President of Forestry Association of Nigeria (FAN) Ahmad Rufai Ibrahim has appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to rescue Nigeria’s forests from the hands of kidnappers and terrorists.
Ibrahim, while speaking lamented that insecurity is affecting research and legitimate activities of forest estates in the country.
He spoke during the International Day of Forests held as part of activities for the 43rd annual conference of the association.
Ibrahim maintained that hoodlums among whom are kidnappers and terrorists have taken over most of the forests in the country.
He then urged the government to rescue and reclaim the forests from the hands of criminals.
He said, “A dangerous trend that has bedevilled our forest estate today is the issue of insecurity in our forests.
“It started gradually in 2003 and today has become a hydra-headed monster that has made our forests worse-off.
“Our researchers can no longer access the forests and the legal activities could not take place because hoodlums have taken over the forest estates”.
Chairman, Board of Trustees of FAN, James Bola Odebiyi, while speaking, advised the government to embark on aggressive tree planting.
He noted that Nigeria must jettison the jamboree which consumed the initiative of tree planting.
He maintained that this will help to reduce the impact of global warming in the country.
He said, “Continuous rise in world population every year and the evil of human activities in the form of deforestation and pollution have made it difficult for the world community to observe the activities of every individual and the issue has always been of concern and provocative”.
