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Climate change: How miners, loggers are hurting the environment

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Over the years, Nigeria’s policies to address climate change, which is one of the biggest challenges confronting the planet, have not yielded meaningful results, AFEEZ HANAFI reports

At 12 noon that Tuesday, Kareem Salau sat patiently on a bench under a bamboo-thatched shade along the shoreline of Ebute, a riverine community in Oworonsoki, Lagos State. At intervals, his eyes flickered between the sight of teenagers swimming at the bank of dark, stale water and labourers loading sand into some tippers.

Minutes later, he flashed a wry smile the moment he sighted two wooden boats approaching the jetty. The middle-aged man could tell from afar that the trip was successful.

“The boats are among the over 100 boats that went to the sea around Ijede and Ofin in Ikorodu (a Lagos suburb) on Monday evening to mine sharp sand. Each boat loads up to 10 tons of sand,” Salau, the Chairman Asiko Laye Irepodun Sand Dealers Association, an affiliate of the United Sand Dealers Association of Nigeria, Lagos Chapter, Zone 3, disclosed to Sunday PUNCH.

Earning a living, hurting the nature

By Salau’s account, about 1,000 tons of sand is mined per trip but as alarming as the volume appears, the dealer, who claimed to have obtained an operating licence from the state government, believes their activity portends no danger to costal system.

“This place was established in 1980 and I inherited it from my father. We carried out the survey of where we mine sand. We work in the middle of water which is very far from communities. There is a particular depth miners can reach and fishes don’t go to where they work,” Salau explained confidently.

A tipper-load of sand, five tons, goes for N8,000 (about $26 at the current official exchange rate N306 per $1) at the waterside and between five and 50 loads are sold every day depending on the market forces, said Salau.

In this ‘business,’ the chairman could beat his chest he has secured a comfortable livelihood, working from Monday to Saturday; and he is convinced the environment is safe.

“He doesn’t know what he is saying,” an Associate Professor at the Department of Marine Sciences, University of Lagos, Charles Onyema, faulted Salau’s claim, noting that the mining volume had massive ecological implications.

Onyema said organisms exist and source their food in lagoons, rivers and other water bodies in layers. He stated that excessive mining like the one Salau’s workers engage in, would change the depth of the soil layers and pose serious dangers to animals.

“If an animal that is supposed to be in sandy substrate finds itself in coarse sand, it won’t survive,” Onyema who specialises in coastal ecology noted.

The scholar explained that to replace the sand lost to dredging and mining, nature recouped sediment from shorelines, resulting in disappearance of coastal community whereby jetties and houses close to waters were eroded over time.

He said, “Unregulated dredging also makes the water to be cloudy and polluted which affects organisms that are pollution-sensitive. They will be stressed; they will die and reduce diversity. The ones that can move away from that spot will do.

“Mining affects sea level rise which is one of the implications of climate change. Sea level rise is already hitting Nigeria, if they keep on, the fishing communities will disappear.”

Sadly, illegal mining continues to thrive in many parts of the country to the detriment of safety of lives and property.

A research conducted by Department of Environmental Management and Toxicology, Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, and published in Ethiopian Journal of Environmental Studies & Management in 2014 assessed the environmental impacts of inland mining in parts of Ogun State.

The study stated that apart from the environmental damage, infrastructural facilities such as roads, water and electricity were destroyed as a result of the activities of illegal sand miners.

“For instance in the Lusada area of Ado-Odo/Ota Local Government Area, infrastructures such as electricity poles lean dangerously. In Sagamu, the base of the electricity substation had been evacuated, exposing the whole area to severe erosion and an impending disaster.

“The situation is terrible at Ado–Odo as completed buildings are almost collapsing. This study has shown that the communities pay the greater environmental price due to the sand mining activities,” the report indicated.

The International Journal of Mining Engineering and Mineral Processing evaluated the ecological effects of extraction of valuable minerals from the Earth in Nigeria and other West African countries and painted grimmer scenarios in three northern states of Niger, Plateau and Zamfara states in its 2017 report.

It maintained that illegal mining in Pandogari, Niger State, expanded from 17.5 kilometre square to 130 km2 from 1992 to 1998 and by 2000, mining operations had extended farther to 200 km2. The incursion of illegal miners continued in 2004-2006 from 254 km2 to 312 km2.

In Bukuru, Plateau State, the report stated that forest area of 420.5 km2 in 1975 shrank to 399.56 km2 by 1986 due to the heavy toll of mining on the environment.

“The downward slide continued almost 20 years after in 2005 with only 155.63 km2 area left with green cover. The other burden of pollution risks involves the 1,000 abandoned mine ponds. These threats are compounded further by the 400 fatalities from lead poisoning triggered by illegal quarrying in Zamfara in 2010,” the report added.

Onyema urged the government to ensure proper regulations and compliance with the standard global practices in sand mining.

“Lagos Lagoon, for instance, has been shrinking rapidly since 1960s. We have estates like Banana Island which never existed before. People are reclaiming land by the shoreline along Lagos Lagoon, along river and by the ocean.

“In the 70s and 80s, the average depth of Lagos Lagoon is one metre. Now, nobody knows the reality because we don’t have the statistics; but it is much deeper. I am six feet two inches. If it were before now, I would walk inside most parts of the lagoon for a long distance. If I try it now, I will drown.”

Deforestation: More damage, less worries

Nigeria’s total land area is said to be about 947,800 km2, with forests covering about 10 per cent of the landmass. These forested areas are on a sharp decline on a daily basis due largely to illegal cutting of trees.

Experts have noted that the diminishing number of tree cover and primary forest in Nigeria has exposed Nigerians to the dangers of heat waves, rise in sea level, flooding and droughts associated with climate change.

A former Minister of State for Environment, Mr Ibrahim Jibril disclosed that Nigeria loses 1.5 million trees daily due to logging, with deforestation rate of 3.5 per cent annually considered highest globally.

A 2017 report by Environmental Investigation Agency stated that over 1.4 million illegal rosewood logs (popularly known as Koso) worth $300m were exported to China from Nigeria, in connivance with top government officials. This led to placing of ban on the exportation of the species used for manufacturing luxury furniture.

Despite the disturbing statistics, Rashidi Adebisi, a logger in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, shows no sign of slowing down on felling trees for a living – like many of his colleagues across the country.

Forty years on the job and still counting, the 65-year-old man is no pushover in the business which has taken him to many states of the federation in search of the next available useful wood to cut.

“We cut trees whenever we have the opportunity to do so and sell them at sawmills,” the Chairman Fell and Cut Association, Odo-Okun, Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, asserted frankly during an encounter with our correspondent early in January.

“Villagers lead us to forests where we get useful trees. We go to any state where trees are available. The intermediary who takes us to the forest will be the one to settle the owner of the land where trees are found. The amount we give the intermediary depends on the volume of trees we find in the forest,” he said.

On occasions when luck is on his side, the veteran timber dealer could fell three truckloads of trees, including the highly demanded rosewood.

According to the sexagenarian, each load weighs 200 cubic consisting of 12 to 18 trees depending on the size and N8,000 to N10,000 (about $26 to $36) is paid to the intermediary per load.

“We sell a load of whitewood for N35,000 ($114); Koso is N45, 000 ($147),” the elderly man explained.

Although his activity falls short of the standard practice, the logger thought otherwise, claiming that he obtained a permit from local government authorities.

“Whoever wants to be cutting trees in the forest must get a permit from the local government. The permit covers our operations in Kwara. But if we want to work in another state, we have to get a permit from a local government in that state. The permit is about N20,000 and it is valid for one year,” he claimed.

Although Adebisi is aware of the enormity of damage his line of business does to the growing deforestation in the country, he blamed the acute loss of trees in the forest on government’s failure to replace them.

“Before now, we cut trees free of charge. Now there are few trees in the forest and we are having challenges. That is why the government advised that if we cut one tree, we should plant two or three in replacement. But that is not possible. The government is supposed to use the dues we pay to plant new ones,”

Aside from deforestation and mining, economic activities in transport, industrial and energy sectors have terrible greenhouse effects through excess emissions of carbon dioxide (C02) and other greenhouse gases.

Serious emissions, fatal dangers

A 2017 record by Worldometer put CO2 emissions from burning fossil fuel in Nigerian transport sector at 31.9 per cent in 2016, followed by 27.5 per cent recorded in cement production, chemical and metal processes, solvents, among other related fields.

While the power industry, which involves burning fossil fuels such as coal and natural gas, accounted for 14.8 per cent, greenhouse emissions from businesses and homes as well as waste handling accounted for 8.7 per cent.

“Excluded are short-cycle biomass burning (such as agricultural waste burning) and large-scale biomass burning (such as forest fires). Fossil CO2 emissions in Nigeria were 82,634,214 tons in 2016.

“The CO2 emissions increased by 0.70 per cent over the previous year, representing an increase by 578,039 tons over 2015, when CO2 emissions were 82,056,175 tons,” the record added.

As of 2012, over 120 million Nigerians relied on firewood and charcoal for their cooking needs, said the International Energy Agency in the World Energy Outlook. A similar report by World Health Organisation in 2017 put the figure at over 100 million, indicating no significant improvement.

The fatal consequence of this poverty-induced practice was emphasised in the WHO’s report which stated that over 470 Nigerians died of ailments caused by firewood smoke between 2011 and 2016. The international body also identified smoke from open fire as Nigeria’s third biggest killer with over N95,000 annual deaths behind malaria and HIV/AIDS.

The Managing Director, Greenado International Limited, an energy and environment consulting firm, Mr Lawal Gada, said decisive actions must be taken to address carbon emissions from households, transport and industry sectors.

Gada, who is the President, African Foundation on Environment and Climate Change and National Vice President for Nigerian Alliance for Clean Cookstoves (an affiliate of Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves), said government must work with the private sector to encourage the use of alternative and clean energy sources.

He said, “We now have more than 100 companies producing cleaner cookstoves. There are up to 30 active ones. Government needs to support those companies. Most of the producers are start-ups who could not get loans from banks to upscale production. Only about five are now commercially doing well. The rest are still struggling. Government has to come in so they can be commercialised and affordable to many people.

“There were attempts in 2014 to encourage mass production of clean cookstoves. Along the line, the procurement process was faulty. And by 2015, it was a bad story; over N9bn worth of clean cookstoves and up till now nobody knows what happened.

“Mass transportation including rail transport should also be enhanced. That is what is done in developed economies like the United Kingdom, United States, and China to mitigate carbon emissions. If two persons drive their cars from Lagos to Abuja, they would be emitting much carbon higher than if they use the same mass transport.

“There is the need for political will to reduce emissions. There is the need for a complete reform of the transport sector to align with the best practices elsewhere in the world. We also need to certify vehicles that should be on the road.

“In the industrial sector, most machines are obsolete; the ones that are standard are high in price so companies go for outdated machines that have been banned elsewhere. The government needs to make deliberate efforts to address this. There should be policies to make existing companies and new ones to embrace environmental-friendly technology.

“This is the 11th year the government has been saying they want to stop gas flaring, yet they have not been able to do so. We need actions not just talks to achieve these goals.”

Interestingly, government, especially at the federal level, acknowledges the dire risks carbon emissions pose to human health and the climate by formulating policies every now and then to address them.

Much talk, little work

Since the last decade, the Federal Government has been coming up with policies to address the overwhelming challenge of climate change and Nigeria is a signatory to international conventions such as the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Kyoto Protocol and Paris Climate Agreement.

At the national level, the Federal Executive Council in 2012 adopted the Nigeria Climate Change Policy Response and Strategy (NCCPRS) to reflect the increasing importance of climate change issues in the country.

The government adopted comprehensive strategies as well as a number of specific policies with the ultimate goal of fostering low-carbon, high growth, economic development and build a climate resilient society.

Other objectives of the policy are to “enhance national capacity to adapt to climate change; raise climate change related science and technology to a new level that will enable the country to better participate in international scientific and technological cooperation on climate change; significantly increase public awareness and involve private sector participation in addressing the challenges of climate change; strengthen national institutions and mechanisms to establish a suitable and functional framework for climate change governance.”

Shortly before the adoption of NCCPRS, the National Adaptation Strategy and Plan of Action for Climate Change Nigeria (NASPA-CCN) was set in motion to build a Nigeria in which climate change adaptation would be an integrated component of sustainable development while also reducing the vulnerability to the adverse impacts of climate change.

The policy was designed to stimulate action plans on climate change among the three tiers of government, civil society, private sector, universities, communities, individuals and the media. And to achieve the set goals, the Department of Climate Change in the Federal Ministry of Environment was established.

The department in its 2010 National Environmental, Economic and Development Study (NEEDS) for Climate Change in Nigeria also highlighted how industrial, energy and agricultural sectors as well as mines and deforestation impacted global warming and developed comprehensive plans to tackle it.

NEEDS rated the relative vulnerability of Nigeria among the countries of the world ‘high’ on the grading scales of Low, Medium Low, Medium, Medium High and High. The study stated that Nigeria’s economy and other sectors of development were vulnerable to climate change.

“The coastline of Nigeria is already undergoing pronounced morphological changes as a result of natural and anthropogenic activities. The natural phenomena include occasional sea surges and tidal waves, while human activities include haphazard construction of ill-designed jetties and groynes, sand mining, unplanned and accelerated infrastructural development, pollution and general land degradation.

“The total area occupied by reserved forests in Nigeria is less than 10 per cent of the total landmass. The remaining forest area in Nigeria will likely disappear by 2020 if the current rate of forest depletion continues unabated. The value of lost forest cover has been estimated at $750m annually at 1989 prices,” the study revealed.

One of the key resolutions of the Vision 20:2020 was to invest in low carbon fuels and renewable energy as contained in the projection of the National Policy on Climate Change, 2011. But nine years on, the challenges have become more alarming with Nigerians increasingly feeling the impact of climate change in the form of excess hot weather and flooding.

At the UN Climate Change Conference (COP25) held in Madrid, Spain, recently, the Minister of Environment, Dr Mahmood Abubakar, said Nigeria had been active in the climate change adaptation and would continue to progress to contribute to global efforts at ameliorating climate change.

The minister identified funding as the major challenge and called for climate funding from the developed countries in support of Nigeria and other African countries.

Damning consequences amid govt action plans

Given the comprehensive plans the government canvassed about nine years ago, one would have expected mitigation of climate change impacts to some extent. Sadly, reverse is the case as shown by the available statistics casting doubts on the minister’s claim of Nigeria’s active role.

According to The International Union for Conservation of Nature, a global authority on the status of the natural world and measures needed to safeguard it, as of 2018, 31 species of mammals, 21 bird species, 74 species of fish and 205 species of higher plants were under threat in Nigeria as a result of climate change.

Also, deforestation statistics for Nigeria published by Mongabay.com revealed that 113,948 hectares of Nigeria’s primary forest was lost to deforestation from 2002 to 2018 while 818,286 hectares of tree cover (planted by people) destroyed during the same period.

As of 2018, tree cover in the country stood at 10,326,662 hectares – 639,384 hectares short of the 10,966,046 hectares recorded in 2010. The primary forest as of 2018 was 1,789,176 hectares; 80,004 short of 1,869,180 hectares accounted for in 2010.

The record further stated that Kwara State, the epicenter of Adebisi’s logging, has a total area of 3,547,840 hectares. From 2001-2018, 23,474 hectares of tree cover, representing 22 per cent, was lost to deforestation in the state. Of that figure, 17,169 hectares (11 per cent) of tree cover was destroyed between 2011 and 2018.

Within the period, Kwara with carbon biomass of 22,806,934 metric tons had emitted 5,290,927 Mt from 2001-2018. From 2001 to 2010, the average carbon emissions per year was 153,530 Mt. The average emissions rose sharply from 2011-2018 to 469,454 Mt.

During the years under review, Bayelsa State lost 16,104 hectares of tree cover. Out of the carbon biomass of 291,254,809 Mt, 5,613,671 Mt was emitted from 2001-2018. Between 2001 and 2010, the average carbon emissions in the state per year was 169,542Mt. It rose by over 200 per cent from 2011-2018, with the average emission per year of 489,782 Mt.

Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital with a land mass of 380,570 hectares, had tree cover stretching 109,068 hectares as of 2018. The report said it lost 9,983 hectares of tree cover, representing 14 per cent loss, from 2000 till 2018. Of the 15,660,571 Mt of carbon biomass, the state emitted 2,220,952 Mt from 2001-2018. From 2001 to 2010, the average emissions per year was 53,011 Mt which increased to 211,356 Mt from 2011-2018.

A professor at the Department of Forest Production and Products, University of Ibadan, Abiodun Oluwafemi, observed that the statistics had far-reaching effects on the nation.

“There will be less quality of life, greater risk of climate consequences, risk of food insecurity and less productive land. Weather conditions cannot be predicted, there will be loss of biodiversity ecosystem both flora (plants) and fauna (animals), soil erosion leading to bad lands, crops failure, flooding, increased greenhouse gases, unpredictable rainfall, proneness to wildfire, water cycle will be affected and availability of clean natural water will decline, among others,” he noted.

Oluwafemi added that the rate of deforestation was highest in Nigeria with loss of primary forest close to 59 per cent, making Nigeria the largest rate of desertification at an annual rate of about four per cent.

Speaking on the 2019 Seasonal Rainfall Predictions, the Director-General, the Nigerian Meteorological Agency, Prof. Sani Mashi, advised farmers to delay planting their crops that year.

He argued that except they planted smart, food yields would be adversely affected as a result of unusually-low level of rainfall in many parts of the country.

At a press conference in Abuja on Thursday ahead of the announcement of 2020 SRP, Mashi attributed the harsh weather conditions currently witnessed in the country to changes in climatic weather patterns.

“This year, we have witnessed a lot of weather changes that had never been witnessed before as a result of changes in weather patterns over the source region and this accounts for situation whereby temperature as low as 6°Celcius was recorded in some parts of the country,” he stated.

The Director-General, National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency, Prof Aliyu Jauro, confirmed the growing impact of climate change in Nigeria in an interview with our correspondent.

Jauro lamented that most of the trees in the forest had been depleted due to farming activities, bush burning and logging, adding that most of the animals found in the forest “are no more there.”

“All these are linked to the climate change. Some water bodies, such as Lake Chad, have also disappeared. So the effect of climate change in Nigeria is clear especially the rise in temperature; it is now very hot unlike before,” he added.

Agencies, experts want cogent action on climate change

Jauro said the steady rise in the indices of climate change in Nigeria despite the government’s action plans was not surprising. He blamed it largely on the high level of poverty in the oil-rich country which is the largest economy in Africa.

The World Poverty Clock in 2018 disclosed that 87 million Nigerians lived on less than $1.90 a day. Nigeria population is about 200 million.

“How many Nigerians can afford to buy cooking gas which is a bit cleaner? In rural areas, they rely 100 per cent on firewood because they cannot afford to buy cooking gas (LPG). So, they rely on felling the trees,” the DG noted.

He said the agency would soon launch National Generator Emission Control Programme and Vehicular Emission Control Programme to address excess emissions of carbon dioxide from generators and vehicles which he described as major contributors to greenhouse gases in the country.

Jauro said the Federal Government was working with some local companies to produce clean cookstoves in commercial quantities and at subsidised rate so that people can afford to buy them.

He stated that regulations had been put in place to ensure the planting of trees to replace each tree felled, adding that the agency always inspects industries to check the level of emissions.

He said, “NESREA needs other agencies to come on board so that we can sensitise the public to the dangers of climate change. Another issue we have is the production and exportation of charcoal which many Nigerians are involved in but it is not allowed. All the agencies have to be strict to ensure that everybody does the right thing.’’

On his part, the acting Director Federal Department of Forestry, Ministry of Environment, Mr Sikiru Tiamiyu, said the department was collaborating with a private company in an afforestation programme aimed at replanting trees in six states and Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.

“There is also presidential pledge on 25 million seedlings which President made at the United Nations General Assembly. Department of Forestry is the secretary to that committee and we are working seriously to make sure that the seedlings are planted this year across the country,” he stated.

Tiamiyu said forest guards who used to curtail the activities of illegal loggers had stopped operations in most states, adding that the department would soon convey a national forestry development committee meeting, last held over 10 years ago, to address deforestation.

He said, “It is states that have right over forests not Federal Government. We need to have their cooperation for effective policy implementation. We are trying to establish forest guards and whistleblowers in some states as an experiment.

“It is illegal for local government to give permit to timber contractors. But what happens most times is that they (loggers) don’t take permit from the state. They just go to the bush and cut trees, including undersized trees. A master plan has been drafted by the Federal Ministry of Environment but the implementation is not that easy.”

The UI professor, Oluwafemi, also called for increased forest cover through planting of more trees, sustainable management of forest estates and reserves, reassessment of government policies on wood exportation to include severe punitive measures for offenders.

“The Federal Government should be involved in the establishment of forest reserves and own such in each state of the federation. There should be increase in research, education and forestry extension towards reduced emissions. Nigeria needs massive climate change education to know how to mitigate climate change and global warming.”

A professor of Forest Economics and Sustainable Development and Vice-Chancellor, Osun State University, Labode Popoola, said forests had the unique attribute for carbon sequestration – the trapping of carbon to reduce global warming.

According to Popoola, there is a subsisting presidential approval for Presidential Initiative on Afforestation which if well implemented would fast-track the recovery of the forest sector from its current parlous state.

He said, “There is the need to urgently undertake forest and biodiversity resources assessment of the country to establish the status of the resources. One cannot adequately manage what one does not know, or have control over.

“There should be constitution of an inter-ministerial committee, comprising Environment, Finance, Energy, Agriculture, Water Resources, Science and Technology, Petroleum Resources, Education and Justice to establish options and strategies for sustainable forest management.

“If the recommended measures must work, then corruption must be tackled frontally. There is the need for a deliberate effort on the part of governments to take decisive steps to stamp out corruption in all facets of our national life.”

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