|
|
| President Gbagbo proposes ECOWAS Forest Summit
|
|
|
| |
Dakar, Senegal (PANA) -
Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo
called Tuesday in Dakar for a Forest Summit under the aegis of
the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), "to
check the degradation of forest resources and settle land
disputes in the sub-region."
Speaking at the closing of the conference on the private
sector's role in the financing of the New Partnership for
Africa's Development (NEPAD), Gbagbo appealed to the
international community, the civil society and MPs in the sub-
region to address the phenomenon.
"At least 1,270,000 square km of forests have been destroyed
from Guinea to Nigeria either because of an over-exploitation
or the intensification of cocoa, coffee, rubber and palm
growing," Gbagbo lamented.
"We have lost more than 60 percent of our humid forests," he
affirmed, adding "in 1957, there were 16 million hectares of
forests for an overall population of 3 million inhabitants.
Today we are facing the reverse trend, as the 16-million
Ivorian population only has 2 million hectares of forests."
NEPAD should, in its environmental component, help check the
accelerated degradation of forest resources, which is among the
causes social tensions, besides its negative impact on the
climate, Gbagbo said.
|
| |
| Dakar - 17/04/2002 |
| |
|
|