Ondo govt promises to preserve forest reserves

Ondo State government has expressed determination to preserve the natural resources in the state, particularly the state forest reserves.The Commissioner for Natiral Resources, Lasisi Oluboyo, who said this during the inspection of the forest reserve at Ipele, Owo Local Government Area of the state, lamented the illegal activities being carried out in some of the reserves.According to him, the state has been losing millions of naira that would have accrued to to it weekly basis because of the illegal felling of woods by hoodlums and unscrupulous businessmen in the timber business.He stated that the efforts of the state at establishing a standard wildlife park would suffer setback due to the illicit activities in the forest.Apart from this, the commissioner added that the practice would also result in environmental problem going by the rate of depletion of forest occasioned by the encroachment.Oluboyo also urged the youths to desist from encroaching the forest in Ipele, saying that they should conduct their businesses legitimately and also help government to preserve the forest.He expressed dismay that some individuals were operating with unregistered forest concessionaire harmers despite several appeals by the government.The leader of the youth in the community, Tope Samuel, pledged the support of the people of the community, urging the government to give them some time to move out their woods already produced from the forest.
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