Stakeholders urge govt to embark on timber tree regeneration

WORRIED by the disappearance of timbers in the Nigerian forests, stakeholders in building sector have called on governing authorities to stem the tide by putting in place a sustainable policy.

The policy, according to them should not only prevent illegal cutting of immature timbers but, to ensure the replenishing of the ones cut either for domestic use or exportation.

The stakeholders’ forum held at the Lagos Mainland Local government, Apapa Road, Ebute Metta West, last week, had in attendance, government officials, builders, timber merchants, members of the academia, civil society organizations, among others, all who condemned the lackadaisical attitude towards the wanton depletion of Nigeria’s forests.

Listing why timber is endangered, Labode Popoola, a Professor of Forest Economics, University of Ibadan (UI), said the problem could be attributed to several factors including increasing demand, deforestation and de-reservation, obsolete technology, political instability and insecurity, obsolete forest policies/laws (including marketing/ pricing) and unrealistic valuation of forest products and services.

Popoola, President, Forest Association of Nigeria, also identified poor funding, inadequate and inappropriate staffing and poor remuneration, paucity of quality data for effective management planning and corruption, among others.

According to him, trading in some species is governed by the Convention in International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), which lists species in three categories, namely: trading prohibited; trade permitted subject to export permits from the country of origin and species protected within individual party states.

“In Nigeria, prices of all types of timber have been on the upswing, but the real value ascribed to timber is ridiculously low”, he noted.

However, stating the militating factors against timber, Popoola added that, fuel wood still remains the single most consumed wood product in Nigeria, even though over time these total and per capita consumption will decrease, cumulative rate of consumption is still quite high and it is expected to become less attractive as there is improvement in the standards of living, and as alternative domestic fuel sources become readily available

Indicators of timber scarcity include the price of resource commodity. Resource commodity is the material that is processed from the natural resource.

Extraction cost excluding royalty, especially, in the case of timber cost of felling, bucking, cross-cutting and transportation, distance travelled and the duration of trips to and from extraction sites, poor quality building construction such as sagging or wobbling roofs