On 22 March, to celebrate the International Day of Forests, IITA–CGIAR and Wild Africa Fund organized a Space conversation on X (formerly Twitter) to engage Twitter users in conversations covering Forests and Innovation. Co-hosted by IITA Forest Center, RadioIITA, and Wild Africa Fund, the event had a nature enthusiast and musician, Laycon, and IITA Forest expert Ademola Ajayi bounce ideas on forests and forest innovation practices. Both proposed insightful recommendations to make our world a better place for humans, animals, birds, and all life forms.
IITA Forest Center is a nature-resource management center within IITA, which is committed to developing research for agricultural development. Ajayi emphasized the crucial role of the Forest Center in IITA’s mandate, saying, “Agriculture cannot thrive without sustainable management of the environment.” Agriculture involves the use of land, hence the need to manage land—the natural resource we all depend on for food, shelter, and commerce.
The regular activities of the IITA Forest Center include—management of natural resources, reforestation, biodiversity monitoring, environmental education and awareness, and research for proactive interventions. The Forest Center has provided an innovative solution to the difficulty some foresters face in propagating native tree species in an e-propagation manual freely downloadable on the IITA Forest Center website. Here, people can access propagation techniques and information on different sowing media suitable for diverse tree species to achieve high germination rates.
IITA Forest Center takes a holistic approach to stem the tide of deforestation in Africa through partnerships with public and private institutions, especially the local community of reforestation sites. Another strategy is to plant fruit trees amidst timber trees and train residents to get economic value from forest trees other than logging, so they can allow the trees to grow since they are resourceful to them.
The Forest Center partners with the Ekiti State Tree Growers Association and Ogun State Ministry of Forestry to replicate the thriving tree-growing systems in IITA Forest Center’s Noah’s Ark in other deforested areas. The Noah’s Ark is the Forest Center’s Tree Heritage Park, where native tree species are conserved. Schoolchildren are also trained to become nature ambassadors and conservation agents. They watch documentaries about the effects of degraded environments and commit to telling their parents, friends, and colleagues about the need to protect the environment and how to do it.
To eliminate superstitious beliefs that some trees cannot be planted because people have not succeeded in propagating them, IITA Forest Center has published results of trials using different sowing media to grow tree seeds and their germination success rates.
Laycon’s interest in forests stems from his desire to make an impact in the education and governance space. Giving his impression at his first visit to IITA Forest, Laycon said, “The first thing I can tell you is the oxygen there is different! There were many greens. The atmosphere is serene. You can practically hear your thoughts. It is an experience everyone should have.” He touched on the co-existence of different species of trees in the forest and challenged everyone to co-exist with trees and one another.
Laycon proposed soft power as a sustainable forest management strategy—a means to subtly, continuously, and consistently tell people about forest conservation and management through drama, music, policies, and sensitizations in grassroots relatable languages. He continued, “We must find creative ways to let people know that our actions cause the devastation and environmental degradation we see all around and complain about.”
In conclusion, Ajayi proposed sustainable forest management to balance our logging needs with a matching reforestation rate and strict monitoring to enforce paper policies for the required quantity of trees to log per time. Green areas within urban centers provide carbon sinks and relaxation areas for tourism.
Contributed by Folake OduntanContributed by
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