CAll it desertification or desert encroachment. It makes no difference. Residents of the Northern states of the country know that they have a major challenge on their hands. They also know that deforestation is playing a major role. They are at the mercy of a fast encroaching desert.
What started very slowly is now spreading faster that imagined as a result of negligence over the years.
Until the recent Great Green Wall Project, government, over the years, had only sung its dangers and paid lip service to checking the menace. There is no serious and committed plans aimed at curbing the trend.
Despite the increasing threat and dangers posed by environmental degradation, indiscriminate felling of trees has thrived unabated and with impunity; especially among firewood sellers; even as the scanty nature of rainfall in the north does not support the endangered lush green vegetation obtained in the southern part of the country.
Gombe, being a boundary state to some of the very hard hit states, is not an exception to desertification which is further hampered by global warming.
Therefore, illegally tree felling ought to be outlawed.
Ironically, in Gombe State, firewood business has become a money spinner for the low-income class with most families living off it.
This boom is evidenced by numerous pick-up vans and articulated vehicles loads of firewood that is a daily spectacle in Gombe metropolis. The business flourishes all year round; especially during the rainy season when demand outweighs supply.
How long this continuous illegal destruction of the forests would continue or stop is a subject of conjecture. Even a member of Gombe Firewood Sellers’ Association (name withheld) who has been in the business for about 40 years said it would be difficult to hazard a guess.
For him, the increasing tree felling thrives in the state mainly because firewood business is flourishing. He does not envisage an end to the trade in the foreseeable future unless an alternative and cheaper source of cooking energy is devised.
“The number of people that rely on firewood as their source of cooking energy, by far out-weigh those using other alternative sources. This explains the heavy dependence on forests which customarily increases with population growth,” he said.
Sources say about 850 pick-up vans of firewood are sold per month within Gombe metropolis. Each load costs between N12, 000 and N13, 000, depending on the quality of the wood. This translates to a staggering collective monthly income of over N 9 million which is quite a huge sum of money.
The people now go for as far as 100 kilometres or more into the forests to fetch firewood, unlike some years ago when they used to source the commodity within just about 40 km from Gombe metropolis.
Baba Garba who has been in the business for over 18 years corroborated this. He added that the availability of stronger vehicles makes the impact of the distance unfelt; adding: “though we must acknowledge depletion of the forests as we have to travel twice more than we used to before fetching firewood these days.”
A former Commissioner for Water Resources, Town Planning and Environment in Gombe State, Mohammad Doho called on the authorities to devise a means of harnessing the abundant sunshine and wind in the country into energy for cooking purposes. He believes that this may be more affordable for low-income earners.
Inuwa Abdullahi, a lawyer and member of the Society for the Restoration of Nature, a non-governmental organisation based in Gombe attributed the continuous deforestation activities in the state to lack of strict enforcement of laws on deforestation, adding that the available ones have never been reviewed to meet contemporary challenges.
He said: “Some of the laws date back to the 1930s. As far as the present society is concerned, they are archaic. If you go to courts today, you will not see any prosecution in respect of deforestation. In fact, as a lawyer, I cannot remember coming across a single case where somebody who fell a tree or trees illegally was prosecuted.”
Sadik Mua’zu, who claims he could not remember when he started firewood trade, said the Firewood Sellers’ Association, cannot be held liable for their daily rape on the surrounding forests because the government failed to protect the environment.
He said they pay revenues to both the local and state governments. They also pay between N100 and N500 to Forest Guards per load of firewood, depending on the size of the vehicle.
He said they are receipted all the payments, except the one at check-points specially set up for firewood conveyors.
Further justifying the legality of the actions, Garba and Mua’zu said members of their association only fetch dead woods. They shifted the allegations of cutting down fresh trees and stocking them in the forests to dry before bringing them into the town to farmers and illegal firewood sellers.
Barrister Innuwa’s NGO only realised the need for tree planting a couple of years ago. They planted a total of 5,000 trees at Dukku, Gombe and Kwami local government areas then.
They equally introduced Nature Restorers Club in some primary schools in Gombe with the aim of inculcating the love of nature in the younger ones so that they would grow into adulthood with environment-friendly disposition.
Just recently, Gombe State Governor, Dr. Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo announced the allocation of N9, 100,000 to the 40 sub-sectors in the 2014 budget, with a promise to aggressively “pursue the policy of cut-one-tree-and-plant-one tree.”
This is to reinforce the state’s commitment to key into the Great Green Wall Project of the Federal Government as a way of addressing desert encroachment.
“Considering that the general public relies on firewood for cooking, a strong campaign will also be undertaken to encourage the establishment of woodlots, raising of seedlings and making them available to the public,” he added.
