Women raise alarm, allege illegal loggers, armed men take over of Ekuri forests

Women from Ekuri assemblage successful Akamkpa Local Government Area of Cross River State person raised alarm implicit the devastating interaction of amerciable logging, informing that the unchecked plundering of their forests is pushing families into hunger, poorness and insecurity.

The women spoke successful Calabar during a one-day grooming programme for journalists and Ekuri women representatives, wherever they recounted however years of community-led wood conservation are being eroded by relentless logging activities.

A assemblage representative, Mrs. Agatha Egot, said Ekuri women had for decades preserved implicit 33,600 hectares of communal wood done strict accepted practices, but economical hardship has weakened section resistance, with immoderate youths present drawn into amerciable logging for survival.

She lamented that wood degradation has drastically reduced entree to nutrient crops, medicinal plants and different non-timber wood products captious to household sustenance.

According to her, items specified arsenic afang, editan, atama and ogbono, erstwhile readily available, person go scarce, forcing women to question longer distances nether unsafe conditions to stitchery them.

Egot added that declining workplace yields and nonaccomplishment of wood nutrient person worsened poverty, making it progressively hard for families to provender and amended their children.

Assistant Secretary of Ekuri Women’s Forum, Freda Francis, said the beingness of loggers and unfamiliar arm...