What is it about?
Post-SDGs, the literature from Sub-Saharan Africa on legal and governance aspects of forestry has mainly analysed forest law enforcement, governance and trade (FLEGT) initiatives. Aimed at eradicating illegalities in the tropical timber trades, FLEGT interventions have undoubtedly helped to advance sustainable forest management (SFM) in the focal countries within the region. Unfortunately, Nigeria has not been able to make strides in reforming forest law and governance and achieving sustainable forest management due to the current challenges of implementation under a federal system of government. Thus, there is a contest of rights and responsibilities between the federal and 36 sub-national governments on the one hand and government authorities and private interests on the other. A major stumbling block is the fact that although the federal government has responsibility for national forestry policy, it lacks the normative powers to operationalize its implementation.
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Why is it important?
Forests are crucial to minimizing the impacts of climate change. However, the annual forest net loss in Nigeria is one of the highest rates globally.
Perspectives
The paper’s main submission is that Nigeria’s forestry policy not only needs to be updated to reflect the forest commitments/targets that the country has accepted under the SDGs and UN Strategic Plan for Forests but that there is also a need for legal reforms to close the gaps between such a policy and ground-level practice in the 36 states. It recommends that the federal government should enact a National Forestry Act to serve as a framework law for harmonizing forestry law regimes nationwide rather than allow the current proliferation of state approaches to continue.
Dr Bola Fajemirokun
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Making the Case for Reforms of Forestry Policy and Law: Lessons and Experiences from Nigeria, Environmental Policy and Law, October 2021, IOS Press,
DOI: 10.3233/epl-201004.
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