Foresters, community members should be trained to handle weapons — Don

Now that forests have become a haven for kidnappers and terrorists, foresters and members of communities near forests should be trained to handle weapons as part of the ways of solving the challenge of insecurity and its negative impact on forests and those who depend forests for their livelihood.

This was the opinion of Professor Paul Adeogun, a professor of Arid Zone Ecology and Silviculture at the University of Maiduguri, during his keynote address at the eighth biennial conference of the Forests and Forest Products Society, held at the Forestry Research Institute of Nigeria (FRIN) in Ibadan on Wednesday.

The theme of the conference was “Forestry and the challenges of insecurity, climate change and covid-19 pandemic in Nigeria.”

He said, “If you have a gun and I don’t have, then you are superior to me. But if I have you have, we respect ourselves. I mean, that’s just a basic principle. Because these people know that these are harmless people. They can just go on. One person with one AK47 can harass a whole community.

“I suggested in so many fora that communities with partnership with the Federal Government, train young men that will be certified by the community leaders. They’ll be trained by the government. And then they’ll go back to their villages, communities. By the time the criminals come they can face them.”

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Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, who was represented at the event by Mrs Modupe Adeleye, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Environment, noted the forests can be seen as the bedrock of agriculture, providing food security for millions of people in urban and rural areas.

He expressed the belief that the conference will “address priority transboundary issues that may prevent and mitigate future pandemic, addressing Invasion the interacting threats due to habitat loss, climate change and using the forests as hideout for criminal acts by developing collaborative policy frameworks.”

Professor Adeshola Adepoju, the Director of FRIN who was represented at the event by the Provost of the Federal College of Forestry, Professor Adeboyin Aderounmu, decried the spate of insecurity in Nigeria’s forests.

“This is the first time that Forests and Forest Products Society (FFPS) is holding its biennial conference in the Institute. The theme for the 8th biennial conference “Forestry and the challenges of insecurity, climate change and Covid-19 pandemic in Nigeria” is apt, timely and these key challenges require urgent national attention.

“Insecurity in Nigeria has become worrisome and more complex in recent time and this has constituted a cog in the wheel of progress of forestry researches, administration and development,” he said.

“I am convinced that all major stakeholders are here to deliberate on these challenges with a view to finding strategies to overcome them for the development, growth and sustainable management of forests in Nigeria.”

Professor Oladapo Akinyemi, the chairman of the local organizing committee for the conference noted that 74 manuscripts were received and 73 were accepted after they were peer reviewed.

The conference is expected to end on August 20.