NIGERIA

Deforestation is a serious problem in Nigeria, with forest loss occurring at a rate of 3.3% per year. Since 1990, the country has lost over 6 million ha or 36%, of its forest cover. The most biodiverse ecosystems, the old-growth forests, are disappearing at an even faster fate; between 1990 and 2005, 79% of these forests were lost and since 2000, Nigeria has been losing an average 11% of its primary forests each year. These figures give Nigeria the highest deforestation rate of natural forest in the world.

Deforestation results from road building projects (often sponsored by oil companies), subsistence farming, logging, mining and dam construction. The carbon lost from the destruction of forest areas is exacerbated by the amount released from gas flaring ' Nigeria flares more gas than any other country. Wildlife populations are falling as habitats are lost, and desertification and soil erosion are increasing.

The current government is concerned about rising deforestation and environmental degradation, which is estimated to cost the country over $6 billion a year. However, it has failed to put in place effective measures to curb illegal logging and only 6% of the land area is protected. Timber concessions have been granted in national parks and oil-palm plantations have been allowed to replace forested areas. Previous governments have tried to prevent further forest loss through a ban on log exports, promoting agroforestry and community-based conservation schemes, and encouraging plantations and reforestation programmes. The success of these initiatives has been limited.

However, Nigeria has recently (Sept 2008) agreed, along with Cameroon, brokered by the Wildlife Conservation Society, to protect the habitat of the endangered Cross River gorilla by cracking down on illegal logging and the bushmeat trade, strengthening monitoring, improving law enforcement in parks and increasing community involvement and conservation education. Nigeria is also a signatory to the Accra Declaration which resulted from a FAO/ITTO workshop held in Accra, Ghana in July 2008, which explored the problems and possible solutions to the illegal extraction of forest resources in tropical West Africa.

DOCUMENTS

DATE	TITLE	AUTHOR
20/10/2008	Cross-border flows of timber and wood products in West Africa Recognizing that regional and cross-border timber trade may have important implications for the FLEGT ...	European Commission
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01/07/2008	Illegal wood for the European market: An analysis of the EU import and export of illegal wood and related products This report looks at EU timber imports and concludes that one-fifth of wood imported into the European ...	WWF
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01/02/2008	Forest Products Trade between China and Africa: An Analysis of Imports and Exports Recent media coverage of China's efforts to secure access to natural resources in Africa suggests ...	Forest Trends (Kerstin Canby, James Hewitt, Luke Bailey, Eugenia Katsigris, Sun Xiufang)
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01/01/2008	Forest governance in countries with federal systems of government: lessons and implications for decentralization Decentralization has been a popular theme in the forest sector. Much of this work and these discussions ...	CIFOR (Arnoldo Contreras-Hermosilla, Hans M Gregersen, and Andy White)
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25/05/2006	Status of Tropical Forest Management 2005 Is forest management improving in the tropics? This report sets out to answer that question. It provides ...	ITTO
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01/04/2004	Lessons Learnt on Sustainable Forest Management in Africa: Study on Forest Administration and Related Institutional Arrangements This study is a component of a wider initiative jointly undertaken by the Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture ...	Owino, Prof. F (Forest Resources International, Kenya) & Ndinga, Dr A (Dakar Fann, Senegal)
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NEWS

DATE	TITLE	AUTHOR
02/09/2010	Battling to preserve Nigeria's rainforest According to the World Resources Institute, Nigeria is home to 4,715 different types of plant species, ...	CNN
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26/08/2010	Don't sell forests, groups urge Nigerian govts A round table strategic meeting in Calabar, the Cross River State capital, on Reducing Emissions from ...	AllVoices
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06/06/2010	Nigeria: FG seeks global support for forestry development Nigeria has underscored the need for the industrial nations to support the developing nations to fast ...	allAfrica
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11/08/2009	10 countries with the highest deforestation rates in the world Hopefully it comes as no great surprise to you that deforestation is a major problem in many areas of ...	Tree Hugger
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06/08/2009	Nigeria: logging - rearguard action to save vanishing jewel Abuja - It is dusk on the Qua River and Peter Jenkins, a no-nonsense American conservationist, is leading ...	allAfrica.com
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23/07/2009	The need to check deforestation in West Africa Achieving long-term development in West Africa requires much more than just exploiting the region's ...	Business Day, Nigeria
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21/07/2009	Nigeria's $750 million climate change loss Nigeria loses about $750 million annually to the depletion of its 350,000 hectares of forest land by ...	Next.com, Timbuktu Media
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25/06/2009	'Nigeria lost 37.5% forest reserve in 15 years' Federal Government said yesterday that more than 37 percent of the country's forest reserves were ...	ThisDay Online, Nigeria
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05/09/2008	Cameroon and Nigeria to protect world's rarest gorilla Cameroon and Nigeria have agreed to protect the the Cross River gorilla, world's most endangered ...	Mongabay.com
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18/06/2008	Fish and timber in West Africa need more sustainable EU policies say MEPs Fish and timber are natural resources often not managed in a sustainable way in West Africa due to inadequate ...	European Parliament (EU)
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22/01/2006	Goodbye to West Africa's rainforests West Africa's once verdant and extensive rainforests are now a historical footnote. Gone to build ...	Mongabay.com
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17/11/2005	Nigeria has worst deforestation rate, FAO revises figures Nigeria has the world's highest deforestation rate of primary forests according to revised deforestation ...	Mongabay.com
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04/10/2005	Ogun impounds eight lorries for illegal timber logging Nigeria - Officials of the Ogun State Ministry of Forestry have impounded eight lorries belonging to ...	Independent (Nigeria)
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05/09/2005	Endless threat to Cross River rainforest Calabar, Nigeria - In the last three years, revenue paid as royalty to communities in Cross River State, ...	Daily Independent (Nigeria)
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EVENTS

DATE	TITLE
Tuesday 15th July 2008	FAO/ITTO Regional Workshop on Improving Forest Law Compliance and Governance in Tropical West Africa Over the past two years, FAO and ITTO have assisted countries in the Amazon region, Central Africa, Central ...
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Monday 6th December 2004	Commission For Africa ' Forest Programme Brainstorm A brainstorming session on illegal logging held in part to feed into the Commission for Africa Report, ...
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LINKS

TITLE	DESCRIPTION	REPORT
AfriTRON: African Tropical Rainforest Observation Network	The African Tropical Rainforest Observation Network (AfriTRON), is an international network of researchers engaged in on-the-ground long-term monitoring of tropical forests. The network pools expertise and data to help answer larger-scale and longer-term questions relating to the ecology and biogeochemistry of African tropical forests. In particular AfriTRON aims to address questions of contemporary importance such as the possible impacts of regional and global environmental changes on tropical forests, and the impacts of changes in the forests themselves on the regional and global environment. This is done through partnerships between scientists across the world, students and local villages who host our field-trips.	Broken link
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