Minister, Stop Nigerians Destroying Bakassi Forests!

They cut over 5.000 pieces of wood every week and smuggle the booty by sea to Ekan and Calabar markets in Nigeria.

By Regina Fonjia Leke

The Cameroon government is working hard to restore forest vegetations to their former glory. But not everyone is cooperating. Illegal loggers, timber dealers, government officials, locals and now illicit exploiters from Nigeria have jumped onto the wooden wheel of fortune and are razing the Korup Ndongore Forest Reserve in Ndian Division, South West Region, at any cost.

Government created Korup Ndongore Forest Reserve in 2005. It lies in the Bakassi Peninsula. The reserve could be said to be inching towards disappearance following a decade of uncontrolled timber exploitation.

In Musongiselle, Isangelle, Kombo Etindi, Kombo Abedimo and Ikassa, all villages bordering this forest reserve, villagers told the Green Vision that more than 100 Nigerians with the use of their chain saws cut and transport over 5.000 pieces of wood every week through the sea to the Ekan and Calabar markets.

The activity is visible at the banks of the Ndian River.

The villagers claim that this illegal exploitation of timber especially a wood locally called achi-gum has reached unprecedented levels because government officials who are supposed to be custodians of the forest, have instead connived with criminals to bring down the remnants of the forest.

“Deforestation in the Bakassi maritime area started after the Bakassi dispute and heightened after the peninsula was finally handed over to Cameroon. Exploiters with no permits infiltrate the reserve and cut down trees. The achi-gum has now become very threatened due to reckless exploitation. The illegal timber dealers want to bring down all the wood and we the villagers are helpless because government officials, notably Forestry officials and the Legal Department in Ndian have been collecting huge sums of money from the exploiters and letting them go scot-free. The big guns are working directly with the Nigerians,” an elite of Idibanyanga told The Green Vision.

Another elite in Idibanyanga alleged that villagers from Fonge, Ilor, Dibunda, Musongiselle, Besingi and Mabelebe, who have tried to protest against the destruction of their forest, have been threatened by the Legal Department.

A forest ranger who returned from anti-logging patrol in Musongiselle recently said, “How can you explain the fact that you are sent on patrol to seize wood from illegal exploiters and bring them to the State Counsel for prosecution and your hierarchy calls you on the phone and tells you to release the boat carrying the wood? This made us look like fools in front of the Nigerians because the order was coming from our own boss!”

Wildlife Hotspot

The Korup Ndongore forest is home to several wildlife species, some endangered. The dwarf and Nile crocodiles live there. The forest hosts the Sitantunga, a species of antelope that lives in swampy area, turtles, the white nose monkey, which is a Class A animal totally protected and another species of monkey known as Mona.

According to a Forest Technician, Obelleayukasong Darling Johnson, the depletion of the forest is putting the lives of these species at a high risk of habitat loss.

Obelleayukasong told The Green Vision that the forest reserve has also suffered from poaching. About a year ago, officials from the Divisional Delegation of Forestry rescued 14 crocodiles in Ngumo and sent them back to the wild.

Nigerians are also reportedly exploiting the mangroves in the area as fuel to smoke fish. In addition, the large trees cut down by the illegal loggers fall on the mangroves and destroy them, while some of the loggers clear the mangroves to create paths for easy access to the trees.

Quick Action Needed!

Faced with the wanton destruction of their forests, the villagers in Bakassi are calling for quick government action before it is too late. They want the Minister of Forestry and Wildlife to take urgent action to stem the destruction of the forests and mangroves in Bakassi.

“This nonsense cannot happen in Nigeria. The Nigerian government will not, for any reason, let people enter its forests anyhow and cut down trees the way it is done in Ndongore. Almost every part of our forest has been cut down and the forest is empty. The worst part of it is that it brings no meaningful development to our community. We have no roads, no potable water; to come to our village you need to use a canoe to cross from Bulu, even a bridge to link us is absent. I blame our government for letting this happen,” bemoaned a villager in Ndian Town.

To make matters even more unbearable, there have been cases of kidnappings reportedly carried out by the same Nigerians who are wrecking havoc in the Ndongere Forest Reserve.

No Bribes?

Reacting to allegations of collecting money from illegal timber exploiters to set them free, the Senior State Counsel for Ndian, Justice Ngoe Emmanuel Mbando, said, “No illegal exploiter pays me money. Every money they pay is to the court not to me. There is a law called ‘transaction’ in French which states that if somebody is caught exploiting illegally, the forestry department can negotiate with the logger and he can pay a certain fine to the Ministry and his equipment is seized. But for people who do not understand what the law says, they claim I collect money from these people. They pay to the Delegate who eventually pays into the state treasury. Alternatively, if that transaction does not work, the case is taken to court and the offender can be given a number of months or years to spend in prison. There is always a tendency for people to believe that people are set free after bribing, but no they have met with the obligations of the law.”

Justice Mbando told The Green Vision that the issue of illegal exploitation of timber in Ndian Division is peculiar because the exploitation is broad based.

“We have many difficulties with those who are carrying out this activity. The first difficulty is the terrain; the timber is exploited in the creeks and it is so difficult to get right in there. Even the forces of law and order that we send there sometimes find it difficult to penetrate those areas. Sometimes, the officials find it difficult to arrest these people and even when they do, it is difficult to transport them to town for prosecution,” said the State Counsel.

He said identifying timber exploiters is another problem, “Sometimes you arrest these people and they give you a name, the next day even if you remand them in custody, they forget the name, and as you know, Nigerians do not have identification papers. The point of their penetration is water and sometimes they come overnight. They go into negotiations with the villagers. The truth is that there is nobody who can exploit in the village without seeing the people given that the sound of the chain saw will attract the villagers. If these people are continuously doing this, it means they are working in concert with the villagers for material and financial gains,” Mbando said.

He, however, said that despite the challenges a few persons have been prosecuted.

“There are many in custody. There are some who were brought here and fined and because they were unable to pay, they were sent to jail in Kumba. Sometimes people are caught and we only hear but we never see them. Sometimes it is difficult to transport the wood as exhibit to town, but the wood is not even important to Cameroon, it is soft wood and Cameroonians do not really attach importance to it, in Nigeria it is used to make coffins,” said the State Counsel.

Meanwhile, the Divisional Delegate of Forestry for Ndian, Djofang Louis, denied collaborating with Nigerians in illegal timber exploitation and collecting bribe.

“Those people are criminals (ils sont les deliquants!) I cannot cooperate with them! The issue of deforestation in Ndongore is very vast and complex. It is common knowledge that there are high levels of deforestation in Bakassi but the situation is more complex than any ordinary person can understand. There is exploitation, but everybody is implicated, even the villages because some of them even house these criminals for peanut sums especially in Musongiselle,” said the Delegate.

Djofang said in order to track these illegal operators, his department needs resources, which are largely absent.

“We lack personel, you will not imagine that in a place like Kombo Etindi and Akwa, the Chief of Post is alone; how can they carry out effective patrols? We equally need big boats to transport seized woods; we lack guns to fight these people. I have written to hierarchy severally for resources to be augmented and I have received no reply,” Djofang told The Green Visoin.

He also complained that security issues have hampered their operations.

“If I want to go to Idabato on patrol, I need to call the BIR to be sure the road is safe. Because Nigerians have been capturing people along that road,” said the Delegate.

He added, “We have to take our time when dealing with these people (Nigerians).”

One of the main reasons why the government created the Korup Ndongore reserve was to protect the huge population of mangroves in the area whose population is amongst the highest in the South West and also protect the minerals therein.

With the high level of deforestation going on, fears are rife that the forest might vanish, reason why some inhabitants are calling on the Forestry Minister to visit the area and see for himself the destruction going on there and try to find a quick solution.