The Chairman of Cross River State Forestry Commission, Dr Odigha Odigha, on Thursday identified lack of viable alternatives as a threat to forest conservation in the country.
Odigha said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos.
According to him, cutting of firewood leads to deforestation while its domestic use brings pressure on the environment.
However, when you say people should not use firewood what alternatives are you bringing for them?
Other issues are that our forest is serving multiple purposes of alleviating poverty at rural levels,’’ he said.
The chairman remarked that the United Nations (UN)-Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) was being implemented in Nigeria in spite of serious poverty at the rural level.
He said that Nigeria was vulnerable to climate change crisis and that poor awareness among the populace is militating against the REDD Programme in the country.
According to him, UN-REDD+ programme is used as a financial incentive to avoid deforestation.
He explained that the programme was aimed at mitigating the impact of climate change through the use of the forest.
Odigha said that the political will was also not strong enough to run the REDD+ Programme in the country.
