important days to mark as a forester

WORLD ENVIRONMENTAL DAY (WED) is the UN
flagship environmental event which
is celebrated every year on June 5 in more than 100
countries around the
world. Established in 1972 by the UN General
Assembly, its commemoration is
entrusted to the UN Environment Programme
(UNEP), whose International
Headquarters is located in Nairobi, Kenya. The
purpose of the WED is to
draw worldwide attention to the importance of the
environment and stimulate
political attention and action. The event seeks to
give a human face to
environmental issues, empower people to become
active agents and rivers of
sustainable and equitable development. WED is also
intended to promote
understanding that communities are pivotal to
changing attitudes towards
environmental issues and advocate partnership,
which ensures that all
nations and peoples enjoy a safer and more
prosperous future.
NATIONAL TREE PLANTING CAMPAIGN The
National Tree Planting Campaign (NTPC)
was first introduced in 1981 to mark the World
Environment Day. The
ceremony involved the planting of a
commemorative tree at launching site by
the highest office of the land (Mr. President).
However, the aim of NTPC
has largely been misunderstood by over the
country. By and large, NTPC is a
strategy devised by Government to sensitize the
people and create public
awareness on the need to conserve significant
portions of the vegetation
that make up the biomes in Nigeria. Besides, it serve
as a vehicle to give
support and impetus to national forestation efforts.
UNIBEN TREE PLANTING EXERCISE In consonance
with the annual celebration of
the world environment day, and in recognition of
the UN declaration of 2011
as the YEAR OF FORESTS, the Department of
Forestry, Faculty of Agriculture,
University of Benin, Benin City, made
representations to the Honourable
Commissioner, Edo State Ministry of Environment
and Public Utilities,
Prince Clem Agba, for 2000 seedlings of endemic
timber tree species in May,
2011 and we received expeditious approval within
minutes of delivery of our
request letter. We took delivery of the 2000
seedlings of Khaya
grandifoliola, Nauclea diderrichii,
Entandrophragma angolense, Terminalia
ivorensis, Irvingia gabonensis, Cordia millenii and
Mansonia altissima on
Tuesday 31 May, 2011. Thereafter we liaised with
the top echelon of Uniben
parks and gardens and they graciously provided
tractor and mower to prepare
the proposed site earmarked for ceremonial
planting exercise on June 5,
2011. On June 9, 2011, the Vice Chancellor,
Professor O. G. Oshodin, ably
represented by Professor J. Okhuoya (Deputy Vice
Chancellor,
Administration) declared UNIBEN tree planting
exercise (UTPE) open and
planted a tree each - one for the Vice Chancellor
and another for himself
to mark the WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY (WED). The
Vice Chancellor entourage
comprising of the Principal Officers of the
University, Deans and Heads of
Departments as well as friends of the Department of
Forestry planted a tree
each to commemorate the WED which was not only
historic but symbolic.
During the ceremonial tree planting about 60
seedlings were planted in a
site located between the Faculty of Agriculture and
the new Faculty of
Agriculture under construction. A consignment of
200 seedlings was
delivered to the head, UNIBEN parks and garden for
planting out in
strategic places in the campus.
EVOLUTION OF FORESTRY PROBLEMS IN NIGERIA
- The past
- The present
THE PAST Forestry began officially in Nigeria in
1896 with the creation of
an Office of Woods and Forests in the Colony and
Protectorate of Lagos.
This was 9 years before the founding of the Bureau
of Forestry in the USA
and 22 years before the Forestry Commission was
set up in the United
Kingdom. The first Chief Conservator of Forests in
Nigeria was H.N.
“Timber” Thompson appointed in 1903 after serving
mainly in Burma under the
Indian Forest Service (IFS) for 11 years by Fredrick
Lugard, the First
Governor-General of Nigeria, who was born in
India of missionary parents
and had also served in the Indian Army.
From Indian experience, Thompson and Lugard
together decided to set aside a
target of 25% - 30% of Nigeria’s land area (since it
were a well-populated
country of about 10 million people then) for
forestry if it were to be
self-supporting for wood. But ultimately, only 11%
of the land area was
reserved.
Then, regulations were promulgated to control the
area of timber
concessions, to fix minimum sizes for timber trees to
be felled and to
determine the fees and royalties. The intentions
were to allow only mature
trees to be felled and minimum felling girth was 10
or 12 feet then. In
making forest reserves, the intention of Government
was not to sequester
the land but to leave it in its former ownership
although the Government
will supervise management and exploitation. In the
Western and Northern
provinces, the Local Government (then named
“Native Authorities”) provided
most of the forestry staff and work force and
received the bulk of the fees
and royalties from exploiting the reserves, both
timber and other produce.
Then in the Eastern provinces, the Central
Government Forestry Department
managed the reserves directly due to lack of
appropriate traditional
authorities to undertake the task. Locally authorities
usually received
from the Government payment of £1 per square
mile of the reserve in order
to compensate for their restriction of their rights to
the land. They were
not completely restricted from using the forest
lands to their personal
needs provided these needs didn’t interfere with
management of the forest
for timber production. However, residence or
farming within the reserve was
forbidden. Although, then, they did not need large
trees for their own use
except maybe for canoe making.
Communities then agreed to reservation because
they realized the value of
the forest and that it could disappear piecemeal if it
were unprotected.
Moreover, at that time, so much forest appeared to
be available that they
could not conceive of its ever being needed for
purposes and also, the
reservation seemed to confirm their ownership ando
to help keep other peoplee
out.

The Forest law besides laying down the procedure
for creating forest
reserves, and defining the powers and
responsibilities of the Forestry
Department, also affected lands outside forest
reserves, due to the
“Protected tree” or “Farm tree” legislation which
was intended to protect
useful trees. The Forestry Department started having
conflict with the
rural people because they (rural people) started
abusing the use of forest
reserve by seeing the license fees paid by the
individuals who used the
forest reserve and the land outside the reserve
(which was considered a
communal property) and became more interested in
exploiting the resource
than protecting it.
In early years, forest regeneration was well
accepted by the people and
each concessionaire was obliged to plant 20
economic tree seedlings for
every tree felled- usually at stump site. In 1926, this
was rescinded
because lack of maintenance afterwards caused few
seedlings to survive.
In the 1940’s and 1950’s partly due to sending
Forest Officers from
Malaysia (then Malaya) to Nigeria during the
Second World War, a system of
natural regeneration was developed – the Nigerian
Tropical Shelterwood
System (TSS) using techniques employed in the
lowland Dipterocarp forests
of Malaysia, where forest undergrowth was cut
while retaining seedlings and
saplings of valuable tree species under a cycle or
rotation known as
felling cycle. This was intended to be a uniform
system with a rotation of
100 years, however, it proved impossible to treat
anything as heterogeneous
as natural tropical forest to achieve a uniform
effect. Furthermore, it was
difficult to open the canopy enough to encourage
growth of economic
regeneration without promoting an overwhelming
flush of herbs and climbers. An
alternative then was the introduction of the
Taungya system which is a
system where the natural forest is cleared for
raising food crops which are
inter-planted with a tree crop. It was first
introduced in Nigeria at
Sapoba in the 1920’s by St. Barbe Baker, who had
seen it in Kenya (pers.
Com.) and subsequently practiced by J.D. Kennedy.
Due to the freedom to use
land for agriculture the Taungya system allowed,
more traditional rulers
accepted to reserve their forests. For example, the
Oba of Benin allocated
16 percent of its forests to be reserved. The system
was practiced
successfully from the mid-1920s to the mid-1960s
and unpaid local farmers
were happy to co-operate because it was a variant
shifting cultivation, but
organized by the Forestry Department.
THE PRESENT
The forest estate which is only about 10 million
hectares (10% of total
land area of Nigeria) is declining at a rate of 3.5%
annually due to
encroachments, excisions and outright de-
reservations. The Forestry
component of the National Agricultural policy
prescribes an increase from
its present level of 10% of total land area to 20%
but this has been
elusive.
Most State Forestry Departments lack operating
funds and functional
transport, and think themselves lucky if they can
afford a biro pen.
Instead of annual maintenance, forest reserve
boundaries have been mostly
left uncut since National independence in 1960 and
are becoming encroached.
Some reserves or large parts of them have been
alienated from forestry use.
Productive reserves are often treated by the State
Governments as sources
of revenue, or of government patronage or even of
personal enrichment and
are exploited for both timber and other products
with little regard to
sustained yield.
There has been a reduction between the felling
originally set at 100 years
to 10 years or even less, minimum bole diameters
for exploitable trees have
been lowered to 80 or 60 cm depending on the
species but these are often
regarded as trees of stem diameter of 30-40 cm can
be felled. As a result,
too few seed bearers of valuable timber species
remain to ensure
regeneration.
In states where Taungya system was practiced
successfully, it has become a
means of destroying the forest; farmers are allowed
to clearfell and farm
on forest without a tree crop being planted or if
planted, allowed to fail
due to lack of maintenance. Formerly, exploitation
I most productive
reserves was regulated by a working plan, but after
the 1960s they were
allowed to lapse.
In summary, the present state of forestry in Nigeria
is as a result of the
neglect of duties on State Governments’ part who
had betrayed their trust
both to the communal land owners and to the
nation as well as our
un-coordinated land use policy.
It is evident that forests are being displaced and
depleted by other forms
of land-use such as agriculture, grazing and water
management leading to
formation of deserts, bare surfaces and general
environmental degradation.
Land under agricultural cultivation is increasing at
an average rate of
554,657 ha per annum while land under high forest
is diminishing at a rate
of 105,865 hectares per annum. This land use
pattern is exacerbated by
drought, forest fires, overgrazing and flooding
which lead to severe
environmental degradation, loss of biodiversity,
diminished forest
productivity etc.
In view of this dismal trend in the forest resources
of the country, the
need to manage the forests of Nigeria on a sustained
yield basis has never
been more felt in recent times. The growth rate of
the natural forest is
quite low; about 1 to 1.5 m3 of round wood per
hectare per annum and this
is a serious constraint. Afforestation in the past has
not responded with
the required vigor as the area under forest
plantations of all types by
1998 was only 184,611 hectares with a gro