By Marie Therese Nanlong, Jos

ALL is certainly not well between the Plateau State government and people of the Qua’an Pan local government area of the State. The bone of contention is the decision of the state government to embark on the deforestation of the Pandam Game Reserve located in Qua’an Pan local government area and established in 1972 by the late Joseph Gomwalk’s administration.

It would be recalled that the Pandam Game Reserve was established by the Benue- Plateau State Legal Notice number 1 of 1972 with October 20, 1975 the date of commencement.

*A section of the park in dispute

Kicking against the planned deforestation, some members of the host community, especially from the Pan/Koffiar axis of the local government, said they will “stiffly resist” any move to deforest the Game Reserve as doing so “under the pretense of revenue generation will amount to endangering wildlife and violating our inheritance.”

Speaking on behalf of his people, Albert Kobep, a lawyer, told Vanguard Metro, VM, that the community has to stand and defend the wildlife habitat seeing that Lalong’s administration is determined to deforest the area as is already being done in the Bwall axis of the Game Reserve.

Adequate compensation

According to him: “It is on record that the Pan people were the sole occupants of the territory upon which the Game Reserve was established. It is also on record that till date, adequate compensation for the use of the land by government has not been carried out though we are aware that alternative residences under the resettlement scheme was done.

“However, we still hold to the fact that compensation under the law must be adequate to fulfill the bases for public use of communal or individual lands sought for such use by government.  It is therefore with great anger and disappointment that we regretfully want to draw the attention of the general public to clandestine plans and activities being carried out with a view to deforest and privatise natural resources in Pandam Game Reserve which has commenced in earnest in Bwall district of Quaan Pan Local Government Area.”

He wondered why “in the 21st century a responsible government can involve itself in a venture which is capable of causing long-lasting ecological disaster to a vast territory”, noting that “the Federal Government has had a policy for reforestation in order to check desertification, and certainly the felling of these trees will not help in achieving the objective of stemming the southward movement of the desert.”

Giving further reason why the deforestation should not be allowed to take place, the spokesman added that “the Game Reserve is home to rare species such as the pigmy hippopotamus, various exotic birds, monkeys and other wildlife. If the forest was logged where will these animals go?”

Kobep opined that in an era where everyone is going green and trying to establish means of revenue generation based on eco-tourism, “the pittance which will be generated from the sale of the timber will not be sustainable as a means of generating revenue for the government” and solicited the resuscitation of the Game Reserve by providing the necessary infrastructure to encourage tourists as such will generate revenue and still preserve the heritage for future generations.

Meanwhile, the community which viewed the planned deforestation as “ill advised, untimely, insensitive and downright irresponsible” stressed that “advanced plans have been made between the state government and expatriate companies who have no regards for the consequences of the venture on the sustainability of the land for the people but only for their capital interest.”

The people appealed to the Federal Government, the Conservator General of Nigeria and all other relevant stakeholders, including NESREA and the Federal Ministry of Environment, to intervene urgently to prevent a looming ecological disaster and to urgently investigate the situation and put an immediate halt to the process.

They stated thus: “The people of Pandam area and surroundings were not consulted before this plan was hatched. We want to know the whereabouts of the environmental impact assessment report, the degree of compliance with the various protocols which Nigeria has signed at the UN for the preservation of biodiversity, and for the equitable participation of indigenous people in the exploitation of their natural resources.

Existing legal framework

“The argument put forward by the state government that the state is in dire need of funds and hence the resort to sale of timber to generate funds is not sustainable. This is because there is an existing legal framework which regulates the exploitation of natural resources. Nigeria is a signatory to a number of international instruments and has ratified conventions related to same.

“These include Convention on Biological Diversity (1992), United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification in Countries Experiencing Serious Drought and/or Desertification (1994), Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (1973), Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (1980) amongst others.

They maintained: “We do not claim to be experts on the environment, however, common sense dictates that if there were to be a logging of an existing forest, the government would have first developed a nursery for trees that would be planted to replace the trees which would be felled. There would have been an identification of the trees which are mature for the purpose of taking an inventory of the products which would be exported.

“In addition, the logging would be done in phases with the young trees being planted and growing to a reasonable extent which would ensure that they will survive before further logging of other areas can be carried out. Have all these things been done?

Required infrastructure

“We consequently call on the Plateau State government to adopt the path of responsible leadership and develop the required infrastructure which will improve the marketability of the Game Reserve and improve its currently comatose fortunes. Any stance adopted by the government in defiance of the superior logic advanced by this argument will be interpreted as a deliberate act aimed at provoking the peace loving people of Pan/Kofiar extraction and will be resisted with every available option under the law of God and the Nigerian State.”

Reacting to the issue, Emmanuel Nanle who is the Director of Press and Publicity to Governor Lalong said: “Whatever is being said is the figment of the imagination of the people.

“The Government is rather working on regulating the timber logging which has been going on with the traditional community leaders’ consent for the past two years to ensure that the environment is not degraded. Government has not granted any permission for the deforestation of the Pandam Game Reserve besides the current area of exploration of the Chinese.”