Nigeria has only 4% forest cover – Asiodu
JULY 1, 2013
Wife of Ogun State Governor, Mrs. Olufunso Amosun
The President, Nigerian Conservation Foundation and a former Chief Economic Adviser to the President, Chief Philip Asiodu, has said Nigeria has continually degraded its environment, a situation that has been made worse by climate change.
Asiodu, who spoke as the chairman of the Green Lecture on Environmental Action in Lagos on Friday, said the country’s forest cover stood at about four per cent, a far cry from the 25 per cent average recommended by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations for a sustainable environment.
He said, “We must take the issue of the environmental challenges seriously because we have degraded our environment. At independence, Nigeria’s forest cover stood at 30 per cent, but today, we have it at an alarming four per cent.
“FAO advises that every country should have 25 per cent of forest cover. It will be a great agenda if we decide to plant 250 kilometres of forest in the next 10 years. That will be a great step in the mitigation of climate change.”
Asiodu said there was a need for the government to devote funds from ecological votes to mitigating the effects of climate change.
“Very little of the ecological votes have gone to the sustainable management of our environment. This amount should be employed to mitigate the damaging ecological events. We should have a fund devoted to reforestation,” he said.
He also urged the Federal Government to empower non-governmental organisations in the fight against climate change, as they were capable of attracting funds from the international community.
“The number of NGOs that are concerned with the management of our environment is encouraging, so they should be empowered,” Asiodu said.
Speakers at the summit harped on the need for investment in rainforest, which they said was the answer to reducing human carbon footprints on the environment.
One of the speakers and member of NCF, Mr. Desmond Majekodunmi, said rainforest could be the only “life support” for the planet.
“Currently, we have about 400 parts per million of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere against the 280ppm, which was the perfect number. If this has caused the one degree of global warming that has produced devastating results, then by the time it reaches two degrees, the world will be in crisis. But the crisis is not yet beyond our control, we can still have a short gap – the rainforest,” he said.
Others, who spoke at the summit, included the wife of the Ogun State Governor, Mrs. Olufunso Amosun; Chief Executive Officer, EcoExhange, Mrs. Teni Majekodunmi; and Nollywood actress, Stephanie Okereke-Linus.
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