Assessing Tropical Deforestation and Biodiversity Loss in the Cross River Rainforest of Nigeria

The Cross River Rainforest of South Eastern Nigeria is one of Africa’s last remaining areas of pristine tropical high forest, extremely rich in a wide variety of flora and fauna species, and is among the twenty five biodiversity hotspots in the world. The forest has important biophysical properties which affect local, regional and global environmental quality. Using a combination of document research, GIS report, field observations, interviews and focus group discussions, the study reveals that the ecological integrity of this forest is being seriously threatened by a myriad of human activities, such as unsustainable agricultural practices, illegal logging, population explosion/expansion of human settlements, construction of highways, mining activities, and high unemployment/pressure on natural resources. All the above factors have combined to impact heavily on the depletion and extinction of valuable flora and fauna species in the region. Rigorous research-based innovative forestry and biodiversity policies and programmes, forest restoration initiatives, community-based forest management, and sustainable land use practices are recommended to save the Cross River Rainforest from total destruction.


Introduction
Tropical rainforests are "the most species-rich natural environments on Earth, and have extremely important biophysical properties which affect local, regional and global environmental quality" (WWF/ODNRI, 1989: p. 1). Terborgh & Schaik (2002: p. 4) maintain that 75% or more of the Earth's biological diversity resides in the tropics. Oates (2002: p. 65), comment that the Cross River Rainforest of South Eastern Nigeria is a global biodiversity hotspot and region of species endemism. Unfortunately, tropical rainforests especially in West Africa are under increasing pressure from growing human populations, and from the consequent demands for new land for agriculture, urbanization, and industrial development (Burley, 1997). Ojong (1996: p. 148) observes that "over 90% of the rainforest of South Eastern Nigeria has been devastated through massive illegal logging activities, careless deforestation, urbanization, subsistence farming and plantation agriculture. What is left is less than 10% from which the Cross River National Park (CRNP) was established under decree 36 of 1991 to conserve its biodiversity." Prior to the advent of colonialism in Nigeria in the 1800s, different ethnic or tribal kingdoms existed and had land boundaries that protected their intact natural resources from external exploitation and misuse. Nigeria's rainforest was thus blessed with various flora and fauna species. For flora, examples include trees such as Baillonella toxisperma, Pterocarpus osun, Brachystegia spp., Etandrophragma spp., Terminalia ivorensis, Milicia excels, Poga Oleosa, Piptandeniastrum africanum, etc. For fauna, examples include Panthera pardus (Leopard), Gorilla, Elephants, Chimpanzees, Buffaloes, Potamochoerus porcus (Bush Pig), Papio Anubis (Baboon), assorted monkey species, etc. The British colonization of Nigeria, and subsequent nationalization and commercialization of forest resources culminated in community alienation in forest management and the emergence of a culture of utilitarianism and recklessness in the use and management of these resources. Government and private forest resources exploitation initiatives (e.g. commercial timber logging in government forest reserves), exacerbated overexploitation of these resources. The above is the colonial root of deforestation activities in Nigeria, which have remained unchanged even after Nigeria's national independence on October 1 st , 1960.
During British colonial rule, a forest policy was imposed which nationalized over 80% of communal forest lands by way of Government Forest Reserves, leaving the balance as community forest. Marguba (2003: p. 19 "The tropical logger is not popular in today's society. The uncontrolled felling of trees, particularly in the Amazon Basin, has given him a bad name. The colonial administration and its successor states were (and are) aware of the importance of forest management and conservation of trees. At the same time, they knew that logging had to be supported and were careful to cooperate with the timber companies…The use of timber for firewood, house construction, tools, weapons, furniture and so on must be as old as civilization itself. The abundance of trees in the forest belt of West Africa, stretching from Sierra Leone right down to Angola and South thereof, lend themselves to these activities" (Brandler, 1993: p. 76 There is growing international concern on the shrinking nature of Cross River  Dunn & Otu (1996: p. 35) attribute the alarming rate of deforestation in South Easter Nigeria to the failure of government policy, quest for government revenue and the pegging of budgetary revenue targets that are tied to forest exploitation. The influence of forestry practices from some neighboring countries in West Africa also has negative impacts on forestry practices in South Eastern Nigeria. For instance, in neighboring Ivory Coast, the Government has been pursuing since independence, destructive forestry practices so as to earn foreign exchange and tax revenues (World Bank, 1985: p. 2). The World Bank maintains that "…loggers continue to exploit the remaining forests, more or less uncontrolled, and farmers have followed roads developed for logging operations establishing cocoa, coffee, and food crops, with the wide spread practice of slash and burn farming. Such intrusions have also begun in the classified forest reserves and national parks. Government now estimates that this process transforms about 0.4 million hectares of unspoiled high forest per year" (World Bank, 1985: p. 2). IUCN (1996: p. 1) maintain that colonial nationalization of much of the world's forest and poor forest management practices by Forestry Departments in developing countries is responsible for the alarming rate of tropical deforestation. Bromley (1992: p. 77) similarly observes that "Governments who have appropriated forests from local level management bodies-primarily villages-and have failed to manage them in an effective manner have created de jure state property, but de facto open access. The absence of effective management and enforcement has simply turned the forest into a resource that can be exploited on a first come, first served basis." On the way forward to deal with tropical deforestation especially in Africa, Besong (1997: p. 7) maintains that "Government Departments alone can no longer undertake all the monitoring and coordination of forestry activities because of limitations in personnel and financing. New arrangements should involve all the actors (major users) who should contribute personnel and/or finances. Local communities can, for example, contribute man power for monitoring purposes although they will require training." Arguing in the same vein, Lengeler (1997: p. 43) opines that "local communities should be involved in forest management in the tropics and given some training skills to enable them perform such roles well. " Bisong (1994) recommends agricultural intensification in forest communities as panacea for slash and burn agriculture which is the greatest cause of tropical deforestation". This paper assesses the threats and current level of deforestation in the rainforest region of Cross River State and its biodiversity conservation impacts, and stresses the need for local, national and global action to save this forest, in view of its status as a global biodiversity hotspot and region of species endemism.

Geographical Location
Nigeria is located on the West Coast of Africa, between latitudes 4˚15'N (the

Data Collection and Analysis
The study was cross sectional, cutting across government forest reserves and community forests in Cross River State. The methods used for data collection comprise document research at Cross River State Forestry Commission (CRSFC) and Cross River National Park (CRNP), and participatory rural appraisal exercises (e.g. historical timeline assessment of deforestation, focus group discussions, interviews and field observations), and GIS (Global Information System) reports. For the quantitative data, responses from administered questionnaire were entered into SPSS (version 17) for statistical analysis. All variables were coded with measurements defined as nominal, ordinal and scale. Based on the nature of research questions for the study, descriptive statistics were used in the analysis, to look for patterns in the data set.

Results
Findings reveal that tropical deforestation in the Cross River rainforest (South Eastern Nigeria) has over the years been exacerbated by a combination of human factors.  Table 1).
The forest vegetation map of Cross River State (see Figure 1)

Establishment of Government Agricultural Plantations
From the colonial days up to the present period, several tree crops such as rub-

Slash and Burn Agricultural Practices in Rural Communities
The

Construction of Highways and Feeder Roads
Government development plans and determination to link all forest/local communities with good roads has impacted negatively on forest resources exploitation. For instance, the opening of the Calabar-Ikom-Ogoja-Obudu road (from north to south of the state), and a network of adjoining feeder roads have exposed hitherto inaccessible and intact forest to reckless illegal logging activities and hunting of wild animals. The ubiquity of logging roads, opened by logging companies is further attracting farmers and migrant populations to open new farm lands and hunting grounds in biodiversity rich pristine forest areas. In 2016, the government of Cross River State came up with a new proposal to construct a superhighway across the core area of the remaining pristine rainforest in the state. The Federal Ministry of Environment has on three occasions rejected all EIA (Environmental Impacts Assessment) reports on the superhighway, and NGOs, forest communities, and the international community have all protested against the project in different ways. So far the government of Cross River State is still determined to carry on with the project. The proposed superhighway poses the greatest threat to the rainforest of Cross River State in recent time.

Mining and Quarrying Activities
Granite quarrying activities in places like Old Nnetim, Obung, Nsan, Akamkpa urban, Awi, Mbarakom, Uyanga, Ojor, etc.; and mining of limestone for the cement factory at Mfamosing, Aningeje, Mbobui, Abiati, and other Ojuk clan villages, have contributed immensely towards serious deforestation and depletion of valuable flora and fauna species in the affected communities. The absence of official regulations controlling ecological abuses by the quarrying and mining companies involved, have also aided rapid deforestation in the region. The Cross River State Government is hardly committed to the strict enforcement of environmental impacts assessment laws of Nigeria across the state. Hardly are quarrying and mining companies engaging in forest ecological restoration activities to address their negative environmental impacts.

Hunting by Bush Burning
The practice of some local people and communities setting large portions of primary forest ablaze for hunting purposes (to kill wild animals), has also impacted negatively on the integrity of Cross River State's rainforest. The tragedy of the foregoing deforestation and loss of biodiversity problems in Cross River State, lies not in the excesses of the perpetrators, but in the failure of government to enforce the appropriate forestry and wildlife management laws of the state.

Common Property Regimes and Open Access
The communal ownership of forest lands designated as Community Forests have also not helped matters. Such forests belong to all citizens of the affected communities, and so everybody have rights to go into the forest and undertake the extraction of timber and non timber forest products as they like. One can clear primary forest for new farm lands as much as what one desires. This free for all approach to forest resources management has culminated seriously in the present level of deforestation in the region.

The Impacts of Deforestation on the Flora and Fauna Resources of Cross River State
On the strength of the foregoing deforestation activities in Cross River State, there are serious consequences on the flora and fauna resources of the region. On the floral side of the coin, certain government forest reserves have either become seriously depleted, or wiped out almost completely. Dunn & Otu (1996: p. 35) report the case of Ekinta Government Forest Reserve in Akamkpa Local Government Area of the State: "Ekinta, an 11,000 hectares forest reserve in the South East of the State, provides a good example of accelerated high forest loss as a consequence of forest policy that favored forest exploitation and the establishment of fast growing exotic species. The reserve was good quality high forest until the late 1970s. The government owned logging company-SEROMWOOD, cleared much of the forest in a salvage cut and opened up the entire reserve with a network of roads. A large number of farmers (from the then south-west of CRS, now the neighboring State of Akwa Ibom) were permitted to move into the area to establish plantations of Gmelina arborea using the taungya system. However, due to a shortage of funds for seedlings and supervision, virtually no plantations were established. In less than a decade, 90% of the forest reserve had become cassava farms instead of forest plantations, with hardly a tree standing." Valuable timber species such as Iroko (Milicia excels), Mahogany (Khaya spp), Black Afara (Terminalia ivorensis), Mimusups (Baillonella toxisperma), White Afara (Terminalia superba), Cedar (Lovoa trichilloides), Ebony, etc. that used to be very common in Cross River State, are now extremely scarce and difficult to find. If available, the prices are so astronomical that only those at the upper echelon of society can afford to buy them. In some local communities, people are beginning to roof their houses with Gmelina arborea, a thing that now surprise the local people themselves. Some people who are crazy of the above high profile timber species are beginning to import wood from the neighboring Republic of Cameroon for domestic furniture use.
On the fauna side, several wild animal species have become extinct, some critically endangered, and some that were hitherto common have also become en-

Discussion
This  (2002) and Alonso (2004) agree that wherever there is decrease in land under forest cover, the concomitant effect is biodiversity loss or negative change in species evenness and richness. Similarly, Lord & Norton (1990) are in support that agricultural land clearing activities culminate in biological species extermination and scarcity. Stephanie Flasse, one of the DFID consultants (GIS specialist) involved in the second phase of a DFID-assisted Cross River State Forestry Project (1999Project ( -2002, commented in the DFID final project report (prepared in 2003), that Cross River State forests (under current rate of deforestation) will be exhausted by 2033. This has serious implications on the region's biodiversity and the sustainability or survival of endemic primate species like the Cross River Gorilla (Gorilla gorilla diehli), Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), Drills (Mandrillus leucophaeus, and other assorted monkey species. It is important that the remaining tropical rainforest in South Eastern Nigeria (the Cross River Rainforest) be protected in view of its global biodiversity hotspot status and ecological importance. Agbogidi (2011) and Sale et al. (2008) comment that unsustainable human land use activities and the disappearance of many ecologically valued tree species across Nigeria is a well known phenomenon. There is however an urgent need for all stakeholders to reverse this culture

Conclusion and Recommendation
Nigeria has lost over 90% of her pristine rainforest with an annual deforestation rate of 3.5% or 400,000 hectares per annum. The Cross River Rainforest, a biodiversity hotspot and Nigeria's last remaining area of pristine rainforest is also experiencing severe threats through various human deforestation mechanisms.
These mechanisms comprise colonial forest policy failures, poor public forest management practices, unsustainable/illegal logging activities, establishment of government agricultural plantations, slash and burn agricultural practices in local communities, population explosion/influx of migrants to forest areas, establishment of new rural settlements, construction of highways/feeder rural roads, opening of logging roads, quarrying/mining activities, common property regime/open access to forest resources, and unrestricted hunting of wild animals and other extractive activities. As a consequence, several flora and fauna species have become seriously endangered, and some extinct. Nigeria's deforestation thus has local, national, regional and global ecological implications if current trends are not reversed.
To reverse the above deforestation trend, the following measures should be taken: 1) Change in forest policy-from current centralization/government mono- 2) Ban further logging activities in the remaining rainforest and pursue aggressive reforestation programs in degraded forest reserves.
3 While the above recommendations may not provide all the answers, it is hoped that careful and aggressive implementation will go a long way in charting a new course for effective forest management and biodiversity conservation in Cross River State (South Eastern Nigeria).