FAO to establish Forest Reference Emission Level for Nigeria

The Food and Agriculture Organisation has promised to establish a Forest Reference Emission Level for Nigeria.
FREL is a benchmark on which Reduction of Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries is measured.
Suffyan Koroma, the FAO Country Representative in Nigeria, disclosed this in Lafia on Thursday at the opening of a workshop to raise awareness on “National Forest Inventory under REDD programme’’.
Koroma who was represented by Mr John Fonweban, FAO, Forestry Officer REDD + Programme, said the workshop would sample all forest and land use types in Nigeria.
He said the step would enable them to estimate emission factor for accurate figure based on the destruction of the different types of forest in Nigeria.
Koroma said FREL would serve as a standard on which future REDD+ activities would be measured during the implementation of the strategy in the Country.
The FAO official said the workshop had become imperative to raise awareness mostly on data collection because inadequate data had been a major factor militating against forestry development in Nigeria.
He said the socio economic aspect of the inventory was also very crucial as they provided a better understanding of forest resource use by the population.
Koroma said the inventory would also help in the establishment of possible links between forest resources use, employment and livelihoods.
He said: “It is an inventory that covers all the land use types in the sense that you have one hectare of forest destroyed and used for agric plantation you will be able to see how much you are losing.’’
The FAO official said that the workshop would also serve as tools for advocacy and resource mobilisation for sustainable forest management at the country level.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that participants at the two-day workshop were drawn from Ministries of Environment across the country as well as other relevant agencies.