Edo Government Partners idh,Organizes Forest Management Workshop.

By. Tife Aladenika.

Edo state government in partnership with idh has organised a one-day workshop for stakeholders on "assessment of coordination gaps in Forest Landscape Management among MDAs in the state.

Addressing participants at the workshop, the Team Lead, idh, Chris Okafor said "the need to harmonise the administration of forest landscape in Edo state could not have come at a better time than now. Officials of Edo state Ministeries, Department and Agencies that have direct business relations with the use of the various forests should operate an agreed and common template in the administration of forest landscape in the state".

In his own presentation, titled Conservation and Integrated Management of Forests and Allied Resources in Edo state : Resolving Gaps and Governance Challenges, a professor of Forest Conservation and Rehabilitation Ecology, Prof Ekeoba Matthew Isikhuemen, said the chain of command system, already eroded, deliberately by-passed or authoritatively vacated, over time, be restored, stressing that present day organisational structure is lacking in specific assignment of roles and responsibilities to drive intra /inter MDA's coordination and integration must be rejuvenated.

Prof Ekeoba Matthew Isikhuemen posited among others that focus on the Landscape, restoration of the ecological functionality, avoiding the convertion of natural ecosystem will help to grow our forest for collective productivity.

Other resource persons like the state facilitator, idh, Comrade Bashir Kadiri and Christian Kolawole opined that "for the forests to be put to optimal usage, there must be proper coordination of governmental goals, well thought-out forest governance system, as well as providing solutions to the challenges associated with coordination and integration among MDAs".

The one-day workshop had participants drawn from relevant government Ministries, Departments and Agencies of Edo state such as the Ministries of Agriculture, Environment, Forestry Commision, EDOGIS, among others with a sole mandate to brainstorm on how best to proffer solutions to challenges militating against the growth of the forest landscape such as the lack of inter-sectorial coordination, excessive bureaucracy, inaccurate data and poor funding.