Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and relevant stakeholders in the forestry sector have called for the review of Cross River Forestry Commission laws to address illegal mining and logging in the state.
They made the call, at the weekend, in Calabar during a stakeholders’ round table meeting on ‘Fostering Strategies and Partnership for Forest Protection in Cross River State,’ organised by We The People (WTP).
Describing it as worrisome, they identified mining activities across the state as the new driver of deforestation, noting that those involved in such practice have extended their activities to reserved areas, such as the Cross River National Park.
Speaking on the issue, the Chairman, Forestry Commission, George Oben’Etchi, said that the proposed superhighway by the past administration was just a smokescreen to logging. He added: “We need to look at our law so that it meets the current trend.
“If you must lift a ban on logging and follow it through, then you must amend the law in such a way that bottle necks created are prevented.”
The Executive Director of WTP, Ken Henshaw, and an environmentalist, Richard Inoyo, both said that the high rate of logging activities, with thousands of trucks leaving the state on a daily basis, has depleted the forest.
Henshaw stated: “Cross River State is experiencing the fastest spate of forest loss globally. Aside from logging activities, other factors, including the expansion of commercial plantations, have been highly complicit in forest loss. The impact has been overwhelming.”
