Logging is growing in a Nigerian forest home to endangered elephants. Rangers blame lax enforcement

TAIWO ADEBAYO

Updated 30 August 2023 at 6:57 am

A bare-chested man loads timber onto a truck inside the Omo Forest Reserve in Nigeria on Monday, July 31, 2023. Conservationists say the outer region of Omo Forest Reserve, where logging is allowed, is already heavily deforested. As trees become scarce, loggers are heading deep into the 550-square-kilometer conservation area, which is also under threat from uncontrolled cocoa farming and poaching. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)

Loggers cut trees and hack away at branches inside the Omo Forest Reserve in Nigeria on Wednesday, Aug. 2, 2023. Conservationists say the outer region of Omo Forest Reserve, where logging is allowed, is already heavily deforested. As trees become scarce, loggers are heading deep into the 550-square-kilometer conservation area, which is also under threat from uncontrolled cocoa farming and poaching. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)

A logger wields a chainsaw to cut trees inside the Omo Forest Reserve in Nigeria on Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2023. Conservationists say the outer region of Omo Forest Reserve, where logging is allowed, is already heavily deforested. As trees become scarce, loggers are heading deep into the 550-square-kilometer conservation area, which is also under threat from uncontrolled cocoa farming and poaching. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)

A logger walks on timber piled on a truck inside the Omo Forest Reserve in Nigeria on Wednesday, Aug. 2, 2023. Conservationists say the outer region of Omo Forest Reserve, where logging is allowed, is already heavily deforested. As trees become scarce, loggers are heading deep into the 550-square-kilometer conservation area, which is also under threat from uncontrolled cocoa farming and poaching. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)

A ranger argues with illegal loggers as they load timber onto a truck inside the Omo Forest Reserve in Nigeria on Wednesday, Aug. 2, 2023. Conservationists and rangers blame the government for not enforcing environmental regulations or adequately replanting trees, impeding Nigeria’s pledge under the Paris climate agreement to maintain places like forests that absorb carbon from the atmosphere. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)

Three rangers argue with illegal loggers near a truck carrying timber inside the Omo Forest Reserve in Nigeria on Wednesday, Aug. 2, 2023. Conservationists and rangers blame the government for not enforcing environmental regulations or adequately replanting trees, impeding Nigeria’s pledge under the Paris climate agreement to maintain places like forests that absorb carbon from the atmosphere. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)

Loggers transport timber inside the Omo Forest Reserve in Nigeria on Wednesday, Aug. 2, 2023. Conservationists say the outer region of Omo Forest Reserve, where logging is allowed, is already heavily deforested. As trees become scarce, loggers are heading deep into the 550-square-kilometer conservation area, which is also under threat from uncontrolled cocoa farming and poaching. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)

Nigerian ecologist Babajide Agboola, photographed in the Omo Forest Reserve in Nigeria on Wednesday, Aug. 2, 2023, says, "By implementing selective logging, the adverse effects on the biodiversity of an area can be minimized while also providing the opportunity for young trees to continue growing." (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)

People look over timber, some of which came from the Omo Forest Reserve, to be sold at a market in Ijebu-Ode, Nigeria, on Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2023. Conservationists say the outer region of Omo Forest Reserve, where logging is allowed, is already heavily deforested. As trees become scarce, loggers are heading deep into the 550-square-kilometer conservation area, which is also under threat from uncontrolled cocoa farming and poaching. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)

Logs are milled into boards at sawmill in Ijebu Ode, Nigeria, on Wednesday, Aug. 2, 2023. Conservationists say the outer region of Omo Forest Reserve, where logging is allowed, is already heavily deforested. As trees become scarce, loggers are heading deep into the 550-square-kilometer conservation area, which is also under threat from uncontrolled cocoa farming and poaching. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)

Nigeria Deforestation Logging

A bare-chested man loads timber onto a truck inside the Omo Forest Reserve in Nigeria on Monday, July 31, 2023. Conservationists say the outer region of Omo Forest Reserve, where logging is allowed, is already heavily deforested. As trees become scarce, loggers are heading deep into the 550-square-kilometer conservation area, which is also under threat from uncontrolled cocoa farming and poaching. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Roaring chainsaws sent trees crashing to the ground, and bare-chested men hacked away at the branches beside a muddy road. This was miles into the conservation zone of Omo Forest Reserve in southern Nigeria, a protected area where logging is prohibited because it's home to threatened species like African elephants, pangolins and white-throated monkeys. “We see people we arrested and turned over to the government back in the forest, and they get emboldened,” ranger Sunday Abiodun told The Associated Press during a recent trip to the reserve.

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