The Osun State Government has lamented the high rate of deforestation by illegal farmers and miners in its forest reserves, asking them to vacate the lands or face the full wrath of the law.
The state government had issued a 21-day ultimatum to encroachers on government forest reserves across the state to vacate the lands because their activities have been having negative effects on the health and economic conditions of the people of the state.
Speaking with our correspondent in Osogbo on the implementation of the government White Paper on Shasha Forest Reserve in Ile-Ife, the Chairman of the implementation committee, who is also the Vice Chancellor of the Osun State University, Osogbo, Prof. Labor Popoola, asked people to desist from encroaching on government forest reserves.
Popoola said that such illegal activities were destroying the ecosystem. He said that government was ready to reclaim Shasha Forest Reserve and other reserves in the state, warning that illegal farmers and timber contractors on the lands should leave now. Popoola said the dwindling fortune in the forestry sector, in particular, was caused by de-reservation and encroachment on gazetted forest reserves in the state. He stressed that the state government had resolved to embark on projects that would improve the sector, despite the meagre financial resources at its disposal.
He said, “Without forests, we are all gone. Forest is about life and it makes living possible. No settlement can take place if those who want to settle there do not have forest. The problem of deforestation is a global phenomenon and that is why reclamation is going on in many parts of the world. We are in trouble in Nigeria because about ten percent of our land is only covered by forest when we need about twenty five percent.”
“People have destroyed our forests in Osun and we are ready to wage war against illegal occupants of these reserves. It’s a pity that these desecrated forests are internationally recognised. These forests have been gazetted as natural forests of importance.”
While further appealing to residents to desist from abusing and trespassing on forest reserves, Popoola said that the implementation committee was considering facilitating workable forest policy and rejuvenating the whole process of forestry in the state.
He added that forest guards would be recruited to ensure that forest reserves were protected against encroachment, saying that the committee would plant trees on a 60- hectare land to mark Governor Aregbesola’s 60th birthday.
Also speaking, a Senior Special Assistant to Governor Rauf Aregbesola on Forestry, Natural and Mineral Resources and commissioner designate, Mr. Tunji Ajilore, said large-scale deforestation was caused through illegal tree felling and farming in the forest reserves.
