Forest depletion: Obaseki raises alarm, commits to preserve, regenerate Edo forest assets

…assures of new law, policy to check trend 

The Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, has said the state government has resolved to take proactive steps to regenerate and preserve the state’s forest assets to conform to global practices.

Obaseki said this after receiving the report from the 16-man Advisory Committee on Forestry, inaugurated in April to assist the state develop effective frameworks in managing her forest assets in line with international best practice with focus on forest reservation, preservation, conservation and regeneration based on a report presented by Pro-Forest.

He said the state’s forest assets require urgent action on regeneration, noting, “An executive bill for a law on forest regeneration has to go to Edo State House of Assembly and we will not waste time in implementing the law.”

He said the state government would study recommendations made by the committee and lead conversation around forest regeneration, adding, “We will come up with policy guidelines and action plan based on the recommendations before the end of June.

“We must do something urgently on forest reservation. Our advantage is that we have a history and something to fall back to on forest reservation. It is our responsibility to restore our forests.”

Chairman of the 16-man Advisory Committee, Dr. Felix Idumah, said the committee was set up because of the governor’s concern about rejuvenating the state’s forestry assets.

He said findings in the report revealed a high level of degradation, deforestation and depletion of the state’s forest resources, noting, “The forest assets are no longer there. If nothing is done to halt the trend, we will not have any forest.”