COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF DEFORESTATION, ENVIRONMENT AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the study
Nigeria is naturally endowed with vast expanse of forest land, the swamp forests in the extreme Southern part of the country, the tropical rain forest in the South- western axis and the wooded savannah in the middle belt. Nigeria ranks among the countries of the world with abundant forest resources. Mfon, et al (2014) said forests in Nigeria occupied about 110, 890km2 of the country total land mass of about 910,770km2 in other words, forests is about 012.18% of vegetation cover of the country. Park (1992), has stated that at least 60 percent of all known species of plant, about 90 percent of all the world’s non-human primates such as monkeys, about 40 percent of all the birds of prey and about 80 percent of all the insects live in the tropical rain forests of the world. In other words forest provides us a wide variety of ecosystem services, including provisioning regulating, cultural, and supportive services. These ecosystem services not only deliver the basic material needs for survival, but also underlie other aspects of well being, including health, security good social relations and freedom of choice. In the past, timber production was regarded as the dominant function of forests. However, in recent years this perception has shifted to a more multi functional and balanced view. Today, it is understood that forest biodiversity underpins a wide ranges of goods and services for human well being. Ecologically intact forests stores and purify drinking water, they can mitigate natural disasters such as drought and floods, they help store carbon and regulate the climate, they provide food and produce rainfall, and they provide a vast array of goods for medicinal cultural and spiritual purposes (CBD, 2009). Similarly, most Nigerians have always depended on the forest for their survival, economic development, as well as environmental amelioration. The level of community nutrition is sometimes linked to fuel wood availability and cost, others depended directly on forest for their livelihood; among them are a high number of forest and wood worker ( Aliyu et al, 2014) This is a part from contributing substantially to the National Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In spite of its importance, the natural forest has continued to diminish rapidly in the world especially in Africa continent and particularly in Nigeria. According to EFC, (2010), the world continues to lose some 15 million hectares of forests every year. Deforestation over the period 1980 to 1990 reached 8.2% of total forest area in Asia, 6.1% in Latin America and 4.8% in African. Most modern deforestation takes place in developing countries, particularly in tropical areas. Deforestation and forest degradation directly threaten as many as 400million people including 50million forest indigenous people who depend on forest for subsistence in sub-Sahara Africa (EFC, 2010). Deforestation estimates for some. African countries have been given by Lanly (1983). For example, the of forest depletion in Cote divoire and Nigeria is estimated as high as 5 to 6% per year while Ochanda and Epp (1982) stated that in Kenya the indigenous forest now covers only 1.9% of the land area and remote sensing have shown that about 16% of the forest is being lost in each ten year period. In Nigeria, the scenarios is not different, regional breakdown of deforestation from 1979 to 1995 shows that total forest declined by 48% in the North-central 7% in the North East, 60% in the North West, 53% in the south East, 13% in the South-South and 12% in the South West (FORMECU 1996). In 2000 the forest cover was estimated at 13.5 million hectares compared to 17.5 million hectares in 1990 (FAO, 2001), indicating a forest cover loss of close to 400 thousand ha per annum, or a decline of about 2.6%. Forest/woodlands now stand at only 13% of the total land area (FAO, 2001). With global outcry on the consequences of continuous sustainable forest destruction topping major intellectual discourses the needs to examine the current deforestation situation in Nigeria requires a work of this nature.
The year 2011 is ‘The International Year of Forests’. This designation has generated momentum bringing greater attention to the forests worldwide. Forests cover almost a third of the earth’s land surface providing many environmental benefits including a major role in the hydrologic cycle, soil conservation, prevention of climate change and preservation of biodiversity (Sheram, 1993). Forest resources can provide long-term national economic benefits. For example, at least 145 countries of the world are currently involved in wood production (Anon., 1994a). Sufficient evidence is available that the whole world is facing an environmental crisis on account of heavy deforestation. For years remorseless destruction of forests has been going on and we have not been able to comprehend the dimension until recently. Nobody knows exactly how much of the world’s rain forests have already been destroyed and continue to be razed each year. Data is often imprecise and subject to differing interpretations. However, it is obvious that the area of tropical rain forest is diminishing and the rate of tropical rain forest destruction is escalating worldwide, despite increased environmental activism and awareness. Deforestation is the conversion of forest to an alternative permanent non-forested land use such as agriculture, grazing or urban development (van Kooten and Bulte, 2000). Deforestation is primarily a concern for the developing countries of the tropics (Myers, 1994) as it is shrinking areas of the tropical forests (Barraclough and Ghimire, 2000) causing loss of biodiversity and enhancing the greenhouse effect (Angelsen et al., 1999). FAO considers a plantation of trees established primarily for timber production to be forest and therefore does not classify natural forest conversion to plantation as deforestation (but still records it as a loss of natural forests). However, FAO does not consider tree plantations that provide non-timber products to be forest although they do classify rubber plantations as forest. Forest degradation occurs when the ecosystem functions of the forest are degraded but where the area remains forested rather cleared (Anon., 2010). Thirty per cent of the earth’s land area or about 3.9 billion hectares is covered by forests. It was estimated that the original forest cover was approximately six billion hectares (Bryant et www.intechopen.com 4 Global Perspectives on Sustainable Forest Management al., 1997). The Russian Federation, Brazil, Canada, the United States of America and China were the most forest rich countries accounting to 53 per cent of the total forest area of the globe.
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