Coalition of NGOs intensifies advocacy to protect forests

Forests
By Chidinma Agu
Lagos, May 25, 2018 (NAN) Prof. Odigha Odigha, the Chairman, Coalition of Environmental Non-Governmental Organisations, says the coalition is intensifying its advocacy to protect the nation’s forests.

Odigha said this on Friday in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos.

According to him, the advocacy is necessary to sustain the tempo of current efforts to protect the forests from degradation.

“Construction works for infrastructure development are the major challenges facing the survival of our forests.

“It does not imply that infrastructural development should not happen, but it should occur simultaneously with strategies to preserve the forests.

“That is why we keep on insisting that Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) should be carried out and approved before embarking on any infrastructure development project.

“The EIA will specify what needs to be done to balance the infrastructure development project with the environment and keep everything surrounding it intact,’’ he said.

Odigha said that if EIA recommendations for the remediation of the environment were carried out, the problems of deforestation and environmental degradation would not arise.

He said that it was always harmful to refrain from carrying out thorough EIA and putting the recommended measures in place before embarking on infrastructure development projects.

Odigha said that the coalition was also striving to ensure that conservation and preservation areas across the country were not encroached upon for any reason whatsoever.

He said that pragmatic efforts should made to improve the quality of life of people in urban areas by establishing of more green areas in residential areas. (NAN)
ACA/MOL/OOK
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Edited by Mustapha Lamidi and Dayo Komolafe