By Usman Aliyu,
By most accounts, global warming is one of the major environmental challenges facing the world nowadays.
Global warming is a phrase which refers to increases in average temperature of the air and sea at earth’s surface.
Since the early 20th Century, studies show that the global air and sea surface temperature has increased by about 0.8 °C (1.4°F), with about two-thirds of the increase occurring since 1980.
The studies also show that each of the last three decades has been successively warmer at the earth’s surface than any preceding decade since 1850.
However, scientific understanding of the real causes of global warming has been increasing.
In its fourth assessment (AR4 2007) of the relevant scientific literature, the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reported that scientists were absolutely certain that global warming was mostly caused by increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases produced by human activities.
In 2010, the finding was recognised by the national science academies of the major industrialised nations.
Reaffirming this finding in 2013, the IPCC stated that the largest driver of global warming was carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from fossil fuel combustion, cement production and land use changes such as deforestation.
Experts describe deforestation as the removal of a forest or stand of trees, while the land is thereafter converted into non-forest uses.
This, the experts add, includes conversion of forestland to farms, ranches or urban use.
Deforestation occurs for many reasons: trees are cut down to be used or sold as fuel (sometimes in the form of charcoal) or timber, while the cleared land may be used for livestock, plantations or settlements.
Observers, nonetheless, insist that the removal of trees without practical reforestation plans has resulted in damage to habitat, biodiversity loss and aridity.
The negative consequences of sustained deforestation, perhaps, compelled concerned environmentalists to express worry over the high rate of deforestation in Kwara State, particularly in the northern areas of the state.
They insist that indiscriminate felling of trees, especially for land preparation for farming, charcoal making and logging operations, without any tree-replacement plans is counter-productive.
The ecologists emphasise that sustained deforestation can reinforce existing environmental problems such as global warming.
One of the environmentalists, Mr Joseph Akinlolu, said: “Cutting down trees (and not replanting them) will affect humans as well as animals, the ecosystem, and the climate because trees happen to be the main source of oxygen.
“Besides, think about the number of animals that live in trees…or use their fruits as food; trees happen to have many advantages to them; they also provide lot of shade from the sun’s harmful ultraviolet rays, while maintaining the ecosystem.’’
Sharing similar sentiments, Mr Hafeez Akanbi, another environmentalist, said that deforestation had several negative effects on the ecosystem
“The most dramatic impact is a loss of habitat for millions of species. Seventy percent of earth’s land animals and plants live in forests; many of them cannot, therefore, survive deforestation which destroys their homes.
“Deforestation also drives climate change. Forest soils are moist but without protection from the sun-blocking tree cover, they quickly dry out. Trees also help perpetuate the water cycle by returning water vapor back into the atmosphere. Without trees to fill these roles, many former forestlands can quickly become barren deserts.
“Removing trees deprives the forest of portions of its canopy, which blocks the sun’s rays during the day and holds in heat at night. This disruption leads to more extreme temperature swings which can be harmful to plants and animals.
“Trees also play a critical role in absorbing greenhouse gases that fuel global warming. Fewer forests mean larger amounts of greenhouse gases entering the atmosphere, thus increasing the speed and severity of global warming.’’
Akanbi urged the federal and governments to find pragmatic solutions to the growing menace of deforestation by curbing indiscriminate felling of trees across the country.
“The quickest solution to deforestation would be to simply stop cutting down trees. A more workable solution is to carefully manage forest resources by eliminating clear-cutting, so as to ensure that forest environments remain intact.
“Tree cutting that is acceptable should be balanced by the planting of enough young trees to replace the older ones felled in any given forest.
“The number of new tree plantations is growing each year but their total still equals to a tiny fraction of the earth’s forested land,’’ he said.
Mr Kamal Aliyu, an engineer, also condemned indiscriminate felling of trees in most rural communities of Kwara State, particularly by charcoal makers, who “usually throng the state from neighbouring states’’.
He underscored the need to check the activities of the charcoal producers since they posed a serious danger to the people and the environment.
Aliyu conceded that although the Kwara State Government recently outlawed forestry activities in the state, tangible efforts should be made to enforce the regulation.
He emphasised that government should put in place appropriate mechanisms to enforce the ban of logging, particularly in the northern parts of the state, where Nigeria shared a long international border with the Republic of Benin.
Echoing a similar viewpoint, Assemblyman Usman Adamu (APC-Okuta/Yashikira constituency), at a plenary session of Kwara House of Assembly, urged the lawmakers to take due cognizance of the environmental hazards of indiscriminate felling of trees in the state.
In a motion on “Curbing indiscriminate felling of trees in Kwara’’, Adamu said that people were not abiding with an extant policy on chainsaw operations and felling of trees, which stated that that “if anyone cuts down a tree, he must plant two tree seedlings to replace it.’’
He, however, noted that saw-millers and chainsaw operators in the state cut down trees without planting tree seedlings to replenish the forest, adding that if care was not taken, this development could lead to desertification.
The lawmaker said that the most worrisome aspect of the scenario was that most residents of the state encouraged the activities of saw-millers and chainsaw operators, who were only obsessed with the profits they would make without any regard for the consequences of their activities on the environment.
Adamu noted that the consequences of unregulated deforestation included habitat destruction, erosion, flooding and global warming, among others.
He urged the legislature to promptly intervene by ensuring that necessary deforestation-control mechanisms were put in place to check the environmental menace.
In his contribution, Assemblyman Ishaku Aliyu-Adams (APC- Edu Constituency) said that traditional rulers were not helping the situation at all since some of them were involved in the logging business.
Aliyu-Adams called on the state government to completely outlaw the cutting of trees for the next five years to so as to tackle the growing menace of deforestation.
The Speaker of the House, Dr Ali Ahmad, however, urged traditional rulers and farmers’ associations in the state to support the state government’s efforts to curb indiscriminate tree felling.
Ahmad advised the state Ministry of Environment and Forestry to immediately begin the enforcement of existing policies on tree felling and tree planting in the state.
All in all, analysts underscore the need for all stakeholders to make concerted efforts to halt to indiscriminate felling of trees in the state without any pragmatic tree-replanting schemes. (NANFeatures)