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OUR FOREST ECOSYSTEMS UNDER THREAT By The Olive de L’Afrique Consult Abuja, Nigeria
"That was simply fantastic". This was my comment to a friend shortly after watching a documentary series entitled "Infinite Voyage" showed 14/3/200 on the Discovery Channel TV. It was a graphic assessment of the state of the world's tropical forests and woodlands, the threat of deforestation and challenges facing humankind in preserving the biological diversity therein. For the student of Ecology, it was illuminating; for the uninitiated, it was not only intriguingly revealing but a must watch for policymakers and those entrusted with the responsibility of protecting our natural environment.
After watching that masterpiece, I sat down and wondered aloud whether our policymakers and those entrusted with the responsibility of protecting the environment ever spare time to watch or read such documentaries/ commentaries, especially those that raised policy issues which affect the future survival of their people and their natural environment. The author strongly believes the answer to this poser is clearly in the negative. That is unfortunate! Nigeria deserves better leaders who are not only educated and enlightened to appreciate the nation's myriad of problems and their complex interrelationships but responsive to the challenges emanating from those problems. Let us try to highlights some of the issues raised by the documentary.
Among the most important terrestrial ecosystems are forests and associated land cover types, which include shrublands, woodlands, degraded forests and forest fallows. They account for over 52 million square kilometres of the earth's land area, covering three times the area of croplands and three-quarters more area than grassland. Their importance to the ecological functioning of the planet is unquestionable as they provide two-thirds of the net primary productivity of all terrestrial ecosystems, of which tropical forests alone account for about 60 per cent. Also, they serve as natural habitats for a sizeable chunk of world’s plant and animal species, providing the basis for the biological diversity, which is crucial for the biosphere’s future.
Forests and woodlands perform a series of vital environmental functions at local, regional and global levels. At the local level, their canopy protects soil from rainfall thereby regulating run-off and slowing down erosion. Areas covered with forests produce more even water flows, because the soil acts as a major store in the hydrological cycle. This function is particularly essential in regions such as the monsoon areas of Asia and semi-arid parts of tropical Africa, characterized irregular or strongly seasonal rainfall.
In addition, forests and woodlands create local microclimates, regulating temperature and humidity in their immediate vicinity. Essentially, temperatures are moderated with maximum temperatures lower and minimum temperatures higher; humidity is increased and wind speed reduced. The forests make an idle microclimate for a number of crops (despite the limitation on solar radiation imposed by canopy cover) and a fantastic habitat for many species of flora and fauna that add to the variety and durability of local environments.
Also, forest resources play a crucial role in environmental regulation and preservation at both the regional and global levels. Local functions, such as soil protection and regulation of the hydrological cycle also operate at a regional level. That explains why the destruction of forests is taken to be a major contribution to disasters such as downstream flooding of hitherto forested areas (Bangladesh is a case in point). It is even argued atimes that the effects of a drought in arid and semi-arid areas are worsened by the lost of woodland cover.
On the global scale, forests have two fundamental functions, namely the role of carbon sinks in the global carbon cycle and as pools of biodiversity - the home of a vast number of species of plants and animals. True, though the debate on the evidence supporting the fears that human activities are leading to a significant increase in mean climate patterns and ecological distribution, global warming caused by the enhanced greenhouse effect is considered by many to be the greatest environmental issue presently facing the world. The earth's biomass resources (of which forests and woodlands are the largest part) play a crucial role in global climatic change via two mechanisms.
One, plants absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen during photosynthesis. Hence the loss of a sizeable proportion of the world's biomass stocks via forest and woodland destruction will lead to a reduced capacity to absorb carbon dioxide and could as well lead to other forms of destruction of the composition of the atmosphere.
Two, destroying forests and woodlands, by clearing and tree burning, for agricultural and/or industrial purposes releases carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. This has a direct effect on global warming.
The tropical moist forests contain the largest number of plant and animal species of any ecosystems and are therefore significant biological diversity reserves. Statistics shows that though these forests represent only six per cent of the earth's land surface, they are home to about half of the world's plant and animal species. In fact, recent studies especially those conducted in the Peruvian Amazon forests have shown that the population may be seven times greater than what is thought to exist, as only a small proportion of the millions of species that are initially believed to occur in moist tropical forests have been identified so far.
It is equally interesting to note that many of the animal and plant species have very limited distributions. This means that the destruction of a relatively small area of forest could lead to the extinction of a large number of species. For the fact that some segments of such forests are fragmented and preserved through State instrumentation in several parts of the globe as reserves and wild parks does not mean that a large number of plant and animal species will not be extinct, thereby disrupting food chains which may in turn cause further extinction. Though the actual extent of the lost of biodiversity through this process cannot be fathomed in a straightforward manner, specie extinctions lead to the loss of potentially important genetic characteristics.
It is important we don't forget quickly that the world's medicines come from tropical plants. Equally, it would be too early to forget that much of the success achieved through breeding of new strains of many important plants, such as cocoa, rubber, coffee, and rice has come about by marrying genes from wild species with domesticated plants. So, the extinction of these species reduces gene pools and destroys potentially commercially useful organisms, which in turn reduces biotic capital for inter- and intra- generational benefit by reducing the resource base.
Forests and woodlands have also a number of direct economic benefits. First, they are cheap sources of timber and timber products. Secondly, forests also produce a range of non-timber products. Many species of fruits, oils -such as camphor-, palm, spices -like nutmeg-, medicines, fibre products -such as bamboo and rattan- and latex are supplied by tropical forests.
Thirdly, forests provide a number of services, which are of direct economic benefit: countries like Costa Rica, Rwanda, Kenya and Zimbabwe earn income from tourism. Forests also have a non-use value: aesthetic and cultural significance. Many people across the world place great value on tropical forests even if they are unlikely to ever visit them. Their values are intangible but real. Some would even want to see the growth of environmental opposition to the destruction of tropical forests especially in Europe and the United States is partly explained by this strong sentiment.
Lastly, forests and woodlands have important social and development functions. In many developing countries rural people depend on forests and woodlands for a range of essential goods such as fuelwood, fodder, local medicines, building materials and different sorts of food, as these resources are relatively in abundance. In some instances, forest products provide essential security for poor rural populations when crops fail or crop prices fall or a source of income supplement when harvest is over.
In spite of their environmental, socio-economic and aesthetic significance, these terrestrial ecosystems are disappearing from the face of the earth at an alarming rate. Studies conducted in the 80s suggest that about 0.6 per cent of tropical forest are lost annually. This translates to 11, 300,000 hectares worldwide, an equivalence of an area about the size of Benin Republic. The State of the World's Forests Report (SOFO) of 1997 shows that the rate of deforestation for all tropical countries was 0.7 per cent; and 0.32 per cent as global average. Similarly, the Forest Resource Assessment Report (FRA) of 2000 puts the rate of deforestation at 0.6 per cent for all tropical countries and 0.8 per cent for tropical Africa.
Interestingly, all these studies show that whereas deforestation rates are a little higher in tropical Asia, in tropical Africa they are substantially lower. Studies conducted by Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) between 1981 and 1985 demonstrate that in tropical Asia the highest rates of deforestation are found in closed forests, which are exploited for timber, but in Africa it is more prevalent in the open woodland ecosystems.
Further studies conducted between 1980 and 1985, suggest that the amount of open woodland lost due to land clearance was approximately 11,500,000 hectares. In addition, the degradation of the remaining woodlands occurred through fuelwood and timber harvesting and tree cutting for fodder and grazing. The main focus of this activity has been in the semi-arid parts of East, West and Southern Africa. According to a FAO study conducted between 1990 and 1995, the lost of African forests and woodlands occurred in the West African countries of Ghana, Guinea, Gambia, Togo, Benin and Nigeria due to the increased expansion of hardwood logging. What is worrisome is the fact that the annual rates of forest and woodland destruction in these countries are approximately five to six times the global average: Togo (1.44%), Ghana (1.26%), Benin (1.25 %), Guinea (1.12%), Gambia (0.86%) and Nigeria (0.86%).
Even more worrisome is the likely impact of such rapid growth rates of deforestation on the West African sub-region. Already large number of animal and plant species at threatened by extinction from this activity. Take for example, according to the World's Conservation Monitoring Centre, World Resources Institute of the FAO (2000), about 12 tree species are threatened in Benin Republic. For Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana and Nigeria the figures are higher: 104, 104, 117 and 112 respectively. This portends grave danger not only for the survival of the varied tropical animal and plant species and the ensuring food chains which is essential for the maintenance of power biodiversity, but for the preservation of our microclimate, soil productivity/protection, the regulation of the hydrological cycle and perhaps most importantly (if you will permit) our survival as a specie in the tropical forest ecosystems.
The issue is no longer so much the size and extent of forest cover but the causes and rates of forest and woodland destruction as well as the environmental an economic imperatives that can be used to arrest such rapid deforestation. Indeed the environmental significance of our forests and woodlands calls for a more effective action to limit the rate of tropical deforestation. Were it just a matter of balancing environmental benefits against the economic cost of reducing deforestation from lost of income for timber and timber products as well as reduced agricultural production, then it could be somewhat difficult to argue for West African countries – a region with too many poor people and few development opportunities. But this cannot be said to be the case with Nigeria where the high rate of deforestation is hardly justifiable as it (Nigeria) possesses all the requisites for development, i.e., enormous human and materials resources, but running itself and its people aground simply because faulty development paradigms are employed and priority areas are disregarded each time public policies are formulated or implemented.
So long as government does not formulate concrete policies - that will address the issue of mass poverty in all its ramifications, especially among the people of the rural areas and the littoral states, encourage the use cleaner and environmentally friendly sources of energy (e.g. gas, kerosene, wind, solar and biomass) rather than fuelwood, charcoal and other timber products; agricultural and industrial policies that will encourage sustainable harvesting of tropical trees; an aggressive aforestation programme with its main focus on recovering the Guinea Savannah, Sudan and Sahel vegetational zones of the country - the growth in the rate of deforestation of our tropical forests and woodlands and their precious ecosystems will go unabated. Here in lies the moral of the Discovery Channel TV story on tropical forests! |