Professor of Environmental Management and Control, Christian Madu has decried endangered forests and vegetation caused by negative environmental attitudes and unplanned growing population in the country.
Madu, a lecturer with the University of Nigeria, Nsukka said this on Wednesday while speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Enugu.
He said that the country was fast losing its forest and vegetation areas, adding that “our forests and vegetation are endangered and every effort should be made to protect them”.
According to Madu, it is not just about the trees making the forest and the vegetation but the habitat and wildlife in the forests that is being greatly eroded.
He said this would escalate the climate change phenomenon such as greenhouse gases and increase in temperature or warming in the country.
Madu, who served as Shell/NNPC Professor of Environmental Management from 2016 to 2020, said “The trees in the forest have never been safe”
- Panacea to averting desertification in Kano
- Kano sets to plant one million trees to control erosion
- World Bank project to support fuel wood plantations in Kaduna communities
“They are viewed more as economic trees either in terms of the yield from them like palm trees and some that can be harvested to sell as firewood or timber.
“With the increase in population, many of the forests are being cleared for housing projects to accommodate the increasing population.
“This problem is now further exacerbated by the increase in cost of cooking gas; thus, putting more demand on the exploitation of the trees and vegetation in the forests.
“The depletion of these trees has far-reaching impact on biodiversity loss.
“In fact, the loss of biodiversity here is antithetic to the 17th goal of the UN 2030 agenda for sustainable development, which aims to halt biodiversity losses by the year 2030,” he said.
(NAN)
