A community based Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), Etara-Eyeyeng Forest Concern, and some forest communities in Cross River State have raised the alarm over activities of illegal loggers in the state.
The NGO, with support from Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), said that the illegal logging activities by one Stanley Mba, the owner of a controversial wood processing factory situated at the centre of the two forest communities, is alarming.
They said that it was disappointing that the massive logging in the Etara-Eyeyeng Community forest was not perpetrated by the owners of the forest, but by foreigners from other states and countries who paid what they described as peanuts to community leaders.
Condemning the act, the Project Coordinator and Adviser of Etara-Eyeyeng Forest Concern, Clement Omina, disclosed that the state forestry law does not allow a non-indigene to enter into any community forest.
“Even the indigenes don’t just go to the forest like that; we move with the forestry staff that go and ascertain that the wood has met its age, and are capable of being sawed before permission is granted you to saw. The forest that is supposed to be protected has been so far destroyed because it was not properly managed,” Omina added.
