Biakwan light Green initiative raises alarm over community forest loss in Cross River state

The Biakwan Light Green Initiative, in collaboration with UNDP and financial assistance from the Global Environment Facility Small Grant Program, is exploring the nexus between climate change, crop production, food security, poverty alleviation, and gender inclusiveness.

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Our organization is deeply concerned about the devastating effects of climate change on the cocoa farming communities of Boki in Cross River State, including the lack of rainfall and the increasing temperature in the area. The impact of the environmental crisis in the region is evidence of joblessness, hunger, food insecurity, and an increase in the incidence of poverty. During this period, the country is passing through very hard economic measures. Thus, this necessitates a call for action for the cocoa farmers to embrace a nature-based solution, mostly planting trees in their farms to reduce the scourge of the stressor of climate change, since research has shown that agroforestry remains an excellent strategy to help cocoa farmers cope with climate change and avoid further deforestation in new cocoa production areas.

The devastating impact of logging and unsustainable farming practices on cocoa farmers in the area should no longer be overlooked. Seriously, the concerns expressed by the Biakwan communities, mostly women, through protests and grievances related to excessive wood harvesting in the area have often been ignored or silenced. The Biakwan Light Green Initiative acknowledges the adverse effects of climate change on forest-dependent people, which have further resulted in the loss of farms, a reduction in harvests leading to food security, displacement, and the and the loss of flora and fauna.

Biakwan community in Boki Local Government area of Cross River State is one of the major producers of cocoa, experiencing decrease in productivity and increase in economic losses as 70% of their farms are now affected by climate change, with women, children, and the vulnerable being mostly affected.

In addressing these challenges frontally, BLGI is now pioneering a community-led forest management strategy aimed at promoting community adaptation principles in the community. This will enable the community to properly understand how environmental issues are affecting them and why communities must rise up to take caring actions and interventions that will help and save the lives of the people. The present situation portrays an environmental crisis of immerse dimension, and community members need to understand the causes and impact of climate change, adapt to the changing climate, and mitigate the devastating effects of the changing climate on the lives of rural farmers in the area.  

Planting trees therefore buffers cocoa plants from heat and water stressors and creates conditions that benefit cocoa tree growth and production.