ENVIRONMENT Logging persists in Kogi

Illegal logging still thrive in many parts of Kogi State, despite the existence of a law prohibiting the act in the state.

Daily Trust findings revealed that timber dealers have continued to carry out the illegal logging of trees to the detriment of the environment and causing deforestation.

According an expert, deforestation is a process where trees are cut down for economic reason without any effort to replace them, thereby making the forest to be empty.

Deforestation has negative consequence on the environment, causing soil erosion, loss of biodiversity ecosystem, desertification and absence of trees used for drug manufacturing, among others.

But those who engage in the activity of logging trees are only interested in the monetary profit and care less of the consequences of their actions even in the face of global warming and environmental problem emanating from their actions.

In areas such as Anyigba, Ankpa, Lokoja, Okene, Ajaokuta, Dekina, Kabba and Mopa, among others, logging is rampart, mainly for the reason of making fire wood.

Many vehicles were seen on a daily bases moving round Lokoja metropolis and other parts of the state dispatching fire wood to people for various economic uses.

It is gathered that among those that patronise fire wood marketers in the state are bread bakers who use it in firing their ovens and restaurant operators.

In many towns and villages, the demand for firewood is said to be on the increase as most of the people who could not afford cooking gas and kerosene largely depend on it for their daily cooking. Some other people also fell down trees and burn them in order to get charcoal for commercial purposes.

Besides, experts further stated that because of the attendant consequences of deforestation on the environment and the ecosystem, government and relevant authorities in the state need to apply the relevant laws so as to protect the environment.

Meanwhile, the National Vice President (North-Central) Environmental Health Officer Association of Nigeria, Solomon Anyegwu, said deforestation has serious negative impact on the environment, adding that it should be discourage by the government.

He said: “Trees are also raw materials that are used by pharmaceutical industries by using the leaves, back of tree and root to produce drugs. Today, they are indiscriminately being felled and this is affecting our health because drugs that should have been manufactured from the provisional function of trees are not there. So it goes a long way to affect pharmaceutical industries.”

Anyegwu called on government, at all levels, to discourage incessant felling of tress by applying the appropriate laws.