Where have all our woods gone? Consequences of uncontrolled tree logging in Anambra State, Nigeria

Tree cutting is necessary to produce wood for construction, paper, firewood and other applications, but unregulated logging to serve immediate community demands destroy the indispensable roles trees play and this can potentially lead to negative impacts on ecosystems and the environment as a whole. More than 25 percent of the land on Earth is covered by forests, but millions of hectares of this ecosystem are destroyed every year, according to the University of Michigan. Over half of the world’s forests are found in just seven countries: Brazil, Canada, China, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Indonesia, Russia, and the United States.

Large scale tree cutting can lead to deforestation, a transformation of an area from forest to terrain with little vegetation. Plants create oxygen and absorb greenhouse gases. The destruction of trees may, therefore, encourage global warming. Changing temperatures can alter which organisms can survive in an ecosystem. Population growth among humans negatively impacts biomes around the world. Expanding human civilization affects grassland biomes – characterized by large areas of land where grasses are the primary form of plant life – in specific ways. The grazing land for many species of animals, which in turn provide a food source for larger predators, is often at risk because of human expansion into these areas. Everyone knows that trees create shade and that the air around a tree tends to be cooler. This is partly because the tree transpires water into the atmosphere. When the tree is gone, the surrounding air is drier and hotter. This makes it harder for foliage and plants that depend on water and the shade from trees to survive.

Cutting trees can result in the loss of habitat for animal species, which can harm ecosystems. According to National Geographic, "70 percent of Earth’s land animals and plants live in forests, and many cannot survive the deforestation that destroys their homes." Tree roots help bind the soil and prevent it from washing away. When the roots are no longer there, soil erosion can become extreme, especially during heavy rainstorms. Catastrophic landslides can level houses, and large soil displacement events can make land unusable for building as well as for agriculture. Trees are an important carbon sink. A single tree can absorb 48 pounds of carbon dioxide a year. It also filters the air by absorbing other pollutants. When the tree is gone, the carbon dioxide it would have used for photosynthesis either remains in the atmosphere or gets absorbed by the oceans, which are becoming increasingly acidified and less able to absorb more. Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas. It helps create a "ceiling" in the atmosphere that prevents ground heat from dissipating into space. In other words, deforestation leads directly to global warming, which is one of the most serious ecological issues facing modern humanity.

Greenhouse gases such as methane and carbon dioxide are gases that trap heat in Earth's atmosphere, leading to global climate change. Fortunately, in addition to releasing oxygen and water into the atmosphere, trees also absorb carbon dioxide. While trees are still living, they function as efficient greenhouse gas filters. The moment they are cut down, the carbon dioxide that was stored in their trunks and leaves is released into the atmosphere, further contributing to the buildup of greenhouse gases. After trees are removed from a large piece of land, the carbon dioxide in that area can no longer be absorbed as it was before.

The aesthetic nature of any environment is in relation to its landscape formation. The presence of thousands of abandoned mine pits as observable in mining zone has tampered with the serenity of the region. As difficult as restoration of landscape due to mining is, one viable option still remains, waste filling of the pits once mining is over. However, this is unattainable because most miners are not landowners and so care less about the community (Ogola et al., 2001). With the world human population being on continuous rise couple with advancement in technology and innovations, there has been concomitants decline in environmental quality and life sustenance ability (Kogbe and Obialo, 1976). Mining activities such as excavation has exposed all the landscape to severe erosion as its prevalent underlain by crystalline rocks where quarrying activities occur on daily basis.

The distortion of natural environmental equilibrium via exploration of minerals has initiated a number of geological hazards such as flooding, landslide and subsidence. Certainly, this altered geological structure is not without consequences as it could lead to loss of life and properties. In Nigeria, Niger delta and Iva valley in Enugu, cases of subsidence have been reported due to oil drilling and coal mining (Aigbedion, 2005). Undoubtedly, most communities near mining sites have witnessed slight earth movement via blasting of rock (Ajakaiye, 1985). As mining involves the removal of large amount of soil which contains radioactive materials, the possibility of their intake by human through food chain is understandable. Following the build-up of these chemical agents in the biosphere (air, water and soil) against biotic life, their radiation effects is said to be concentration dependents (Ademola, 2008). In Jos Plateau State, the associative by-product of tin mining such as monazite, pyrochlore and xenotime are radioactive. Some remnant of these materials which were abandoned at the closure of mining operation still exact its effect till date. Møller and Mousseau (2013); Aliyu and Ramli (2015) opined that the emitted radiation induces change in immunology, physiology, point mutation and increase in disease frequency. However, there have been records of mysterious death by people who are believed to have used monazite soil for house construction (Aigbedion, 2005).

Although the incidence of heavy rainfalls and flooding is rampant in most Nigerian cities, human displacement has become a daylight nightmare for affected communities in Nigeria. According to Displacement tracking Matrix (IOM DTM, 2021) in October 2020, an estimated 111 people were displaced in Markurdi LGA of Benue state between September 28 and October 4 as a result of heavy rains and flooding. Similarly, in Nassarawa LGA of Nassarawa state, 138 persons were displaced due to heavy rainfall and flooding in 2020. In Kastina State, Ingawa LGA abou 176 individuals were also displaced due to flooding. Zamfara State also accounts for about 1,710 people that were rendered homelss by flooding. In Kogi State, there were more than 50,000 cases of internal migrants following the Septenmber 2020 flood resulting from the overflow of the Niger River. In Jigawa State, the Emergency and Management Agency reported that a total of 50,000 houses were destroyed from annual flooding. The destruction of houses has resulted in an estimated 215, 833 new displacements. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported that a total of 5200 houses were destroyed in Danbatta and Rogo of Kano State as aresult of seasonal flooding. The destruction of houses has resulted in an estimated 22,447 new displacement. The numbers of affected states in Nigeria and internal migration have continued to rise, Borno State, Monguno LGA to be precise has 3,764 homeless persons. Maiduguri, Kebbi, Kwara, Sokoto, Kaduna, Katsina. Plateau and was also affected (IFRC, 2020). In Plateau there was a reported incidence of icefall in Qua’An Pan LGA. In Maiduguri there were reported cases of heavy windstorms and rainfall that affected 1,084 presons and rainstorms in Kebbi destroyed more than 50 houses (Guardian 2020). Lagos state has also experienced flooding that displaced 20 families at Orille-Agege (Floodlist 2020). In Eket LGA of Akwa Ibom State, 300 people have been rendred homeless due to heavy rains and flooding destroying 100 houses. With majority of vulnerable becoming homeless, there are over thousands of people dying from climate-heightened events globally with associated infrastructural damage (Dewan, 2015; Parvin et al, 2016).