‘Livestock Farming, Panacea To Deforestation’

Livestock farming has been described as a veritable tool for the fight against deforestation in the country.

Making the assertion in an exclusive interview with The Tide  in Port Harcourt over the weekend, a forestry expert, Mr. Fred Nwokocha stated that government at all levels in conjunction with Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs), should organise sensitisation and workshops to the rural areas on the need to shift to livestock farming.

He said since the rural people depended on the forests for game (hunting), snail, fishing and other aquatic needs, it was imperative that the forests were preserved.

Nwokocha, a retired Head of Department in the Rivers State Ministry of Agriculture said the rural people should be given the opportunity to be involved in what he described as “participatory appraisal” to enable them come up with what they really need and why they should minimise tree felling.

He stated that if the rural farmers were involved in sustainable enterprise in livestock farming, overtime they themselves would turn around to protect the forests even against intruders.

He further raised alarm over the inadequate policing of the various forests especially in Rivers State, and called on the government to revisit the use of forest guards in the fight against indiscriminate tree felling.

“For now, we have about eight forest guards in the Ministry of Agriculture which is inadequate to man the forests in the state”.

He said that most of the forest guards were retired, adding that each of the 23 local government areas needed at least two forest guards.

On why lorry loads of timber were still been leaving the various forests in the state, Nwokocha started that it may not be unconnected with activities of unscrupulous elements in the industry who have taken advantage of inadequate manpower at the various forests in the state.

He therefore called on the appropriate authorities to make it a matter of policy to post forest guards to each of the local government areas in the state, adding that liaison offices should be opened to enable the staff make appraisals on periodic basis  to ascertain the extent of forest preservation in the various areas.