This year is looking very promising for the Forestry Research Institute of Nigeria (FRIN) its Director-General, Dr Adeshola Adepoju, has said about the institute’s outlook for the year.
When the DG spoke with Ecoscope in an interview at the institute’s headquarters in Ibadan,Dr Adepoju said, “The activities of FRIN are naturally life activities. We can’t detach 2018 completely from 2019. We need to look at 2018 to see the level of implementation of set targets. We evaluate what we have been able to accomplish and see where there are gaps, then we will first fill the gaps and know how to move forward.
“Before we start estimating the capacity we have for 2019, it behoves of us to first look at the success level of 2018 and 2017, stabilise that and move forward.”
“Our job is not an annual job. We deal with perennial plants that go beyond a year.”
When raising seedlings, there are variables involved such as “dieback,” a condition in which a tree or shrub begins to die from the tip of its leaves or roots backwards, owing to disease or an unfavourable environment, and “beating-up” which means the replacement of newly planted trees which have died. Dr Adepoju therefore noted that “it takes four to five years for some seedling plantations to be established.”
Continuing, he said, “Our purpose basically is to achieve environmental benefits.”These benefits include land degradation control and climate change impact mitigation and how the people in the community react to such interventions.
“The socio-economic challenges by reason of what was done in those years will be assessed; community reactions will also be assessed and adjusted.
“Having obtained economic benefits, what has been done must be useful to the social and economic life of the community for it to be sustained. That is why we have various departments to manage different aspects of what we do.”
The DG went on to speak on how FRIN was responding to the Federal Government’s economic programmes. “We are doing in-house review of our activities for 2018. After stabilising that, we will look into the Federal Ministry of Environment’s goal relating to our mandate. How have we reacted to the Ministry’s goals that our mandate caters for? We will assess that also.
“We will look at our mandate as it concerns the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan of the FG and how are we complying; and how are we buying into the Ease of Doing business, so we can adapt to it.”
He noted that MDAs must realise that their functions are not to be done as a favour to Nigerians, but that they are there to solve the needs of the Nigerian populace.
“We are affiliates to so many international conventions. We will assess how are we keying into the agreements that our mandate is representing for the country. FRIN is the rallying point for Africa in terms of the ecology management, Man and Biosphere, CITES, GBIF, among others. That is why we keep being prominent.”
He hinted that FRIN will host the global Man and Biosphere programme in 2020 on behalf of the Environment Ministry, after successfully hosting the African leg in 2107.
FRIN will also host an expo later in the year. “Of all the things we have been doing for the Nigerian people, we want to showcase them. That is why we will be having the FRIN expo. Not that we want people to come and clap for us, we want them to come and criticise what we are doing so we can do better.” He said the business community will be there to see how they can benefit from FRIN by sourcing what they usually import locally.
He said the institute was aiming at informing Nigerians about what FRIN is all about and what it can solve economically, socially and environmentally for the people.
“We are also looking at how to increase the economic tree species we are handling from 10 to 15. “We are consolidating on the 10 we are working on and increasing it to 15, so that those working in agriculture or forest-related businesses can find fulfillment in buying into the environment.”
The technical input of the institute’s national diploma and higher national diploma programmes in its colleges will be increased this year, he stated.
Dr Adepoju added that FRIN will boost its internally generated revenue through ecotourism encouraging visits to its museum and herbarium.
FRIN is the largest research institute owned by the Federal Government with about 15 outstations and seven rural resource centres across the country. The institute also runs academic programmes via its Colleges of Forestry.
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