On this World Environment Day, We the People calls on the government of Cross River State to immediately make policies and establish frameworks aimed at protecting the remaining rainforest and mangroves located in the state.
We note that Cross River state has the largest remaining natural rainforests in Nigeria. Most of these areas have been protected by indigenous communities for decades, kept safe mostly through engaging and innovative community driven management practices. In 2008 however, the government of the state engaged the UN climate change mitigation framework, Reducing Emission from Deforestation and Forest Degradation, REDD+, promising benefits for forest dependent people in exchange for continuing to protect the forests. This led to an immediate government take-over of all forests in the state, including swamp and mangrove forests, introducing a moratorium on forest entry and usage that effectively reversed indigenous land rights. However, rather than secure the forests, REDD+ and the actions of the state government brought about acute poverty and loss of voice of forest dependent communities, and led to an accelerated rate of forest destruction.
Research by We the People shows that the inability of the government to offer alternative income and livelihood activities for the indigenous community people who depended on the forests for their livelihoods, as well as the failure of REDD+ to immediately meet its promise of ‘carbon credit’ funding, led to more aggressive logging, mostly by people from other states and foreigners. Logging activities became uncontrollable from 2010, leading to a loss of over 40% of the state’s forests during the ban.
We are concerned that despite the lifting of the ban by the current administration and the introduction of alternative forest management practices, massive illegal logging continues all over the state, with law enforcement officials and even agents of the State’s Forestry Commission actively participating and collaborating. Each day, several trucks loaded with timber leave the state through its land and river boundaries, fueling an ongoing deforestation spate that is currently the highest in the world. With the destruction of the forests cover, Cross River state is exposed to stronger wind storms, increased floods and landslides, as well as hitherto unknown high temperatures. The state is also witnessing the loss of several animal and bird species, some of them seriously endangered. If the current rate of deforestation is not immediately arrested, the next 5-10 years could witness a complete loss of all the state’s forest and its replacement with grasslands and the attendant ecological crises.
Rising ‘Forest Grab’
It is also important to note that in Cross River state, there is also a rise in ‘anticipatory’ mangrove forest capture chiefly by Chinese business interests who aim to generate carbon credits from owning those forests. Again, these forests are being acquired without the knowledge and involvement of all segment of the concerned communities. In some instances, communities are not fully aware that trading those forests includes trading their livelihood rights in those places. Large mangrove forest areas in southern Cross River have already been acquired by foreign interests. We call on the state government to examine these acquisitions to ensure that they are in the best interests of the state and its people, as well as the environment.
Illegal Mining Activities
We the People has equally noticed a new and emerging threat to the Cross River state environment, especially the Cross River National Park, where there has been an increase in mining activities in the quest to extract minerals. In Cross River state, mining for lithium has led to massive deforestation, abuse of community rights, and conflict. It has also resulted in large parts of the National Park being taken over by foreigners who are not only causing conflict and destroying the natural environment, but are also disrupting the social order in several communities.
We call on the government of Cross Rivers state to take immediate action to check the many threats that are currently mounting against the state’s environment, and its people. In particular, we ask that the government revisits its strategy to ending illegal logging activities in the state, towards criminalizing all acts of forests sabotage. We also ask the government to immediately establish frameworks to examine all acquisition of forest areas in the state, especially those by foreign business interests. It is equally critical that the Cross River state government puts measures in place to arrest the rising occurrences of illegal mining activities especially in forested areas in the state.
Ken Henshaw,
Executive Director, We the People
