RAINFOREST RESOURCE & DEVELOPMENT CENTRE (RRDC)
C/O His Highness, Okim NTUI OJONG NYAMBI, Chairman, Traditional Rulers Joint Council of Chiefs of Effi Community, Okuni, Ikom Local Government Area, Cross River State, Nigeria.
Email: odeyoyama@hotmail.com, Mobile Tel: +234 (0) 8035033824
A Nigerian NGO for the Environment, Development & Information Delivery
Our Ref: RRDC – 2021/011 Date: 11 – 05 – 2021
His Excellency
Governor Ben Ayade
Governor of Cross River State
Governor’s Office
Calabar, Cross River State, Nigeria.
Phone/WhatsApp: +234 (0) 0803 5560 233
Email: ayadeleon@gmail.com
Your Excellency, Sir,
THE PROSPECT OF IMMINENT COLLAPS OF A VALUABLE PRISTINE
TROPICAL HIGH FOREST ECOSYSTEM :- ENCROACHMENT ON OKUNI
COMMUNITY FOREST AND THE CROSS RIVER SOUTH FOREST RESERVE
We have the honour to write, most respectfully, to officially notify Your Excellency of
the imminent dangers, to the highly celebrated REDD Programme and the Climate Change initiative of the Government of Cross River State of Nigeria. It is evident that these programmes will without fail, collapse, if the remaining stock of the pristine Tropical High Forest ecosystem of the State is permitted to be destroyed.
Our preliminary field investigation has revealed serious threats of destruction of the Okuni Community Forest and the adjoining Cross River South Forest Reserve. This unwholesome development, which has arisen in the last few weeks, is being perpetrated by a criminal cartel of illegal loggers. The said illegal loggers had previously, completely destroyed the BOKI and BAKOR – IKOM community forests as well as the adjoining Afi Forest Reserve in the state.
The indications are that these threats would lead into very dangerous incursion upon the Oban Division of the Cross River National Park, a property of the Federal Government of Nigeria, duly established under the law, CAP N65, laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. It is evident that if this unfortunate development is not nipped in the bud promptly, it would lead to the complete failure of the REDD progrmme of the Government of Cross River State and the Global Climate Change programme, into which the affected community forest and the Cross River National Park are jointly integrated in this zone.
Sadly, the loss of these forest estates would in the long run lead to massive loss of the international support that Cross River State has been benefitting over the years and would equally thwart what the state stand to gain in the next foreseeable future, from meaningful bilateral relationships with
international concerns.
Sir, from the foregoing, it would certainly be in the greater interest of Your Excellency’s Government and the people of the State, to stop forthwith, this imminent threat to the environmental resources of Cross River State; and the current posture of the State as a key stakeholder in the global campaigns against Climate Change.
OUR PRAYER
Our prayer to Your Excellency therefore, is that, You should without fear or favour, act urgently to stop forthwith, this imminent threat on the Okuni Community Forest, the Cross River South Forest Reserve and the Cross River National Park complex at Oban.
We thank Your Excellency for the anticipated kind, prompt and effective response to this imminent danger.
We remain Sir,
Yours faithfully,
Odey Oyama
Executive Director.
#Save Cross River Forests, Park,Reserve
