Tree felling on the rise as cooking gas price skyrockets

Tree felling for firewood purposes across Nigeria is assuming a worrisome dimension as the price of cooking gas hits the rooftop, Daily Trust reports.

Many households and restaurants especially in the cities that were hitherto using cooking gas are now using firewood and charcoal.

Experts described the development as dangerous, saying it has reversed the “little achievements” recorded by the federal government in the last few years during which cooking gas burners were shared in towns and villages to discourage tree felling occasioned by climate change.

President Muhammadu Buhari was part of the just-concluded World Climate Change Summit in Glasgow, Scotland where alongside African leaders joined world leaders and signed off a new climate change agreement after two weeks of intense negotiations.

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Experts championing the course for a greener environment have raised the alarm that if not curtailed, the increasing felling of trees would not only impact negatively on the environment but also affect the health of Nigerians.

Daily Trust reports that there has been a consistent rise in the price of cooking gas starting from April 2021 when it was sold for between N280 and N300 per kilogramme but later increased to N750.

A 12.5 KG of gas is currently sold for between N8, 500 and N9, 300.

This newspaper had severally reported that the rise in prices was a result of the shortfall in the supply of the product to the domestic market.

The country’s main supply source of the product, the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Limited (NLNG), had said it supplies about 350, 000 tonnes per annum of the product to the Nigerian market out of its 450,000 tonnes capacity.

The company reportedly said it was committed to dedicating the entire production capacity to the Nigerian market to boost supply and help reduce the spike in prices of the product.

Austin Ogbodo, the Marketing Manager, was quoted as saying that between 2007 and 2020, NLNG had cumulatively supplied over two million tonnes into the domestic market; spurring a steady rise in annual domestic consumption in a market that was below 50,000 tonnes per annum in 2007 to over one million tonnes per annum in 2020.

Daily Trust