CALABAR — THE Cross River State Government has given out N16 million to 378 communities as royalties and dividends of their partnership with the forestry commission in forest resource management.
Flagging off the forestry commission year 2003 royalty payment to the communities in which 20 of the them were presented with their cheques, the state governor, Mr. Donald Duke urged communities in the forest zone to join hands with government to preserve the environment “because the future generation needs to be aware of the potentials of the forest.”
Duke told them to be dogmatic and serious about the crusade in “curbing the unnecessary felling of wood which is unfair for children yet unborn,” adding that the state government will be passionate and stop at nothing to see that the commission enforces its work.
He said he could not imagine how the environment would have “looked like if our forebears had exploited them by felling all the tress thereby giving place to erosion to destroy the area and render them homeless,” saying that they should be grateful to the Almighty God because loggers do not have interest in their development but only in destroying the forests.
On his part, Chairman of the Cross River State Forestry Commission, Mr. Boniface E. Archibong explained that the royalty paid the communities were derived from wood felled legally from the forest. He said the “community is entitled to 70 per cent of the proceeds while government is entitled to 30 per cent when wood is extracted legally from a community's forest.
Extraction from
government forest reserve is shared on the basis of 50/50 per cent between community and government while extraction from government plantation is shared on 80/20 per cent ratio between government and the community.
Archibong disclosed that the formula resulted in the build-up of N16,880,235 million for the year 2003, which was disbursed to 378 communities across the state, adding that the commission which was established in 1999 has developed and maintained 3,909 hectares of teak plantation across the state, 343 km of road side planting along major highways and 178.5 hectares of open space planting.
He further stated that the commission had in 2004 established 1.500 hectares of teak plantation across the state and also embarked on urban beautification projects and open space planting in Calabar, Ugep, Ikom, Ogoja, Obudu and the Ranch Resort.
