Leadership (Abuja)
Osa Okhomina
24 December 2008
Yenagoa — The Bayelsa State Governor, Chief Timipre Sylva, has assured Bayelsans that his administration will enforce the forestry law of the state to stop wanton bush burning and illegal felling of trees.
Chief Sylva, who gave the assurance at the flag-off ceremony of the state Tree Planting Campaign in Yenagoa at the weekend, said that the enforcement of this law will check the activities of timber merchants.
The governor noted that his administration appreciated the importance of maintaining the forest and its bio-diversity which are renewable sources of wealth in the area of tourism, food supply, fuel and timber as well as the protection of the environment from the ever- growing threat of Green House Effect.
According to him "it is against this background that the forestry department of the Ministry of Environment would establish a tree nursery and plantation programme next year to provide seedlings for plantation development in the state.
While soliciting the support of both the private and public sectors in the drive for afforestation and reforestation, the governor urged chairmen of local government areas to replicate the tree planning exercise in their respective areas.
He also enjoined Bayelsans to plant a minimum of one tree in their various residences so that the fading glory of the natural endowment of the Niger Delta ecosystem could be restored.
Speaking at the occasion, the Environment Commissioner, Mrs. Victoria Denenu, decried the indiscriminate felling of trees, noting that about one million trees had been destroyed since 1996.
According to her, Nigeria's forest estate has been diminishing by 3.5% per annum which implies that Bayelsa ecosystem was shrinking at an unprecedented rate of 169.75 square kilometers annually.
The commissioner, who noted that Bayelsa State was fast becoming a wood-deficient one said if the trend was not checked the one may begin to import wood from neighbouring states by the year 2020.
She called for conscientious efforts by all levels of government to revert the trend, noting that as part of efforts to restore the dwindling forest reserves, the state is to raise 1.5 million leaf seedlings in this year's tree planting campaign.
The chairman of the occasion, Professor Ayebaemi Spiff, who enumerated the benefits of trees to humanity, stressed the need for the planting of trees that are indigenous and appropriate for the environment.
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