Hassan Idris
16 March 2008
Abuja — More than half of bush burning throughout Nigeria is deliberately lit, costing millions of naira damages annually. The questions which need answers are, what motivates an arsonist and what do they feel when the bush is burning? This feature proffers solutions to the problems.
The negative impact of bush burning need not to be over emphasised especially during the hot season in northern Nigeria as apart from environmental pollution and health hazards, bush burning obviously causes immense catastrophes in many quarters. They include bush burning as public nuisance, the suffocating experience felt by people due to the huge smoke soaring in the air during the heat, and the pollution of the ozone layer of the environment. In this regard, the menace is of double tragedy in the sense that while the heat is unbearable, bush burning fires also heat up the soil thereby blazing up its nutrients including the fertilizer elements. Furthermore, the fire is smouldering and all the proponents of the plants as well as the grasses that are useful in conserving the forest, Wildlife and small animals are being destroyed in large proportion.
Based on the new issues in soil fertility management, the menace of bush burning should be adequately looked into with a view to discouraging it especially in the northern parts of the country.
A report on the Soils of Nigeria published in 1990, based on field surveys that was undertaken in 1985, indicated that apart from bush burning, in Nigeria, other problems created by soil abusers "are in the form of land clearing, with wrong tools, construction of all types, mining including quarrying and fertilizer use, overgrazing, and intensive/over-use of land through any form of cultivation."
The report pointed out that "bush burning including all the above factors therefore, are threatening the existence of arable land and there is the fear that if the abuses are not checked and brought under control, Nigeria's ability to feed herself might be a mirage."
However, the major hazards being experienced in Nigeria, the report says," includes land degradation, flooding, erosion, deforestation, desertification and climatic drought," in the present farming systems of the land area in Nigeria.
An expert, Dr. Ismail Iro who is the founder of www.gamji.com. and Programmer/Data Analyst in Washington, D.C. USA, in his article, "Traditionalism Vs. Modernism: A Look at Fulani Methods of Livestock Disease Management" says, "Bush burning is the commonest traditional method of combating insects. All of the cattle-raising Fulani who have been interviewed say they habitually use moderate, localized fires to fight off ticks, insects, and harmful pests from the homes and kraals. When the Fulani set fire, their intention is not to generate heat but to send out dense smoke that repels the ants, bugs, bees, locusts, rodents, and reptiles."
In the spirit of reality and precision by Fulani herdsmen, Dr. Iro maintained that, "despite its widely acclaimed advantages, the long-term effects of fires are devastating. Burning can lead to an uncontrollable spread that engulfs acres of grass land within hours. Because such fires deprive the animals of their important source of food and dietary supplements, the Fulani and the government officials object to burning, even though the Fulani use the fires."
He however, argued that Government policy on burning is lapse, in the sense that, "not only the Fulani, but also veterinary workers and range officials condemn any range use involving burning."
In the light of the above, most parts of the north were adversely affected by the menace according him, "Large-scale fires shrink the radii of the grazing land, thereby exacerbating the stressful conditions under which the animals live. In Kano and Katsina States for example, the authorities have outlawed burning and have instituted steep penalties of heavy monetary fines on violators."
By and large, the authorities, however, cannot track down some offenders. As a result of this inability, innocent people are sometimes punished for crimes that they have not committed. Frustrated about frequent unauthorized fire incidence, forestry officials have ordered that if it is unavoidable, burning should be done only at the beginning of the dry-season when the grass is still damp, to reduce the intensity of the flame.
It is worthy to note that, all the metamorphosis in the soil and the environment as a result of bush burning have negative impact on people, year in year out. In this perspective, all the proponents of agricultural recourses in and outside the soil are being scorched and blistered by the vampire fire set ablaze by hungry peasants who may be looking for rats or little animals such as rabbits and grass cutters in the bush without recourse to wanton destruction of the land nutrients. To some extent and religiously, such perpetrators of bush burning are committing sin in their unscrupulous deeds by setting the bush on fire.
According to experts, bush burning is disastrous and its menace is greatly devastating. It is pertinent to stop the engulfing bush fire in all spheres of Nigerian land structures.
Research conducted shows that the Natural Resource aspects of sustainable development in Nigeria are vulnerable to habitat loss and increased pressure from hunters, poachers, and bush burning.
For example, according to Agenda 21 - Nigeria report, which was provided by the Government of Nigeria, at the fifth and eighth sessions of the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development, in May 2000, "some challenges according to some experts can never be compromised owing to the fact that in the past several administrations could not curb the menace.
Airlines in Nigeria, for instance warned seriously against bush burning around Port Harcourt airport, in particular. According to news reports, apart from birds strike which constituted the menace of air crash aeroplanes, airlines which consisted Aero Contractor, Virgin Nigeria and Chanchangi airlines decried bush burning and threatened not to take the matter of bird strike at the airport lightly as they were ready to employ all means to save their aircraft and lives of their passengers. Similarly it was noticed recently that a hill close to the Abuja airport was seen engulfed with bush fire irrespective of the danger that it may cause because of its nearness to the Nnamdi Azikiwe International airport. If bush burning can take place with reckless abandon in the seat of power, how about the bush burning that takes place in other parts of the country without control?
Research result conducted revealed that the major Challenges militating against sustainable bush burning control in Nigeria include lack of political commitment and poor funding of the forestry sub-sector. The States usually regard the forest reserves as sources for generating revenue without reinvestment for sustained production. In addition adequate manpower, equipment and funds are not provided for proper implementation of sustainable forest management.
In a move to stop bush burning including forest management, major points and concrete steps in implementing the IPF proposals for action in the country include:
i) The review of National Forest and Wildlife Policy and Legislation is ultimately necessary.
ii) Enlightenment and awareness campaigns on the state of the environment, in all respect of national sectors.
iii) Incorporation of participatory approaches at every level of the forest management decisions/making process;
iv) And finally, institution strengthening and capacity building especially at the Local Government and communal levels.
There are strong indicators within a national focal point that the FAO programme has been chosen, and some assistance has been provided for data generation. In addition, the country participated in a Workshop held and organized by the FAO in December 1999 in Cote d'Ivoire in this regard.
Experts expressed their opinions through survey results pointing out the following conclusion: it is rational and easy for herdsmen to practice indigenous methods of control of pests and diseases in their herds since it is a practice handed down from their parents. The frequently practiced indigenous control methods of pests and diseases by herdsmen are hygiene, self diagnosis, use of herbs, movement from place to place, bush burning and spiritual incantation.
The respondents believed burning surrounding bush would reduce the menace of tick infestation by burning of the eggs of the tick, as well as the elimination of possible intermediate host for pests and diseases.
Similarly, most of the firewood choppers interviewed, said they face little confrontation from forestry officers even though they admitted that "tree felling which is their major source of livelihood, causes havoc to the environment.
In conclusion, the menace of bush burning is posing a serious threat to the nation's economy, food security and employment.
Therefore, among other ecological problems, according to experts, the increasing incidence of desertification, which is the most disturbing eco logical problem faced in Yobe State. In addition, wind Erosion is found to aggravate the problem by creating sand dunes in the northern parts of Nigeria, presently, the lives of the people living in this country are seriously threatened such that the trend is full of negative impacts.
According to news reports, "The poor management of the fragile land resources through deforestation, overgrazing, over cultivation, bush burning, and adverse climatic conditions are identified as some of the factors responsible for the growing menace of desert encroachment."
In the most affected areas, for example, it is not easy to maintain any good government policy if any is existing with regards to bush burning and how to stop it through sanctions and punishment at the grass root levels.
Controlling bush burning is a collective responsibility among the people and government authorities. Particularly, on some occasions urban fire fighting professionals are also called in to assist. As well as the water-spraying trucks commonly used in urban firefighting, bushfire services often own or lease aircraft, particularly helicopters, that can douse areas inaccessible to ground crews. However, large fires are often of such a size that no conceivable firefighting service could attempt to douse the whole fire directly, and so alternative techniques are used.
Typically, this involves controlling the area that the fire can spread to, clearing control lines which are areas which contain no combustible material. These control lines can be produced by bulldozing, or by back-burning - setting a small, low-intensity fire to burn the flammable material in a controlled way. These may then be extinguished by firefighters, or, ideally, directed in such a way so that they meet the main fire front, at which point both fires will run out of flammable material and be extinguished.
Unfortunately, such methods can fail in the face of wind shifts causing fires to miss control lines, or because fires jump straight over them (for instance, because a burning tree falls across a line, or burning embers are carried by the wind over the line).
The actual goals of firefighters vary. Protection of life (both the firefighters and civilians) is given top priority, then private property according to economic and social value. In very severe fires, this is sometimes the only possible action. Protecting houses is regarded as more important than, say, machinery sheds, though firefighters, if possible, will try to keep fires off farmland to protect stock and fences (steel fences are destroyed by the passage of fire, as the wire is irreversibly stretched and weakened by it).
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