ACTION
ALERT
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WORLDWIDE
FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS
Death
Warrant for Nigeria's Lowland Rainforests
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Forest
Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises
9/24/96
OVERVIEW
& SOURCE by EE
Rainforest
Action Network reports in their most recent Action Alert on the
plans
to log the last remaining lowland rainforest in West Africa which is
located
in Nigeria along the Cross River. Please take the time to respond
to the
appeal for letters.
g.b.
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/*
Written 5:29 AM Sep 23, 1996 by ranmedia@ran.org in
igc:rainfor.genera
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---------- "RAN Nigeria RF Action Alert" ---------- */
RAINFOREST
ACTION NETWORK
Action
Alert 123; September/October 1996
A DEATH
WARRANT FOR
NIGERIA'S
LOWLAND RAINFORESTS
Nigeria's
Cross River State is home to an astounding variety of animals,
including
chimpanzees, mandrills, one third of Africa's primates, over one
thousand
species of butterflies, and is the winter home to migratory
swallows
that build their summer nests under eaves throughout Europe.
Cross
River State has over 120 native species of plants and trees,
including
ironwood, the beautiful, blood-red camwood, and several types of
cedar
and African mahogany. Along with the
Congo rainforest, Cross River
State
is the only place on Earth where the western lowland gorilla lives.
Nigeria
has logged 95 per cent of its original forest land; the lush
rainforest
along the banks of the pure, python-like Cross River accounts
for
nearly half of what remains. In 1991,
the Nigerian government set
much of
this land aside as Cross River National Park and Wildlife
Sanctuary,
a safe haven for the area's rare primates.
The
rainforest's bounty, however, could be the source of its own
destruction
as logging companies vie to cut it down, including the national
park. Park general manager Clement Ebin told
Nigeria's Guardian newspaper
that he
was under pressure from big foreign timber companies to open the
park up
to logging. But Mr. Ebin stood
firm: "We are interested in
protecting
the entire ecosystem for the development of mankind. [If] you
remove
the forest, [then] the water goes, the biodiversity goes, and the
gene
pool diversity goes."
Unfortunately
for the rainforest, Nigeria has a history of selling its
natural
resources to foreign companies wholesale.
Royal Dutch Shell has
been
taking oil and natural gas profits out of Nigeria for decades. Its
blend
of power-politics and big-money culminated in the execution of
activist
Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight others last November. There are fifteen
transnational
logging companies, mainly from Europe and Asia, currently
doing
business in Nigeria.
The
greatest threat to the rainforest of Cross River State is Western
Metal
Products Company LTD (WEMPCO), a Hong Kong-based metal processing
firm
that has temporarily branched out into logging. WEMPCO's plan is to
cut all
the trees it can, make as much money as it can, then go back to
its
metal processing business.
In a
previous logging operation in western Nigeria's Ogun State, WEMPCO
cut
down the big trees, and, in violation of its cutting agreement, the
undersized
trees as well, turning the region into a desert. WEMPCO also
cut
down large areas of forest outside of its liscensed concession.
Now
WEMPCO has built a hardwood processing factory alongside Cross River
without
securing the necessary permits, or conducting an Environmental
Impact
Assessment (EIA). Upstream from the
national park, the factory
will
release poison chemicals into the river, polluting the water-supply
of 300
down-river communities, and dumping toxins into the gorillas'
wildlife
sanctuary.
Answering
to pressure from Nigerian environmental groups, WEMPCO produced
a EIA
after the plant was completed, attempting to legitimize the
company's
renegade project. The environmental groups rejected the EIA as a
sham,
and the Non-Governmental Organization Coalition for the Environment
(NGOCE,
a Rainforest Action Group) has filed an injunction against the
company
in federal court. The EIA, which the government has refused to
make
public, applies to six of 540 square
miles in the concession.
"At
the moment," said NGOCE director Odigha Odigha, "multi-national
companies
appear determined to harvest our rainforest to the point of
extinction. If WEMPCO gets the go-ahead, it will mean
the destruction of
the
last lowland rainforest in West Africa, and will turn the life-giving
waters
of Cross River into poison. We must stop WEMPCO in its track; for
our
forest, for the animals, and for ourselves."
WHAT YOU
CAN DO
The
World Bank funds Nigeria's Federal Environmental Protection Agency.
Write a
letter to Mr. Jean-Louis Sarbib, Vice President, Africa Region,
asking
him to do all he can to see that WEMPCO resubmits a thorough and
detailed
EIA to the agency. His address: The World Bank, 1818 "H" Street
NW,
Washington DC, 20433. Here is a sample
letter:
Dear
Mr. Sarbib,
I am
deeply concerned about the fate of the rainforest in Cross River
State,
Nigeria, and the endangered animals that live there in the national
park.
The
World Bank funds Nigeria's Federal Environmental Protection Agency, so
you
personally have the responsibility to make sure that the Agency
listens
to Cross River's citizenry, who abhor cutting down their rare
forest. Also, you must make sure that the Agency
doesn't allow WEMPCO to
get
away with its bogus environmental assessment justifying its
wood-processing
plant on the banks of Cross River.
Toxic waste will pour
into
the river, polluting community water supplies, and making the area
uninhabitable.
You
must do everything you can to stop this unconscionable destruction.
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You are
encouraged to utilize this information for personal campaign use;
including
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efforts
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