Categories: Business

How trees are falling to Nigeria’s energy crisis

Published by

3 years ago

Iya Attah, as she is popularly known, is a Ghanaian living in Nigeria. She is one of the few citizens of Nigeria’s West African neighbour who did not leave the country during the ‘Ghana must go’ revolution in the 1980s. She now runs a restaurant in the city of Ibadan. However, this story is not about her staying power in the country. One of her workers, Emmanuel, had just received a bag of charcoal when the Nigerian Tribune visited. He says it is what Iya Attah’s restaurant depends on. Not completely though! “We were using gas until the price went up. We still have to use gas for certain foods so that it turns out well,” he said.

Another restaurant owner, Kemi (not her real name), told Nigerian Tribune that even the charcoal she now depends on alongside gas has gone up. “Look, I am tired! Gas has gone up and even charcoal. I can only on a daily basis. It is now N1,200 for the amount I buy in nylon bags.”

Nigeria’s perennial energy crisis

Nigeria is an oil producing country. It however has faced several episodes of fuel scarcity and rising fuel prices. The current crisis however worsens the situation of Nigerians who have not fully recovered from the economic downturn caused by the covid-19 pandemic.

The prices of cooking gas and kerosene which Nigerian households depend on for cooking has galloped over the last one year.

LPG

According to figures by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the average price for refilling a 5kg cylinder of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (cooking gas) stood at ₦3,708.58 in February 2022, showing a month-on-month increase of 1.39 per cent from ₦3,657.57 recorded in January 2022. On a year-on-year, the average retail price of cooking gas increased by 83.69 per cent from ₦2,018.91 in February 2021.

Kerosene

The NBS in another report records that the average retail price per litre of Household Kerosene (HHK) paid by consumers in February 2022 stood at ₦450.66 from ₦437.11 in January 2022, showing an increase of 3.10 per cent on a month-on-month. On a year-on-year comparison, the average price increased by 26.66 per cent from ₦355.80 in February 2021.

Electricity

Electricity can be a reprieve for households seeking alternative sources of energy for cooking. However, electricity supply remains epileptic. In March, the national grid suffered two collapses in two days. Grid collapses are not a new thing in Nigeria.

According to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)’s Power Africa, Nigeria has the potential to generate 12,522 MW of electric power from existing plants. “However, it is only able to dispatch around 4,000 MW, which is insufficient for a country of over 195 million people.”

It adds that “The Nigerian power sector experiences many broad challenges related to electricity policy enforcement, regulatory uncertainty, gas supply, transmission system constraints, and major power sector planning shortfalls that have kept the sector from reaching commercial viability.”

So the people turn to trees

In their paper, Ibrahim Sufiyana, Muhammad K.Db, Umar Musa of the Federal Polytechnic Department of Geoinformatics and Surveying Nasarawa; Geography Department Federal University Lafia and Yusuf Maitama Sule University Kano, respectively carried out a study on the rates of consumption of fuelwood.

According to them, “This study assesses the per capita consumption of both the firewood and charcoal daily, weekly, monthly and annually. The rates of consumption determine the usage of fuelwood. The regression analyses were employed to statistically verify the rate of fuelwood consumption. The result indicates that there are high rates of consumption per capita per day (charcoal 0.20kg, firewood 0.09kg), per capita per week charcoal 9.9kg, firewood 4.48kg), per capita per month ( charcoal 181.9kg; firewood 82.5kg) and charcoal 26,937kg firewood 12,042kg).

In the study titled, “Appraisal Of Per Capita Consumption of Charcoal and Firewood as an Alternative Energy Sources for Domestic Usage in Keffi Nasarawa State Nigeria”, the researchers concluded that their results indicate “that people are highly destroying forests daily and alter the natural system of the environment for the sake of fuelwood consumption.”

In their May 2021 study titled, “Socio-Economic Analysis of Wood Charcoal Production as a Significant Output of Forest Bioeconomy in Africa” Isaac Nyarko, Chukwudi Nwaogu Hájek Miroslav and Prince Opoku Peseu attempted to establish a relationship among Wood Charcoal Production, Income and Forest Area Change.

They concluded that “by using charcoal and firewood, the poor majority (72.9 per cent) in Nigeria adapted to the increase in prices of kerosene, cooking gas and electricity.”

IN CASE YOU MISSED THESE FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE

They also noted that Africa accounts for about 65 per cent of global charcoal production with 21 per cent of its charcoal output being exported.

According to the study, Nigeria has for the past three decades ranked number one among the top charcoal producing countries in Africa. The country has produced from 1990–1999: 2,783,277 tonnes, 2000–2009: 3,464,538 tonnes; 2010–2019: 4,314,708 tonnes.

Other top producing countries in Africa are Ethiopia, Ghana, Senegal, and Congo DR.

The story of Igbo Agala

Professor Opeyemi Ajewole is the Head, Department of Social and Environmental Forestry at the University of Ibadan. Speaking with Nigerian Tribune, he said that it is expected that people would turn to the forests as an alternative to rising gas, kerosene and electricity prices.

According to him, “In the early 90s there was a critical fuel crisis. There is a forest in Ibadan called ‘Igbo Agala’ It is on a hill, and runs through Oke Aremo – Yemetu axis. It was a forest reserve to protect that landscape because of the sloping nature to prevent floods from runoff. If it is exposed it can induce floods.

“It got to a point where people went to that forest and started cutting the trees. They were using wet wood to fire wood. The ones that got there late couldn’t find standing trees to cut, so they started uprooting the stumps. It is a classical case of the effect of the fuel crisis on the forests.

“So, Igbo Agala was degraded. People went there to fell trees because they wanted to cook! The poor people could not afford kerosene, and gas was for the eilte then. That’s an example of how the energy crisis affects forests.”

Coming to the current crisis, Professor Ajewole said, “Now the consumption of gas has increased compared to 30 years ago. Gas is no more restricted to the elites. Gas and kerosene are from the same source. So if gas becomes unaffordable, kerosene becomes next to unaffordable. There are two issues: non-availablity and price. When a product is not available, the price goes up. So the next thing would be to resort to firewood and charcoal, especially for people in the rural areas.

“There will be pressure on the production of charcoal and the use of firewood. So this has serious implications on the forests either around where we live or the forests in the rural areas. Both of them will suffer except something is done.”

Solutions

Prof. Ajewole said as long as the fuel crisis continues, the forests will continue to suffer. “We want petroleum products prices to be stable and the products to be available and affordable. If gas and kerosene are largely available and affordable it will reduce the number of people using firewood and charcoal. That’s very important.

“We can also have an aspect of forestry that plants special fast growing trees with high calorific value. It is possible to establish that kind of plantation.”

He added that forests have now become victims of insecurity.

“The government must involve those who live in and around these forests, who understand these forests, to help in securing the forests. They should be organised and empowered. The number of forest guards is too small to handle the forest reserves and free areas.”

He also noted that “Efforts to protect the forest should go beyond the government. Society and community-based approach should be integrated. We have a professional association called the Forest Association of Nigeria (FAN). Such organisations need to come out strong in mobilising other conservation-oriented groups. The more we are the merrier!”

International day of forests

Tuesday was the international day of forests. Marked every March 21, the day was established by resolution of the United Nations General Assembly in 2013 to celebrate and raise awareness of the importance of forests and trees outside forests for the benefit of current and future generations.

Professor Adeshola Adepoju, the Director General of Forestry Research Institute of Nigeria (FRIN), said “We need to go beyond planting trees. We need to plant, nurture and enjoy trees. When we plant and nurture trees, they will reverse the adverse effects of climate change, slow down runoff water, and provide more oxygen for everyone. This is the enjoyment part.”

The FRIN DG noted that in view of the current energy crisis, there is the need for subnational levels of government to be involved in the energy transition initiatives at the federal level. “The developed world has embraced it and we need to embrace it too.”

On the energy crisis and people turning to the forests as an alternative, Professor Adepoju was of the opinion that “I don’t think it is as bad as we think. Even though this is not an issue we are celebrating, the issue of insecurity and banditry has in a way been securing our forests as people can no longer go into the hinterland as it used to be to collect firewood.”

He added that “I know that firewood is not entirely a wrong thing if it is from the woodlot. We also encourage everyone who is having a forest plantation to also have a woodlot. The indiscriminate felling of trees is what we are against.”

While he noted that this energy crisis would likely lead to the indiscriminate felling of trees, he said that FAN at its recent meeting was looking to see how all hands can be on deck to confront the issue jointly. “It is a regulatory problem and we must face it politically too.”