Don tasks FG on sustainable forest management

Labode, a Professor of Forest Economics in the Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry, said this at an inaugural lecture he delivered at the Trenchard Hall of the University.
In the lecture entitled: “Imagine a Planet without Forest”, Popoola stressed the need for government to undertake an assessment of forest and biodiversity resources of the country to establish their status.
He called for a diligent implementation of the Presidential Initiative on Afforestation (PIA).
“If the PIA is implemented sincerely it would fast track the recovery of the sector from its current parlous state.”
He said that in spite of the imperfection and anomaly associated with the implementation of the initiative, 40 million seedlings were raised and distributed in the first phase of the programme.
He identified the challenges hindering sustainable forest management to include poor governance, inappropriate and conflicting policies, inadequate institutional capacity, inappropriate technology, low levels of awareness and inadequate stakeholder participation. (NAN)