In the CNN Article "Nigeria's Shrinking Rainforest" of 2/26/10, We come to understand the danger that the Nigerian Rainforests are in. Nigeria has one of the fastest rates of Deforestation of any any country, at 3.3%. also, the most bio-diverse areas, specifically the Old Growth Forests, have an even faster rate of deforestation. According to the Team leader of the Task force of Deforestation, if the rate of deforestation is allowed to continue, then there will be no nigerian rainforest in 5 or 6 years. due to these predictions, and the difficulty there is between differentiating between legal and illegal foresting, the government has made all logging illegal through out the rainforest region. however, throughout the south eastern part of the country, logging is the industry available, and most of the people feel that there is little that they can do to survive now that such a law has been past.
This speaks directly to the interaction between the citizens of a country, public policy, and international pressures. The task force of Anti-deforestation was created after the Governor of the Cross River State, the state with 90% of Nigeria's forests, decided that using the forests for carbon credits instead of logging would probably add more long term economic stability to the region. Now, the sale of Carbon credits for a year is a rather new concept, brought about by the increasing importance of the Green Movement and Global warning. With the people against this, it becomes a very interesting set of influencing forces that will effect the region.
Image from Roehampton University
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