World Wildlife Day: Exploitation of Rosewood Threatens Nigeria’s Forests
There is growing depletion of Nigeria’s forest cover because of the over exploitation of Rosewood (hardwood).
Rosewood is the trade name for a wide range of tropical hardwoods. The trade of a rosewood species, scientifically known as Pterocarpus Erinaceus or Kosso, - the name by which it is known locally in Nigeria - has grown exponentially in the last two decades. Listings and trade controls on different rosewood species put in place by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) have forced key operators in the commercial sale of rosewood to continually seek new species, a situation which has led to Kosso, predominant in Nigeria and other parts of West Africa, emerging as one the main imported species of rosewood.
The World Wildlife Crime Report (WWCR) 2020 indicates that from around 2011 onwards growing volumes of rosewood were exported from West African, with a very sharp rise in 2017, when 825,000 cubic meters of Kosso logs or the equivalent of about 4 million trees were exported from the region, predominantly from Nigeria (754,234 cubic metres).
Indications are that most of the rosewood from West Africa has been sourced illegally. In October 2018, the CITES Standing Committee recommended that Parties suspend trade in rosewood from Nigeria until the country carries out a non-detriment findings assessment for trade in the species.
Trade restrictions, such as the one imposed on Nigeria’s export of Kosso by the CITES Standing Committee, are vital to protecting and sustaining Africa’s forests and biodiversity. The increasing demand for products such as rosewood associated with non-properly regulated trade puts the survival of these species and the forests that contain them at great risk.
Nigeria’s rosewood grows predominantly in arid areas with sparse forest cover. It fixes nitrogen levels in the soil, is resistant to fire, and provides protection and sustenance to a wide range of wild. In short, Kosso’s value to the ecosystem far outweighs its export value. In 2018, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) classified Kosso as “endangered” with a “decreasing population trend”.
The theme for this year’s World Wildlife Day “Forests and Livelihoods: Sustaining People and Planet” is a rallying call for concerted multifaceted actions to protect Nigeria’s and Africa’s precious forests.
The recently launched
UNODC Strategic Vision for Africa (SVA) 2030 takes cognizance of the fact that the protection of Africa’s biodiversity for the benefit of its people, is one of the continent’s most pressing challenges.
UNODC is therefore partnering with the Nigerian Government with the support of the Government of Germany and the European
Union in strengthening the response to the trafficking of wildlife and forest products through:
1. The development of the first-ever national strategy to prevent and combat wildlife and forest crimes;
2. Strengthening investigation, prosecution, and adjudication capacities in the area of wildlife and forest crime;
3. Facilitation of Corruption Risk Assessments in the wildlife and forestry sector; and
4. An assessment of Nigeria’s legal, institutional, and operational capacities to tackle wildlife and forest crime using the International Consortium on Combating Wildlife Crime (ICCWC) Wildlife and Forest
Crime Analytic Toolkit and Indicator Framework.
We are in the middle of a quadruple planetary emergency: a climate crisis, a biodiversity-loss crisis, an inequality crisis, and a global health crisis. Forests and forest communities are at the center of each of these challenges and we must act to preserve and protect them.
United Bank for Africa (UBA) yesterday launched a new mobile banking for Nigeria and 19 other African countries.
The app, which is loaded with security features to protect all financial transactions on the bank’s platform, is focused around customer experience, based on the feedback received from customers.
Presenting the app simultaneously across the 20 African countries, during an online conference with journalists, the Head, SME Banking at UBA, Mr. Sampson Aneke, said the app was all about re-imagining banking operations across the 20 African countries, while distancing itself from any form of competition.
According to Aneke, “The app comes with a lot of features that are engaging to customers and have made banking transactions a lot more easier, while addressing customer’s needs, through inbuilt emerging technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI).
“The app is interactive with lifestyle services and gives customers the opportunity to make choice of transactions and services.”
He listed some of the features of the app to include transfer of money from UBA to other UBA branches and to other banks; send money from mobile phones to beneficiaries and to self for cardless withdrawal, personal financial management, card control and transfer of money to virtual wallets.
According to him, for the card control, the customer could set parameters through which the debit card can be transacted on Automated Teller Machine (ATM), Point of Sales (PoS) terminals, web, among others, in order to protect the card from unauthorised handling and use.
Fielding questions about the security of the mobile banking app, the Chief Information Officer at UBA, Mr. Onyebuchi Akosa, said the app was designed with multiple-factor authentication security features, which makes it extremely difficult to hack.
He, however, advised customers not to divulge personal information to third party, in order to keep the line of transaction fully protected on the part of the customer.
“With the Multiple-factor authentication security features, the app uses secured codes, which will be sent to all account holders, to verify and authorise any financial transactions before payments are made,” Akosa said.
He, however, explained that activation of each security features on the app, would depend on the policy regulation of countries where UBA currently operates.
Chief Digital Officer at UBA. Mr. Kayode Ishola, said the app would offer unique digital baking experience to customers across the Banks’s 20 African operations.
“Mobile technology is our strategy in UBA and we have devoted a lot to ensure that we are able to deliver banking services using mobile devices that are connected with mobile technologies.