 2022-03-31.
  50. "Folliage set to partner Ondo govt on tree planting". Tribune Online. 2022-03-01. Retrieved 2022-03-31.
  51. "COP26: Nigeria, 104 others promise to end deforestation by 2030". 2021-11-02. Retrieved 2022-03-31.
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