Firewood sales thrive in Benue despite ban

The 25-year-old in a bid to earn a living for herself and siblings after the death of her mother during their wandering for shelter, resorted to selling firewood which they normally procure from felling of trees in the rural areas.
“It was after my mother’s death few months ago that I started selling firewood. My entire life was actually into farming but when we were displaced as a result of the crisis in our locality, my mother took to firewood trade to provide for the family in Nasarawa State where we first took refuge.
“We had to relocate to Makurdi as a result of the same crisis that broke in Nasarawa. In the process, my mother died so I had to hire a vehicle to convey her firewood from Nasarawa to Makurdi to enable me continue the trade,” she said.
Barnabas is one among many women in the state who solely relies on firewood as business despite several warnings by the three tiers of government that such trade is a driver of deforestation.
For this young woman, selling firewood is the best option at the moment as it helps to cater for the basic needs of her family, no matter how little the gains she made from daily sales.
She expressed ignorance about the government being against the trade, maintaining that all she wanted is to earn a decent living with the meagre proceeds generated from the business, and to discourage her younger siblings from social vices.
But, the Director of Forestry in the state’s Ministry of Environment, Tyolumun Gever, insisted that ignorance in the eyes of the law does not hold water because what the activities of firewood sellers do to the environment is more harmful than the income they generate from it.
He explained that due to climatic change, trees can live without animals but that animals including man cannot live without trees, thus stressing why the environment should be protected by all as the trees provide the oxygen for man to survive.
Moreover, he warned that people, especially in the rural areas should desist from illegal destruction of trees from which they fetch firewood and also deduce charcoal, adding that the ban on such activities in the state is still in force and that those who have reason to fell trees should follow the legal process.
“There is a ban on production of charcoal in Benue State since 2003. The felling of trees and production of charcoal from same is illegal. What they (firewood sellers) do now is illegal,” he said.
Gever, however, noted that the shortage of manpower in the department of forestry, both at state and local government level, had made it very difficult to monitor illegal activities of the firewood and charcoal sellers.
According to him, there are some plantations provided by government in designated places in all 23 LGAs of the state such as the one located in Agan village in Makurdi for the production of fuel wood in order to discourage people from destroying natural wood but that offenders still preferred to fell trees illegally for greedy purposes.
Worried, the director pointed out two tree species that have become the target of the illegal activities, maintaining that the over harvesting of the ‘prosopis africana’ known in Idoma as Okpehe and in Tiv as Tir Gbaaye, the ‘Parkin biglobosa’ referred to as Nune in Tiv, Dorawa in Hausa and Ugba in Idoma is responsible for the thinner firewood observed in recent times compared to the yesteryears.
He said the species were often preferred by firewood users like garri producers because it burns hot and lasts longer to meet their needs though at the detriment of its economic value to produce timber for buildings or other wood works that add value to humanity.
Although Gever could not mention alternatives that the government has provided to discourage people from the trade, he however claimed that fuel-wood designated areas in all the local councils serve the purpose for those who actually want to do things the right way inorder to keep the environment green.
He disclosed that the offenders have taken advantage of the shortage of forestry manpower to encroach into the designated plantations and allocate same to unsuspecting members of the public for development purposes.
“We have cases of illegal allocation of plots on our plantations. Some of the perpetrators even go as far as posing as director of forestry, they print forms and give them to unsuspecting members of the public for land use. The lack of manpower is causing this trespass as we cannot adequately monitor the entire state,” Gever said.
Nevertheless, he informed that some persons were being prosecuted for the offence  while the ministry has won two of such cases in Ukum and Vandekiya local governments respectively.
The worry at this point is whether government can actually live up to expectation to curb the activities of firewood and charcoal dealers as more people, following the recent herders/farmers crisis in the state, have found solace in the trade.
Theresa Kwande, a firewood seller in Adaka village in Makurdi opined that for government to stop them from the trade, it must provide jobs and cooking alternatives for the indigent population.
Will the government be ready to walk its talk on a green and healthy environment? Surely, time as they say will tell. For now, firewood and charcoal are displayed for sales in every nook and cranny of the state.