Nigeria has only 3.7% forest cover – Minister

The Minister of Environment, Balarabe Lawal, has stated Nigeria has the lowest forest cover globally, having only 3.7 per cent.

He said this when he appeared as a guest on an episode of Unfiltered: The Big Interview on YouTube, monitored by our correspondent.

He said, “Environment is very important for all of us; it is the gateway to good health and should be given more emphasis.

“There are so many issues we need to address, but the one I have been on is getting our forest in shape.

“We have three problems. Number one is that Nigeria is now one of the least countries with forest cover. The minimum required for a nation is 25 per cent, but Nigeria has gone down to less than 10 per cent. In fact, the present per cent is 3.7 per cent of forest cover.

“Hence, we are almost in a crisis, that is why I had to approach Mr President in this regard, and he asked me to come up with some proposals to address this issue.”

Lawal noted that forests had become habitation grounds for bandits and criminals.

He said, “We found out that most of the attacks, kidnappings, and others are actually from the forest and the President is very keen on this.

“Our judges are also being trained on how to prosecute forest crimes. We might extend it to environmental crimes generally because we found out that most of our justices do not give the area the attention it deserves.

“For instance, killing elephants should be a heinous crime because they are very rare. So, the forest is very important, and we are taking lots of measures to address forest issues.”

Speaking on the Lake Chad region, the Minister asserted that the treaty on Lake Chad aggravated the problem.

He said, “We are trying to go back to the previous ecosystem of Lake Chad. The President is very keen on this.

“Forests and Lake Chad are one of the matching orders the President gave us. We are working on it and getting some funding for Lake Chad, but it is not enough, however, whatever we get, we will start with it.”

According to the World Bank, Lake Chad’s shrinkage occurs against a backdrop of escalating water demand, increasing scarcity, growing uncertainty, and greater weather extremes.

“Both climate change and global population growth are adding to strains on water use and supply.

“Estimates show that with current practices, the world will face a 40 per cent shortfall between forecast demand and available supply of water by 2030, which means that understanding the dynamics of water availability is more important than ever,” the global lender stated.