In the bid to sanitize the environment in Cross River State, the State government may soon introduce an environmental tax.
The new initiative is to further enhance the safety and health of the environment in the state.
Disclosing this on a radio program, Ayade’s Cross River, on CRBC, an initiative of the Governor’s Office Media Unit, anchored by the trio of Beatrice Akpala, Emmanuel Ulayi and Solomon Asha, the state commissioner for forestry and climatic change, Mrs. Alice Ekwu said “Very soon, pending on the approval of His Excellency the Governor, we will start collecting taxes from Business owners that have businesses that affects the environmental climate of the state directly or indirectly”
The measure which will be in partnership with the ministry of environment, she added is to ensure proper management of what goes into the atmosphere.
According to her the development is to ensure proper management of what goes into the atmosphere and we are going to do that in partnership with the State Ministry of Environment.
“The trees we planted during the carnivals are doing wonderfully well and we will continue planting more tress. We encourage Cross Riverians to plant more tress. It is no longer news that the Governor has started a superhighway that will serve as an evacuation corridor for goods that will be coming into the state through the seaport and will definitely boost the economy of the state.
The construction of the superhighway has attracted criticism from some members of the public as regards the impact it will create on the forestry environment and communities around the area; the ministry has been mandated with the responsibility of ensuring that any tree that will be cut-down during this construction process will be replaced. The ministry is doing a lot to ensure Calabar remains clean and green; this is in collaboration with the state ministry of environment.
Also speaking on the program on how the state can generate huge revenues from her forest potentials, the Special Adviser Biodiversity and conservation, barrister Edet okon Asim said “Cross River State has one of the largest and natural forests in Sub-Saharan Africa and they are some species of trees in this forest that many people don’t know exist there.
To this end, he disclosed that there are plans to showcase all of these to the world to know what is in Cross River State.
According to him they are ongoing plans to cultivate the tourism potentials in these forests, so as to publicize it and show tourist and people all around the world, what is obtainable in the forestry sector of the state.
The special adviser further revealed that the state can borrow a leaf by embracing the California example by making huge fortune from her forest reservation as a tourist site.
His words:”there is a tree in California, a bristlecone pine that attracts tourists from all over the world just to have a glimpse of this tree, the tree believed to be 4,845 years, known to be the oldest tree in the world.
“Cross River State has one of the largest and natural forest in Sub-Saharan Africa and they are some species of trees in this forest that many people don’t know exist there and there are plans to showcase all of these to the world to know what is in Cross River State .They are ongoing plans to cultivate the tourism potentials in this forests son as publicize it and show tourist and people all around the world, what is obtainable in the forestry sector of the state.”
