According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, Nigeria holds the ugly record of having the world’s highest deforestation rate of primary forests. As it stands, one can easily say that war has been declared against the forests. For a country that has lost more than 96% of its primary forests, including rainforests with tremendous biodiversity, it is alarming that illegal logging on an industrial scale still thrives. The authorities are either complicit or choose to look the other way. Nigeria is not alone in West Africa in the insensitivity to massive deforestation. Liberia has had the presence of lush forests as part of its national identity. Timber extraction has played a prominent role in the economy of the country. On the flip side, illegal timber business has also been implicated in the funding of armed rebellion that gave rise to the Liberian Civil War, which nearly destabilized the entire region in the recent past. In the period covering the duration of the civil war, Liberia lost 12% of its forest cover. In 2010, Guinea had 8.02 million hectares of tree cover in 33% of its land area. But by 2010 it had lost 130, 000 hectares. In 2010, Sierra Leone had 5.3 million hectares of tree cover extending over 75% of the country’s land area. By 2022, 120, 000 hectares had been lost. There were 37,978 deforestation alerts reported in Guinea between 20 and 27 of January 2024 covering a total of 462 hectares. This is according to Global Forest Watch. The organization also claimed that in 2010, Ghana had 7.00 million hectares of natural forest, extending over 30% of the country’s land area. But in 2022, it had lost 118,000 hectares of the forest; this, according to them is equivalent to 78.0 metric tonnes of CO2 emissions.
However, these statistics pale into insignificance when compared to the massive onslaught unleashed on the remaining primary forests in Nigeria by logging interests who are exploiting the undefined, if not chaotic, forest management practices in the country. Between 1981 and the year 2000 Nigeria lost 3.7 million hectares of forests. As indicated earlier, about 4 per cent of the country’s untouched forest cover is left. More frightening is the fact that the loss is continuing at the rate of more than 3.5 per cent annually. This implies a colossal loss of biodiversity. For instance, 484 plant species are threatened with extinction in Nigeria. Out of the 7.5 million hectares of forests lost globally on annual basis according to Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), Nigeria loses 350,000 hectares; with 1.5 million trees felled daily due to illegal logging.”
What is important is that we should all agree that this trend is antithetical to the current universal climate sensibilities.
One wonders why this trend has persistently been on the increase. The current economic downturn has been fingered in some quarters. However, it is noteworthy that illegal and uncontrolled logging has been taking place on a large scale even during an economic boom. What is important is that we should all agree that this trend is antithetical to the current universal climate sensibilities. It negates the efforts by individual countries in West Africa to meet up with their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). The serious impact of climate change in the northernmost Sahel region of West Africa has been well-documented; so also, is the effort at containment of the spread of the fragility of the ecosystem southwards. The Great Green Wall Project is a very good example. It is a contradiction and smacks of gross insensitivity to tolerate the “Sahelization” of the forest ecosystems through unguided and illegal exploitation. Climate action must take into cognizance the carbon sequestration importance of forests and channel substantial efforts at forest management and protection.
Based on the resolution at the recently held COP28 in Dubai to gradually phase out fossil fuels, the entire West Africa has a great opportunity to embark on massive tree planting and forest protection. While it will mitigate the Impact of climate change, it also serves as our contribution to the global fight against climate change, it also serves as our contribution to the global fight against climate change.
I wrote a widely published article in April, 2012 entitled, ‘New Dawn in Senegal’. The article highlighted the electrifying ambience of Dakar in the evening of Sunday, March 25; the day of the second round of the presidential election of which Mr. Macky Sall was declared winner the same day. Virtually the entire opposition had queued behind Mr. Sall and his political party, Alliance Pour la République (APR), after the first round which took place exactly a month earlier in which the then president, Mr. Abdoulaye Wade of Parti Démocratique Sénégalais (PDS), led but could not muster the required percentage of votes to be declared winner. Wade had got 34.7% against Sall’s 26.1%. While Mr. Wade virtually remained exactly where he was in the second ballot in terms of percentage of votes garnered, Mr. Sall amassed close to 65% of the ballot in the second round. The result was not disputed and the out-going president was magnanimous to congratulate the president-elect with a telephone call in which he declared that “The real winners remain the Senegalese people”. This was even before counting of the ballots was concluded. There was also, no doubt that the outcome of the election reflected the will of the people who had vehemently resisted the bid by Wade to even run for a third term. In Senegal, the will of the people will always prevail.
In the face of uncertainties confronting democracy with attendant economic consequences, the people of Senegal will always win.
The commendable democratic credential of Senegal is being threatened by recent events in the country. Sall, who rose to office riding on the crest of the people’s power, even when he is not going to be on the ballot in the polls whenever it takes place, has pitched himself against the people. In the face of uncertainties confronting democracy with the attendant economic consequences, the people of Senegal will always win. African countries have some lessons to learn in active citizenship from this West African country that has never had a military intervention in its politics.
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