The motion sponsor worried that despite decades of deforestation and destruction of the environment, Nigeria has failed to find a lasting solution to illegal logging.
The House of Representatives has initiated a probe into the fraudulent deforestation across the country by foreigners.
This is even as it condemned in the strongest terms, the mindless and unlawful plundering of the forest reserves.
These resolutions are a sequel to a motion on the “Need to Investigate the Fraudulent Deforestation by Forest Timber Loggers” sponsored by Rep. Abdullahi Ibrahim Ali Halims (APC, Kogi).
In his debate, Halims noted that an estimated 80% of Mahogany and up to 50% of pine Nigeria’s main timber export, is produced in violation of Government Regulations.
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He also noted that despite massive deforestation and destruction over the last thirty (30) Years, the country has failed to find a solution to the crisis of illegal loggings and loggers.
The lawmaker stressed the need for the government to put measures in place to check the illegal activities.
“The Government appears helpless without a concrete strategy in place to tackle this monumental economic sabotage.”
To this end, the House mandated the Committee on Environment to interface with the Federal Ministry of Environment with a view to finding a lasting solution to the problem.
It further urged the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) to live up to its responsibility of bringing the illegal miners to book and take concrete steps towards ending the illegal deforestation of forests by timber loggers.
Nigeria, according to the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), has the world’s highest deforestation rate of primary forests, having lost 55.7 percent of its primary forests between 2000 and 2005, and another 97.8 kilo hectares of natural forest in 2020.
