Victor Adekunle, a professor of Forest Inventory and Ecology at the Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA), has raised concerns about the continued misuse of Nigeria’s forest resources.
Adekunle lamented this at the institution’s 186th inaugural lecture, where he discussed ‘The Nigerian Unprotected Protected Areas: Forest Conservation and Assessment, the Conditio Sine Qua Non.”
He specified that the misuse occurs through mining, farming, and the extraction of timber and non-timber products. The professor added the unsupervised real estate development, which endangers the forests’ lives.
Recommending solutions to these issues, he mentioned that the government should establish protected areas, which should be managed legally to promote forest conservation.
He stated that these protected areas can contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals by providing employment, eradicating hunger and poverty, and generating income from timber and non-timber products.
