Nigeria UN – REED+ programme under threat

Prof Ben Ayade, Cross River State Governor, has ordered the arrest of longtime chairman of Cross River State Forestry Commission, Mr Dough Dough, to pave way for takeover of the state owned forest by a Chinese firm.

The Cross River Forest Reserve covers 312 square kilometres (120 sq mi). It is one of the largest forest blocks remaining in the state. The reserve lies between the Afi Mountain Wildlife Sanctuary and Mbe Mountains Community Forest, both of which are home to Cross River gorillas, and form a corridor between the two.

The United Nations admitted Nigeria into the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD), an effort to create a financial value for the carbon stored in forests, offering incentives for developing countries to reduce emissions from forested lands and invest in low-carbon paths to sustainable development based on the potentials of the Cross River forest.

An official of the commission who spoke to Daily Trust on condition of anonymity, said that the state governor had concessioned the forest to a Chinese paper producing firm and that going by the terms of agreement, the Cross River forest would be completely ravaged by the time the company had finished their exploitation.

An environmentalist, Dr Okon Joseph, said the happening in the state was targeted at rubbishing the huge achievements of the leadership of the commission, which has taken the state to global reckoning when it comes to the UN-REDD+ programme.

“Any time they want to bring in their own influence to bear on any issue they would start by bringing down the predecessor’s appointee’s reputation. I think that Dough has been able to engineer Cross River Forests to earn global recognition and to earn handsome incomes in the process. This is the reason the immediate past governor, Senator Liyel Imoke, constantly attended world summits on forestry. Next week such summit is expected to hold away from Africa, and would the state be able to attend it given this ugly scenario,” Joseph asked?

Speaking with our correspondent on phone, Dough said he was detained for 24 hours and that the secretary to the state government listed that part of the reason for his arrest was that the forests under his care had depleted.

“As I speak to you now, the forestry commission has been dissolved and the state antideforestation committee has also been dissolved. The secretary to the state government alleged that under my leadership the state forests depleted, which reason they called for my arrest and dissolution of the commission,” he said.

Governor

Ayade’s

aide on media and publicity, Mr Christian Ita, said the governor was not pleased with the United Nations report that the state forests under the watch of Mr Dough were being stolen by over six per cent annually.

He said the arrest of Dough was to enable proper investigation into the matter to ensure that the state maintained its global leadership in forest matters.

In recent times, the state forestry commission was able to attract $4 million which was shared equally between the federal government and the state government.

According to Dough this amount which comes in annually to the country was usually held in trust by UN agencies such as FAO, UNEP and released on request to fund listed projects in the state.

“I am soon going to address the press on this and many other issues regarding my tenure and whether or not the forests were truly depleted,” Dough said.