Nigeria, with the fourth highest deforestation rate in the world having lost above 3.7 percent of its forests between 2000-2010, may be without forests in 30 years.
This was the submission of Professor Jonathan Onyekwelu, while delivering the 87th inaugural lecture of the Federal University of Technology, Akure, FUTA.
Speaking on the topic Sustainable Forest Management: Pathway Back to the Garden of Eden, Professor Onyekwelu said since the colonial era, Nigerian forests have been under intense pressure to provide timber, initially for the European market, resulting in large scale depletion of this all important natural resource.
On the way forward, Professor Onyekwelu proposed, among others, the deployment of agroforestry practices, which entails the deliberate inclusion of trees in agricultural landscapes. Onyekwelu also called for the promotion of a community-based forest management and traditional forest management system (sacred groves).
The don recommended that local and national capacities for effective implementation and enforcement of forest laws and policies should be strengthened while forest personnel should be empowered to arrest and prosecute illegal fellers and forest encroachers.
In his remarks, FUTA’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Adeola Fuwape, described the lecturer as an erudite professor, who has contributed immensely to research and academic development in his field of specialisation.
The Vice-Chancellor said Onyekwelu had demonstrated his intellectual prowess in his field and has been a consistently productive scholar in addition to providing leadership both for his students and younger academics since he took up appointment in the university.
The post Nigeria ‘ll be without forest in 30 years—FUTA Don appeared first on Vanguard News.
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