PROTECTING OUR FORESTS IS PARAMOUNT (MAY 28, 2009)

IT has been said time and again that when the last tree dies, the last man dies.
This is a truism, as the symbiotic relationship between man and forests stretches far back to creation because the forests provide not only fruits but also food and meat for human consumption.
They also contribute significantly in moderating and even influencing the climate. Indeed, in areas where protective forest cover has been removed, rainfall has been known to decrease.
This, without doubt, has had pronounced effects on agriculture, whether it be the cultivation of crops or raising of animals, ultimately reflecting on the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and by extension the national economy.
It is no secret that in our part of the world two main factors — bad farming practices and the indiscriminate felling of trees for sawn timber for domestic use and export — have combined to deplete our forests and forest reserves at an alarming rate.
Today, as a result of these destructive activities, it is said that we can only boast about 10 per cent of the forest cover we had in the last century and that if the current rate of destruction continues, this country can completely lose its entire forest cover and within a decade become a net importer of wood.
It is in the face of these life-threatening developments that we lend our unflinching support to the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Alhaji Collins Dauda, in his pledge to wage an all-out war against illegal chainsaw operators who alone have laid to waste hundreds of thousands of hectares of forest within the last few years.
The revelation, which came up during the minister’s tour of a forest reserved, that even the most treasured of the country’s forest reserves had not been spared the unfettered destructive activities of these chainsaw operators is heart rendering (see pages 24 and 25).
The battle against this illegal chainsaw menace is not new. Indeed, over the years a number of measures have been announced to bring these destructive activities under check.
While some margins of temporary success have been achieved here and there, these gains have not been as comprehensive and sustainable as would be required to bring it under control.
In many instances, after a few weeks of the rigorous enforcement of the law, during which some recalcitrant illegal chainsaw operators are arrested, their lumber seized and trucks impounded, the enforcement regime relapses and the culprits and trucks are released to return to ply their illegal trade, this time with greater vigour.
We need to strengthen the working relationship among forest guards or wardens, the police and other law enforcement agencies and the communities in which these timber species are felled.
Such co-operation, anchored in the strength of the belief that we all have a shared interest in protecting our forests, will enhance the enforcement of the law against these nation wreckers.
With the savannah region now being degraded into a desert and our forest areas fast being transformed into savannah, the time to act with all the seriousness and determination to nip this national canker in the bud is now.