Rate of timber production in a tropical rainforest ecosystem of Southwestern Nigeria and its implications on sustainable forest management

Abstract

Timber harvesting data are very essential for sustainable management of forest resources. These data are very scarce in developing countries. Therefore, we collected and analyzed data on the rate of timber production of the free areas and the forest reserves in Ondo State, Nigeria. The data collected from the State Department of Forestry's official records, annual reports and files were on the species, volume and number of different economic timbers exploited on monthly basis between 2003 and 2005. Analyses were done with the student t-test and one-way analysis of variance. Results reveal that the highest numbers of species, families and stems were exploited in the free areas when compared with what was exploited from the reserves for the three-year period. However, the total volume of trees removed from the reserves was significantly higher (p<0.05) than what was removed from the free areas. A total 60 different indigenous hardwood species in 25 families were exploited from the free areas, and 57 in 23 families from the reserves. The total number of stems exploited from the forest ecosystem of Ondo state during the three-year period stood at 111 377 with an estimated volume of 295 089.67 m 3 . While the mean number of stems and volume exploited per annum is 37 125 and 98 363.22 m 3 , respectively. The monthly average number of stems and volume is 3 094 and 8 196 m 3 , respectively. The t-test results show that there were significant differences (p<0.05) in number of stems and volume removed from the free areas and the reserves. The ANOVA results reveal a significant increase (p<0.05) in logging activities between the years of 2003 and 2004 but there was a decline in year 2005. This trend reveals that economic timber species were disappearing from the forests and the ecosystem was seriously disturbed during logging activities. Principles for achieving the goals of sustainable forest management (SFM) and urgent conservation measures to mitigate the consequences of The online version is available at http://www.springerlink.com

Phytoecological studies of some protected and degraded forest areas of Lowland Humid forest, Ondo state Nigeria: a Comparative approach

“…As a result, there is reduction in tree species richness, abundance and evenness of the ecosystem (Lafrankie et al 2006) which is not creditable to biodiversity conservation. The tree species distribution into families agrees with the work of Adekunle et al (2010) who indicated that the tropical rainforest ecosystem of southwest Nigeria is dominated by some specific families such as the Sterculiaceae, Meliaceae, Moraceae and Ebeneceae. Isichei (1995) also reported that Nigerian rainforest ecosystem is dominated by members of Sterculiaceae, Moraceae, Ulmaceae and Meliaceae families.…”

Floristic composition, diversity and community structure in a secondary rainforest in Ibadan, Nigeria

“…The high number of species composition of Fabaceae and Moraceae in Nigeria rainforest has widely been documented (Salami and Lawal, 2018). This aligns with the findings of Adekunle et al (2010) and Adekunle (2016) who reported that families such as Sterculiaceae, Meliaceae, Moraceae and Ebenaceae dominate the tropical rainforest of southwest Nigeria. The ability of Moraceae to produce a large number of seeds and quickly establish itself may account for their high presence and this was confirmed by Deka et al (2012).…”

Interspecific Comparisons with Chloroplast SSR Loci Reveal Limited Genetic Variation in Nigerian Montane Forests: A Study onCordia Millenii(West African Cordia),Entandrophragma Angolense(Tiama Mahogany), andLovoa Trichilioides(African Walnut)

“…is a shade-intolerant, animaldispersed Boraginaceae species [27,30], considered to be of Least Concern on the IUCN Red List [31]. All three tree species are under pressure from logging in Nigeria [32][33][34]. These three species share a similar geographic range (from West to East Africa), though the distribution of African walnut is not as extensive as that of West African Cordia or tiama mahogany [28,29,31].…”