Forest communities in Cross River State have called on government and international donor agencies to develop their areas and provide alternative sources of sustenance so they can reduce their dependence on the forests.
They made the plea when the Wise Administration of Terrestrial Environment and Resources (WATER) with support from Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) and Mainyoito Pastoralist Integrated Development Organization (MPIDO) organized one day capacity building workshops on climate change mitigation for each of five forest communities in the state.
The communities are Etara, Ekuri Eyeyeng, Okokori, Agoi Ekpo and Agoi Ibami.
The communities complained that despite preserving the forest for years, nothing profitable has come to them as a result of that.
Village Head of Etara in Etung local government, Ntufam Edwin Ogar, who expressed gratitude for the training, said, “We need the government and foreign agencies to give us assistance. Our people are ready to conserve the forests, but we need help. We also call on our people not to go into farming again to protect wildlife too that contribute to the sustenance of the forest. If the government and agencies give us support, most of our people would not indulge in these logging and hunting.
“The message I have for my people is make a way and put what we have learnt into practice and government should also create a way that people would no longer be interested in logging and hunting.
“If you talk of carbon credit, many of our elders have died keeping this forest. We have been waiting and waiting. Never a time have Etara or any community received anything. In respect of that if they are willing to help us, we need support.”
Prince Simon Ogar Ifere indigene of Etara said they keep hearing that communities who preserve their forests benefit from carbon credit fund, but for them it has not been the case.
Ifere, a retired civil servant who has retired to rural life to farm cocoa, said extreme poverty in the area had forced some people to exploit the forests, even to their own disadvantage.
“I am impressed with the opportunity given to the people by this workshop. Long ago we didn’t know that preserving the forests and the plants in the forests would be of benefit to our lives. It is from these lectures that we have realized that these plants need to be preserved. They help a lot. They check a lot of negative things that would happen to man and I am praying that my people having heard this should abide to the instructions and learning we have gotten into. It is a good thing.”
Also a retired National Park Service Officer, Mr Hart Urom, “If we can get ourselves engaged in other activities that would reduce pressure on the forest, it would be very good. How can we achieve this? May be the community people can have incentives, something like soft loans or whatever to bring them out from the forest, then there would be a better chance of conserving these remaining forest we have now.”
Officer on Climate Change for WATER, Agbor Agatha Owor, said the issue of climate change was exacerbating that is why the whole world is trying to see how it can be tackled.
“We have come here to create an awareness on forest conservation in order to reduce climate change. The participants are indigenous people who still have forests all over the community, so we start from the grassroots to educate them on the causes of climate change, its effects and also how theycan mitigate climate change.
“In order to mitigate climate change, WATER taught the communities to conserve the forest as well aspractice sustainable agriculture, land use planning and agro-forestry and the beneficiaries are willing to put these into practice and seeks enabling supports to keeptrees standing to absorb carbon, minimize release of carbon and reduce climate change. WATER also taught them sustainable forest management to ensure wise utilization of resources, storage of carbon, reduction of climate change and availability of forest resources for the sustainable development of the present and futuregenerations yet unborn. Gladly, the beneficiary communities have realized that the conservation of the forest is for their own good as well as protection of wildlife that is critical in the dispersal of fruits and regeneration”.
She said that: “Without biodiversity and ecosystems, no human being can survive on mother earth. So the communities that WATER have trained are ready to reduce deforestation and ready also to practice reforestation programmes so that we can regenerate the forests and reduce climate change.”
Programme Coordinator, WATER, Chief Edwin Ogar, said in working with the five communities, the challenges mainly faced are the issues of poor social and economic activities of the communities, which has led to intensified agricultural activities in forested areas.
“The communities are complaining that they are poor and the only way to survive is to cut down the forest and cultivate food crops for them to survive and sell to earn an income. I appeal that both government and the donors should do something because these communities are within sensitive areas of Cross RiverState. They are situated in the forest belt. They still have the remaining forest in Nigeria”.
“I appeal that government should do something very positive as well as the donors to intervene in these areas to provide social and economic incentives as to reduce the amount of pressure on the forest for farming and logging. Even though there is a ban on logging, people are still logging all over the whole place, which is another challenge. Another key challenge is that the communities see the government as not living up to expectation because they have not done what they feel the government should do. You go around the community you cannot feel the impact of government and they are complaining bitterly and even saying they would destroy the entire forest if government does not do anything for them. We have educated them that destroying the forest would also help to impoverish them and they seem to understand in that line. But there is need for government, international agencies and NGOs also to come around and support these communities so they can do something else to relieve pressure on the forest ecosystem,” Ogar said.
