‘We care for the forest’

As the business booms, the firewood dealers have claimed they are environmentally friendly in their chosen venture. The place is a beehive of activities with trucks of different makes and sizes loading firewood for delivery to retailers who are also enjoying high patronage due to the scarcity and high cost of kerosene. According to them, what they are selling is dried and not fresh firewood so as to conserve the environment.
The major trading point of firewood is just as you are approaching the town of Birnin Gwari, and the operators are not the unschooled adults who collect old, dried and fallen tree branches which they sell to earn a living.
But this group of men whose means of livelihood is the trade of collecting, cutting and selling of firewood by the road side are unique in their conservation style.
One of the dealers, Musa Ibn Musa Kwaga said: “The most cherished commodity and our stock in trade – firewood – is mostly resorted to by many due to the scarcity of kerosene even though Nigeria is an oil exporting country.”
He said they have learnt a lot from the media on how to preserve the environment.
He said they do not cut down new, young and adult trees, but dead tree trunks or branches that fall off naturally which they pick and split into various sizes.
Musa said they use carts to transport the firewood to their points of sale and split them into pieces to sell to customers.
According to him, the buoyant buyers buy within and around the town for their domestic or business uses respectively. Firewood sellers scramble with the poor of the area in picking the wood from the forest after a heavy wind or downpour.
Kwaga said they cut the wood and pay labourers that bring them to the selling point. At the selling point, the dealers have to split the wood further to meet the needs of their different customers.
He said their main customers are trailer and truck drivers who buy in large quantities for their households or for sale.
He said they sell a pack between N1,800 to N2,000 respectively.
Although Kwaga does not deal in charcoal, another thriving business in forest based communities, he said a bag sells between N800 and 1,000 depending on the demand and supply of the commodity.
He said they are organised and work round the clock to stop people from encroaching into the forest.