Logging activities occasioned by the proposed superhighway project of the Governor Ben Ayade administration in Cross Rivers State are kicking up a storm across the state, as over 185 communities in five local government areas are alleged to have lost their land.
The project is an ambitious 260 km long dual carriage way which when completed in the next five years as planned, would connect many villages in Calabar to other communities outside the state.
Speaking at the groundbreaking ceremony in 2015, Governor Ayade said, “It will be the first road to have anti-slip features on the highway. It is a digital road designed for the 21st century and it is an evacuation corridor from the Calabar Seaport.”
Much of that enthusiasm seems lost on the larger population in the state. To further buttress its seriousness, the government had gone ahead to revoke the rights of occupancy within a 20 kilometre-belt, which cuts through protected forest areas within and outside the National Park, including Cross River and Afi Mountain Wildlife Sanctuary, as well as the Mangrove Reserve.
In some of the places the government has revoked land titles, it now has the right to fell trees, clear farms or displace communities. In an effort to justify the planned logging activity, the governor said Cross River State has “over one million hectares of pristine forest and the forest which is an asset that has remained unexploited and has been conserved over time, without exploitation and that is not the way to go forward. We are going to move from forest conservation to forest management, which means we are going to need two or three thousand young men who will be responsible for regeneration of the forest.
“As we are deforesting for development by processing it into plywood and vinyl for export, we are also correspondingly investing hugely for regeneration.”
Nevertheless, stakeholders who spoke to BusinessDay noted that the state has much less than 1,000,000 hectares of forest – perhaps only 600,000 are standing.
Environmentalists and scientists have also noted that the existing highways, if refurbished could fulfil development needs without the loss of any forest, and at a much lower cost.
Boma Ozobia a member of Ekuri Initiative, and resident of one of the communities, said, “The project has impact on the park located within the region and what we are trying to preserve and there are communities that live and depend on the area. These communities have been preserving the rain forest and making a living from there. “What the governor wants to do will effectively destroy the communities and he hasn’t even said anything about relocating them or trying to compensate them. The law provides that for a project like that you should provide compensation for the people that will be affected by it. It also provides that an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) be carried out. None of that has happened.”
Already, the state government has commenced forest and farm clearance on a massive scale without an EIA permit.
According to the EIA decree of 1992 – which Nigeria is a signatory to, section (2) (2) states that, “Where the extent, nature or location of a proposed project or activity is such that is likely to significantly affect the environment. Its environmental impact assessment shall be undertaken in accordance with the provisions of this Decree.”
Similarly, the Part VII, Section 45 of the National Park Service Act specifies that the Federal Environmental Protection Agency should undertake the production of an Environmental Impact Assessment report for projects such as this.
Therefore, any act contrary to this provision is a contravention of the law. “The Ministry of Environment has issued a stop work order through a public notice, pending the production of an acceptable EIA, but the Cross River State government is defiant and is continuing the bulldozing,” according to Odey Oyama, executive director, Rainforest Research and Development Centre (RRDC).
The State government, however claimed recently, that they were complying with the order from the ministry but reports and pictures from our sources prove otherwise. Forest clearing and logging is continuing. “Our protest is not to stop the developmental initiative of the government. This rainforest belongs to the entire world and that’s why UNESCO is now involved and the rainforest makes millions for the communities living within and around it,” said Ozobia.
The existing highways have an established system of feeder roads, linking communities to the trade route. The proposed superhighway would likely cause the construction of its own network of feeder roads, and in the process cut a grid of smaller roads into what is left of the rainforest.
This slicing up of intact ecosystems would severally affect animal migration, and an increased loss of habitat could threaten their survival. Furthermore, sustainable human use of non-timber forest products in many areas would be eliminated. In the end, the country’s REDD+ status (country’s efforts to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, and foster conservation, sustainable management of forests, and enhancement of forest carbon stock) could be lost.
“In as much as the blueprint of the project has not been made public, the extent of the impact of the project on the buffer zone of the Cross River National Park (CRNP) –being a legally established forest zone on the periphery of the CRNP, cannot be immediately established. It has therefore become necessary for President Muhammdu Buhari to demand the submission of the blue prints of the 260km, six-lane super highway project to the CRNP and the National Park Service for scrutiny,” said Odey.
FRANK ELEANYA & CHINWE AGBEZE
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