Deforestation In Nigeria

Deforestation poses as one of Nigeria’s greatest ecological problem, putting the country’s forest loss at a high percentage in the world. In fact, Nigeria is said to have lost and still losing millions of its forest hectares, causing old-growth forests to be disappearing very rapidly. It is even purported that Nigeria has the highest deforestation rate of natural forests on planet Earth. The activities of hewing “down trees both for construction and furniture industries as well as for exportation to foreign countries have”, according to Effiok Uwatt, “resulted in deforestation, desertification and massive gully erosion in the country”(38). Uwatt’s assertion is axiomatic in that these activities have manifested their negative effects in the

The cutting and burning of trees has also contributed immeasurably to greenhouse effect, which in turn is well-placed in the depletion of the ozone layer and hence global warming; one of the causes of world climate change. Besides global warming often caused by deforestation, there is also the extermination of biodiversity which surfaces as a

This oil spill has culminated in gross ecological problems for the inhabitants of the region. Oroka contends that since this period, over a thousand oil wells have since sprung up after this period, producing from numerous oil fields (58). And since then, the situation has become so pathetic that even potable water now constitutes a scarce commodity and a very great challenge to some people in certain areas− for instance the Ogoni people− because the crude oil has totally contaminated their waters and has left them in the straits. The exploration of oil in this region has stripped fishermen and farmers of their only means of livelihood, thereby emasculating and impoverishing them. In supporting this supposition, Oroka states that “Oil and gas exploration has negatively impacted the agricultural productivity through its effect on environment and the socioeconomic life of the people” (59). And beyond this contamination, is the very fact that, the air the people breathe has remained grossly unsafe for human consumption as a result of the pollution springing from the refining of the crude oil and the burning of other toxic chemical substances in the area. Mining has also been a contributory factor to the destabilisation of the ecosystem. Nwadiolor posits that “Mining, in spite of its numerous advantages, unfortunately, has been one of the major