Deforestation: Onuesoke Charges Delta Government to Set Up Forestry Commission

Sylvester Idowu in Warri

The Chairman of DAS Energy Services Limited, in Delta State, Chief Sunny Onuesoke, has urged the state government to set up Forestry and Conservation Commission to tackle deforestation, forest degradation and develop forest assets.

Onuesoke, in a statement issued in Warri yesterday, decried the loss and degradation of forests were having on the people, stressing that the Commission, if inaugurated, would reverse the trend, harness the forest wildlife resources, promote the conservation of the ecosystem and take charge of the ungoverned spaces in the forest.

He expressed worries over the devastating impacts of poachers, illegal logging activities and arsonists, especially herdsmen, who allegedly set fire to the forest to allow for fresh pasturing grasses.

Onuesoke, a Chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) declared, “Deforestation and forest degradation are happening at an alarming rate, resulting in many wildlife habitats being destroyed, farmlands opened to flooding, loss of biodiversity, greenhouse gases accumulation and loss of forest ecosystem, among others.”

Noting that Delta State remains a low-lying coastal state that was vulnerable to climate change, the former Governorship aspirant in the state said, “The trees in the forest are very important for the sequestration of carbon, so we need to conserve the forest.

“Through afforestation, there would be more plants or trees to help absorb carbon dioxide and reduce its content in the air or in the atmosphere.

“As carbon dioxide is being reduced through the help of trees, then the problems of climate change and global warming will be answered, even in the smallest way.

“More than the trees, the soil that is being developed as a forest also absorbs the CO2 from the atmosphere three times more than the trees,” he observed.

Onuesoke argued that it was sad that a State like Delta which was blessed with natural forests allows the extinction of peculiar animals and giants African trees enriched with interlocking canopies from the forests, which are potential revenue earners through eco-tourism.