Nigeria faces total deforestation by 2052, warns Bassey
Nigeria could lose its entire forest cover by 2052 if the current annual deforestation rate of 250,000 to 300,000 hectares continues, environmental activist Dr Nnimmo Bassey has warned.
Dr Bassey, the Executive Director of the Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), cautioned that the country’s dependence on an extractive economic model is accelerating environmental degradation and human insecurity. He urged governments to abandon this profit-driven development model and place local communities at the centre of environmental protection.
*HOMEF
Nathan Tamarapreye, Yenagoa
Nigeria could lose its entire forest cover by 2052 if the current annual deforestation rate of 250,000 to 300,000 hectares continues, environmental activist Dr Nnimmo Bassey has warned.
Dr Bassey, the Executive Director of the Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), cautioned that the country’s dependence on an extractive economic model is accelerating environmental degradation and human insecurity. He urged governments to abandon this profit-driven development model and place local communities at the centre of environmental protection.
Delivering the welcome address on Tuesday at the 3rd Nigeria Socio-Ecological Alternatives Convergence (NSAC) in Abuja, themed “Deforestation, Mining and the Crisis of Human Security in Nigeria,” Bassey argued that the nation’s ecological crises are failures of governance and societal values rather than mere environmental issues.
The environmental campaigner strongly cautioned against celebrating new mineral discoveries, such as the strategic minerals recently found in Kaduna State, without first strengthening environmental governance and securing the free, prior, and informed consent of affected communities. He warned that Nigeria must not repeat the catastrophic environmental and social mistakes associated with nearly seven decades of crude oil exploitation in the Niger Delta.
“Will host communities once again bear the environmental costs of resource extraction while others reap the economic benefits?” Bassey asked.
He also targeted carbon credit projects, accusing them of displacing local populations under the guise of climate action and forest restoration. Citing large forest allocations in Delta and Niger states for carbon trading initiatives, he described these arrangements as “carbon colonialism.”
According to Bassey, many communities are being deprived of the forests they have relied on for generations, only to be forced into becoming custodians of commercially driven conservation projects. Furthermore, he noted that the growing global demand for critical minerals must not become another justification for colonial-style resource extraction disguised as a green energy transition.
Turning to national security, the HOMEF chief maintained that genuine human security cannot be achieved through militarisation alone. He explained that environmental degradation directly fuels displacement and violent conflicts, noting that degraded forests increasingly serve as safe havens for bandits and terrorist groups.
To reverse the trend, Bassey advocated for stronger environmental governance, respect for indigenous knowledge, and greater community ownership of forests, describing local populations as the most sustainable custodians of conservation.
“Local communities have traditionally protected forests because they provide food, medicine, livelihoods, cultural identity, and spiritual value,” he said.
He concluded by calling on governments to strengthen forestry institutions, support indigenous forest regeneration, and promote community-led agroforestry initiatives, while urging civil society to champion practical alternatives that prioritise ecological integrity. “The time to change course is now,” Bassey declared.
