LITERATURE REVIEW
The use of the term “deforestation” at times is associated with distortion of forestry issues. It is used to denote activities that use the forest, for instance, felling of wood for fuel, commercial logging and activities associated with temporary removal of forest cover such as slash and burn techniques which is a major component of shifting cultivation agricultural systems or clear cutting. It is equally used to describe clearing of forest for grazing or ranching (Mfon et al 2014). Also, an activity such as the establishment of industrial plantation may be considered as deforestation by some people while others will view it as afforestation. Accordingly, it is imperative for one to specify what is meant by deforestation in order to reduce all forms of ambiguity. Therefore, many specific terms such as forest decline, forest fragmentation and degradation, loss of forest cover and land use conversions are used (Wikipedia, 2008)
For instance FAO considers a plantation of trees established primarily for timber production to be forest and therefore does not classify natural forest conversion to plantation as deforestation (but still records it as a loss of natural forests). However, FAO does not consider free plantation that provides non-timber products to be forest although they do classify rubber plantations forest (Chakravarty et al 2012)
According to Mfon et al (2014) there are three major schools of thought associated with the causes of deforestation. The first is the impoverishment school which is of the opinion that, the major cause of deforestation is the increase in the number of poor people; that is small holders are the principal agents of deforestation. The second school is the neoclassical group which believes that, deforestation is caused by open access property rights that is, there are various agents with respect to deforestation. The third school is the political ecology group which believes that, deforestation is caused by capitalist entrepreneur.
World Deforestation Pattern
Extensive tropical deforestation is a relatively modern event that gained momentum in the 20th century and particularly in the last half of the 20th century. The FAO 2001 reports indicate considerable deforestation in the world during 1990-2010 but this was almost entirely confined to tropical regions. (Chakravarty et al 2012). Rowe et al (1992) estimated that 15 percent of the world’s forest was converted to other land uses between 1850 and 1980. Deforestation occurred at the rate of 9.2million hectares per annum from 1980-1990, 16million hectares per annum from 1990-2000 and decreased to 13million hectares per annum from 20002010 (Chakravarty et al 2012). The net change in forest area during the last decade was estimated at – 5.2milliom hectares per year or 140km2 of forest per day.
South American with about four million hectares per year suffered the largest net loss of forests during the last decade followed by Africa with 3.4million hectares annually and the least Oceania with seven lakh hectares annually. Brazil and Indonesia had the highest lost of forest in the 1990s accounting for almost 40 percent of net forest loss. Brazil was the top deforesting country by area; the forests in Brazil are so extensive that this represents a loss of 0.4 percent per year. The forest area in North and Central America remained stable during the past decade the forest area in Europe continued to expand although of a slower rate of seven lakh hectare per year during the last decade than in the 1990s with nine lakh hectares per year. Asia lost some six lakh hectares annually during 1990s but gained more than 2.2 million hectares per year during the last decade. The five countries with the longest annual ness loss of 2000-2010 were Comoros (-9.30%), Togo (-5.1%), Nigeria (-3.7%), Mauritania (-2.7%) and Uganda (-2.6%). The area of other wooded land globally decreased by about 3.1 million hectares per year during 1990 – 2000 and by about 1.9million hectares per year during the last decade. The area of other wooded land also decreased during the past two decades in Africa, Asia and South America (Chakravarty, et al 2012).
Deforestation in Africa
Forest loss in Africa is particularly troubling, and this is due to the fact that; two-thirds of the continent’s population depends on forest resources for income and food supplementation and 90 percent of Africans use fuel wood and charcoal as sources of energy (FAO, 2010). Hence, the over-reliance on forest resources and non-timber forest products (NTFPs) has accounted for the huge change in forest cover and that; deforestation in Africa is estimated at around 3.4 million hectares per year (FAO, 2010; CIFOR, 2005).
According to Naoto (2006), between 1990 and 2000 Africa had the highest rate of deforestation of about 0.8 percent, followed by Latin America with 0.4 percent, and 0.1 percent in Asia. Some scholars associated the deforestation rate in Africa to their sluggish economic growth. However, the significance of deforestation to Africa has led to a number of recommendations on how to reduce the rate of deforestation on the continent. Poverty on the African Continent has led to continued loss of tree cover. According to the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (Henceforth referred to as UNECA), the proportion of land covered by forests in Sub-Saharan Africa is estimated to have decreased by 2.2 percent between 1990 and 2000. Due to over reliance on forests to meet the energy needs, with little access to alternative and affordable energy sources, the rate of loss of forests is increasing at an alarming rate.
Sixty percent of Africa’s energy demand is met by forests (UNECA, 2005).
Deforestation in Nigeria Trends
History has it that as at the beginning of the 1500 A.D, with the exception of cities such as Ibadan, Benin and Calabar, all the Southern part of Nigeria was covered by forests (Akachuku, 2006). However, between the year 1500 and 1960 the rain forest were seriously depleted mainly as a result of demand for wood by the colonial masters (Mfon et al 2014). The depletion of the forest within this period reduced the forest into two large blocks with scattered fragments between 1960 and 1981; continuous degradation of the remaining blocks persisted. Hence, by the early 90’s very few considerable patches of the patches of the rain forest were left in some forest reserves and natural parks for protection. Today, the damage to Nigeria, forests invariably has become tremendous.
According to Mfon et al (2014) Nigeria has eight National parks (Table 1)
S/N
Park
Size (km2)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Gumpti
Kainji lake
Cross River
Old Oyo
Chad Basin
Yankari
Kamuku
Okomu
6,670
5,341
3,720
2,512
2,258
2,244.1
1,127
1,127
Table 1: National Parks and their Sizes
Adapted from Mfon et al (2014)
The 1,160 constituted forest reserves in Nigeria are said to cover an area of 107, 527. 02km2 (FORMECU 1996). This figure represents about 11% of the total land area of the country. These reserves vary in size and are located in 362 local government areas in 36 states of the country. Borgu forest reserve in New Bussa, Niger state is the largest with an area of 3,786.58km2 while Lewechi forest reserve in Okigwe in Imo State is the smallest with an area of 0.47km2 (Mfon et al 2014)
These forest reserves and others have over the years been the major theatre of large scale human activities culminating into serious consequences upon the Nigeria flora and fauna despite decade of collective effort to combat deforestation.
The forest resources in Nigeria are under pressures from urbanization, infrastructure development, residential construction, population growth, nonadic farming and expansion of agricultural crop cultivation. Evidence of these pressures is the growth degradation of both community and National forest. Eboh et al (2005) said that about 25% of forest cover was lost from 1991 to 2003 with the remaining forest now standing at about 16 to 17%. FAO (2011) reported that the country loss 55.7% of its total primary forest between 2000 and 2005, and the rate of forest change increased by 31.2% to 3.12% per annum
The spread of deforestation is also noticeable near urban countries. The growth of urban areas bring about appreciable demands for fuel wood, charcoal and sawn wood and this account for much of the observed decline in forest stock (Ogundele, 2012) cooking with fuelwood or charcoal has remained the only alternative to ever increasing cost of fossil fuel in Nigeria (there is persistent increment in the cost of kerosene, cooking gas and electricity tariff). It is therefore predicted that the demand for biomass energy in urban areas would remain strong and continue to account for much of the spread of deforestation. Forests in the country are said to contribute substantially to the natural gross domestic product (GDP) and sustenance of the livelihood of the people. This probably may be the reason why the trend of deforestation across the country is on the increase and the GDP from the forestry sector decline. According to Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) (2006), the national GDP by forestry sector was high in the early 80’s up till 1987. The early 90’s till today witnesses a drastic drop in the contributions of forest to the national GDP.