Nasarawa’s endless charcoal business…How it fuels climate change

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A vehicle conveying sacks of charcoal in Nasarawa State

The relentless felling and burning of trees for charcoal and the usage of the product is taking a toll on the environment. But what is the government doing to end this practice in Nasarawa State?

NKRUMAH BANKONG-OBI/Lafia

Hajara Aliyu, a housewife, sets about preparing supper for her family, as the intense sun slowly begins the journey to set. From her purse, she counts out a few dirty naira notes and calls out to 10-year-old daughter, Halima, to go and buy charcoal. Behind her house, a neighbour simply called Mama Chichi buys the produce in large sacks from Akwanga, and retails at 100, 200, 500 and 1000 naira, respectively. This had been the practice since gas was priced out of her reach and kerosene became a rare source of fuel in her locality in Lafia, the capital of Nasarawa State.

Bent over a locally fabricated stove, known in the area as called Abacha stove, Rifkatu Musa, a mother of three in Keffi thanks her stars for the invention of the local stove. A few days ago, she tried to purchase gas but after drawing up the budget she required to fill her seven-kilogram gas cylinder, she gave the idea another thought and instead bought charcoal worth 2000 naira. “All other sources of cooking energy have become a luxury now. Charcoal is the only one still within reach for those of us whose income is on the lower rungs,” Rifkatu, an administrative staff at the Nasarawa State University, Keffi said.

In Garaku, Kokona Local Government of the State, the situation is even exacerbated. Here is the main hub where charcoal is produced. The burning process is long and tedious, Adamu Sani, a dealer tells TheNEWS. “We cut down trees far in the bush, set fire to them and control how they burn until we are left with large and small piece of charcoal. It is almost like the way you collect honey from a beehive. Sometimes we break the coal into pieces for the purpose of conveying them to the area where the buyers from the towns and cities can come and evacuate them.

Charcoal stove

Our reporter sought to know what is being done to check the excess destruction of the forest. “Artisanal charcoal producers are causing a lot of problem,” an official of the NASREA told this medium, adding that “We do our best as policy organisation and the police of the environment. But there is nothing we can do because we aren’t everywhere. The challenge of stopping these people is enormous, some ask you, ‘if we stop this business (charcoal trade), how do you want us to earn a living or how do we cook our meals,” the official who declined to be named because he had no authorisation to speak to the media, told our reporter.

Indeed, the enormity of the practice forced the government to ban charcoal production in the State two years ago. A source told this medium that the practice is prevalent in all parts of the Nasarawa State, which necessitated the ban state-wide. But the ban has not achieved the desired result. “They carry this thing (charcoal) at all times of the day. If you stand somewhere on Jos Road in Lafia, you will see the number of vehicles leaving to Abuja and other places with charcoal. It is just as if there is no ban at all,” an environmental activist who desired to be unnamed said. Last year, Lafia Local government Council also announced a ban on charcoal, confirming fears that an earlier ban by the State government has not yield the desired result. Even that too has achieved little.

In Obi Local Government, our reporter saw swathes of land that had become bare as a result of tree-feeling. Yet from that locality, vehicles loaded with charcoal and other wood-based products depart daily for Lafia, Abuja and other places. “We use only charcoal and firewood to cook here,” Aisha Yusuf, a housewife told TheNEWS, noting that it is a cultural practice that was handed to her generation from their forebears. She adds that those who sell, do so to eke a living. The extent of loss of covers is compounded by time-honoured coal mining, cultivation of cops and the recent exploration of oil on large swathes of land along the Obi-Keana-Lafia corridor by the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC and its contractors. It is unclear if the oil company has made arrangement to replant trees cut down at its Ebenyi-A oil exploration site.

Already, there are strong indications that open landscapes, bereft of nature’s covers are taking tool on the environment. Gullies are ripping the earth from Karu to Lafia and elsewhere in the State. P M.NEWS, our sister publication reported recently pmnewsnigeria.com/living-in-gullies of the craters in Karu, resulting from lack of covers to prevent erosion. In Lafia, the State capital, the devasting effects of gullies in being felt behind the Emir’s Palace, Rice Mill, Angwan Nungu areas, etc. Lafia East and environs.
Jonathan Ortoho who was the director of Erosion Control had acknowledged that climate change resulting partly from activities of people are responsible for opening the earth up in a dangerous way. “The issue of gully erosion in Nasarawa State has been a problem. It is a problem in the sense that we are in the Middle Belt and the impact of climate change – rains do not come when they’re supposed to come. They only come within a short time with very high intensity within the duration. So, as a result of that, incidents of infiltration become very low and water is left to flow on the surface – coupled with human activities, the issue of gully erosion in Nasarawa State becomes aggravated.

It is not only gullies that have shown the earth’s rebellious disposition to the abuse. The number of houses being blown down by windstorms have also risen. This year alone, over 50 houses have been destroyed by wind in Lafia and Doma alone. In Keffi, electric poles have been pulled down dues high wind speed. “The effects of the absence of trees is all-glaring. Trees serve as wind-breakers, apart from their main role of being providers of the air we breath or storers of carbons. Expect more houses to go down, if we don’t go back to the ancient practice of leaving nature alone,” an Environmental Science lecturer at the Federal University of Lafia, who preferred to be unnamed, told this medium. He advised governments at all levels to immediately begin to prioritize relevant trees to curtail the rising tempers of winds across the State.

A vehicle conveying sacks of charcoal in Nasarawa State

Haliru Dole, the State Coordinator of NASREA declined to speak to our reporter, instead directing TheNEWS to seek answers from the Ministry of Environment in Abuja. Mails sent to the Ministry have gone unanswered. But TheNEWS learnt that the bulk of the regulation of the environment is left to the Nasarawa State Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources. Federal regulatory agencies cite the fact that the Land Use Act vests the powers for the control of land on the state governments.

Officials at the Nasarawa State Ministry of Environmental say a lot is being done to check the menace. Easily, they flash the ban on charcoal production as well as Executive Order 2 which the governor, Abdullahi Sule, an engineer, signed into law in 2022, to form the state’s environmental policy framework and how the Ministry implements environment-related policies and programmes.

Garba Mohammed, the permanent secretary of the Ministry says the Executive Order has been a powerful weapon “Earnestly, in terms of what you have just said[policy thrust of his Ministry as regards tree-felling], we as a Ministry, we are given that mandate, especially in the Executive Order 2 of 2022 that was signed into law by His Excellency, Engineer Abdullahi Sule, the governor of Nasarawa, State to serve as a policy that guides us in whatever we are doing as it concerns mining. So, for the forests, we have been telling them, advising them, that anytime they want to mine, they should consult the Ministry so that we tell them what and what they need to do,” he said adding that challenges still however persist, especially with the miners and charcoal makers [see interview below].

As charcoal dealers grow their businesses and rake profit, it is the environment that suffers. And because the land cannot suffer alone, it sometimes vents destructive anger on the people.

Related News

It may not take long before the semi-arid status of Nasarawa State is upgraded to an arid one. The desert encroachment, experts say is being hastened in an alarming speed. The destruction of forest covers is giving accelerated impetus to this disaster. The government’s attempts to end charcoal-making, one of the highest destroyers of forest covers has been more theoretical than practical.

Charcoal Consignments Seen In Nasarawa State Are Impounded – Perm. Sec.

Garba Mohammed, permanent secretary, Nasarawa State Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, tells NKRUMAH BANKONG-OBI about the steps taken to end charcoal production in the state

What is your Ministry doing to stop the cutting of trees for charcoal in the State

As the Ministry of Environment, we have to know what it takes to mitigate the impact of climate change. We have conserve, we need to preserve environmental sustainability. So, how do we do that? One, we do that by making sure that tress are not being cut down indiscriminately. How do you do that? You have to make policies that would make people not to do that. Take for example, the production of charcoal has been banned in Nasarawa State. Invariably, the production of charcoal in commercial quantities has been banned. So, any charcoal that you see is illegal. And we have been telling people, anybody that we see with charcoal it will be impounded. Our forestry officers are there, after impounding, they will take it to and see what the forestry laws says; that person who has the charcoal would be prosecuted based on the dictates of the law. As a state, we doing what it takes to ensure that these people do what they feel like doing. You know these people in the interior, they behave as if it is their personal belonging. They start cutting trees without even informing you.

But in some way, it looks like it is, because the land is theirs?

Basically, the land belongs to the government. The Land Use Act bestows land on the government (state governments). So, anything you are doing, you have to get consent from the government. If you want to cut down trees, you have to know what you want to cut trees down for, maybe you want to build a house. So, we advise that since you want to build a house, anytime you have to cut down trees, you have to think about how to replace the ones you cut down, so that the issue of mitigating the impact of climate change is there in you. the idea of not damaging the forest will be there just like the idea of sustainability will be there as well. That also will preserve and conserve the environment. That is our mandate, especially with the World Bank project, the Agro-climatic Resilience in Semi-Arid Landscapes, AcreSAL project. The World Bank is just trying to see how, in partnership with the State, the issue of conservation, environmental sustainability is looked into.

In 2021, a warehouse was locked up because the owners were producing charcoal in commercial quantities. But now, we see the smaller producers carry the product in trucks. If you stand on the Makurdi-Lafia road, especially in the evenings, you will see the movement of charcoal?

You know our people. It is just like what a philosopher would say; if there are no people who do not go against the laws of society, then invariably, that is no society. That is how you see them in the evenings, especially late nights. The essence is to escape being apprehended. However, we as a Ministry, we are trying to see that our Forestry officers will be there to checkmate so that all these would be in the past. It is a gradual process, we create awareness, sensitize them, we usually go into their crannies to tell them about the danger of what they are doing because this thing they do produces carbon monoxide and carbon monoxide is hazardous to health. That alone should frighten them. we give them that education, make them realize that what they are doing is harmful to our health. What carbon monoxide does is that it enters your system, instead of oxygen, it replaces oxygen which is the good one and before you know it, you may just die. This is one of the things that during our health talks, during our sensitization we usually bring to the fore. We do so to let them have it at the back of their minds that what they are doing is destroying themselves not just the environment.
What is the Ministry and the government doing to provide alternative sources of fuel, especially as those who spoke to me say kerosene and gas are priced-out of their reach?
There are things that the government is doing to provide alternatives to charcoal. We give them stoves. Most of the stoves don’t use kerosene per se. they use other sources to generate power and that is what you need to cook. You don’t necessarily use kerosene to generate energy to cook. You can use other sources like solar and that is what we are doing.

Nasarawa Governor Abdullahi Sule

Do we have statistics to show how any of these stoves have been given out?

For now, I don’t have the data in my memory. I have into our records to give you the exact figure. I don’t want to give you one today and tomorrow I called you back for another.
Your Ministry, through the Forestry Division, is mandated to apprehend offend. But the Forest officers only work in the forests and other conserved areas. What happens to those who succeed to take the charcoal to the highway? The Forestry people are not on the highway?
Sometimes we ask them to go and stay there because if you think that we are always in the forest, invariably, you are just looking at it as if we are just within that area the fellow is operating in. that would be myopic because there are people who know how to do what they doing and go away with it. But we cannot allow them to dot that. So, sometimes we usually ask our forestry officers to be at the roadblocks so that anytime offenders see that our men are there, they will not do what they had been doing in the forestry. And because of manpower, we cannot police the whole stretch, there are certain places they may say, the forestry officers are here, let’s go that way, so if they bring the charcoal out, we grab them at the checkpoints

Tree-cutting is also being exacerbated by the mining companies operating in the State. What are you doing to ensure that the mining companies and individuals conform to the rules?

Earnestly, in terms of what you have just said, we as a Ministry, we are given that mandate, especially in the Executive Order 2 of 2022 that was signed into law by His Excellency, Engineer Abdullahi Sule, the governor of Nasarawa State to serve as a policy that guides us in whatever we are doing as it concerns mining. So, for the forestry, we have been telling them, advising them, that anytime they want to mine, they should consult the Ministry so that we tell them what and what they need to do. But you know how these miners behave. Sometimes it’s only when we go there that we see they have cleared large portions of land. So, we tell them that cutting trees indiscriminately is not allowed in the State. Two, we tell them that anytime they want to mine, they must get consent from the community. And getting that consent is for us to know what goes on there so that no party is surcharged. When you do things right as a miner, you will work towards getting what you want. If you do things legally, even you yourself will be free in your conscience and fearless in your approach because there won’t be any fear of the supervising agencies. As a Ministry, we are trying our best especially in the area of creating awareness on cutting down trees. So, we have been telling them that anytime they want to cut grasses, they should inform us because if we see you cutting grasses, we will apprehend you. so, if you must cut tress, do it minimally. This is because we know there are instances where you must cut grasses, we will make you plant other tress so that as you cut in one place, others would be growing. By the time you finish, the whole place would be a forest again. We know that in the interior areas, there are animals that once you disturb the ecosystem, you won’t see them again.

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