0123-A2
Joseph Adeola Fuwape 1
Forests in West Africa form a veritable base from which substantial proportion of the populace derives their source of livelihood. The forests have over the years contributed immensely to the socio-economic development in all the countries in West Africa Sub-region. Between 1950 and 1970 the newly independent nations in West Africa relied on the national forest resources to build capital base for economic development. Logging activities were very high in the tropical forest vegetation in Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Republic of Benin, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Nigeria and Cameroon. Many forest-based industries were also established in these countries. Thus the forestry sector ranks among the highest revenue and employment generating sectors in West Africa. The forests do not only serve as source of raw materials to the industries, they also provide employment opportunities to thousand of people. Apart from timber resources, the forest is also very rich in variety of non-timber products that provide food, medicine, energy, shelter and recreational facilities for people in both rural and urban centers in West Africa. The forests and trees also provide a way to express human, cultural and spiritual values. The forests play important roles in the amelioration of weather pattern and climate, provision of clean air, protection of biological diversity, protection of soil and food crops and carbon sequestration. The forest play important role in the environment to maintain biodiversity and conserve soil and water.
The high rate of increase in population, urbanization and demand for other forms of land use has put the forests under pressure. The rate of reduction of land under forest has been very rapid and alarming. The natural forest can no longer sustain the demand on it for timber, food and other forms of livelihood.
It is important that the forest should be managed on sustained yield basis for the production of goods and services.
The concept of sustainability in all its facets: ecological, economic and social is vital to forest management in order not to jeopardize the other goods, services and benefits of the forests.
The objective of this paper is to review the contributions of forest recourses of West Africa in satisfying human needs and demands, poverty alleviation, cultural and spiritual needs and economic development. The paper is grouped into sub-topics:
The contribution of forestry sector to the national economy is usually reflected in terms of GDP share, balance of payment impact or export revenue, industrial output, employment or income generation. The contribution of forestry to national economy in macro-economic terms is usually undervalued in West Africa due to their peculiar accounting system.
Forestry activities and the operations of the forest industries offer a lot of job opportunities. Sources of forest-based employment are many and diverse but only a few of them are recorded. The different stages of log harvesting, transportation and sawing are labour intensive and many people in the rural area are employed. The present level of technological development in West Africa necessitates that most tree felling and processing operations are done manually. For example in Nigeria where the sawlog production rate is 6,240,000 m3 per annum, it has been estimated that about 40,600 people are employed in tree felling and transportation, while 160,800 labourers are employed per annum in primary log processing.
Sawmills are the most widespread forest-based industries and one of the largest employer of rural labour. The integrated wood industries that offer employment to rural people include the Plywood and Veneer Mills, particularly mills and furniture factories.
In the secondary wood processing industries, the furniture, boat building and pole treatment factories also offer employment to rural dwellers. Forest services such as recreation, hunting and tourism also offer new sources of forestry employment. The statistics of the number of jobs provided by the forestry sector is usually compromised due to the patrimonial nature of some forestry activities and the fact that crafts play a major role in the secondary forest industry. Estimation is also made complicated by the number of self-employed people who are involved in collection, processing and marketing of non-timber forest products.
The non-timber forest product (NTFPs) of the State are all biological materials other than timber, industrial roundwood and pulpwood that are extracted from the forest. NTFPs are derived from large variety of plants and animals and may be consumed or processed into different set of products. The quantity and types of NTFPs that are available in different parts of the sub-region depend on the vegetation type of such location. Different types of non-timber forest products are available in the mangrove, rainforest and derived savanna.
The important functions of NTFPs ranged from economic to social, cultural and religious. Fuwape and Onyekwelu (1997) reported that NTFPs provide food, medicine, handicraft, tannin, dyes and cosmetics. The use of NTFPs for traditional medicine was ranked as the most important in Ondo State, Nigeria followed by its use for food, craft and cosmetics (Akindele, 1992). The popular acceptance of NTFPs for medicinal purpose was attributed to the socio-economic status of the people and their confidence in the efficacy of herbal medicine.
The sale of NTFPs in local market provides income for people in the rural area. Some people also engage in the collection and sales of leaves, fruits, seeds and roots of forest trees as source of livelihood.
Handicraft enterprise is one of the most predominant cottage industries in the rural areas. It provides employment opportunity and income to the people. A lot of NTFPs are very valuable as craft materials. Plant fibres from Raphia spp. and palm trees are used in making brooms, ropes, fishing nets, baskets and mats.
Rattan and climbing palms are also used for building and construction of furniture items. Rattan furniture items are now commonly used in homes and recreation centres. These furniture items have been found to be good, attractive, comfortable, presentable and economical.
Tannin and dyes are also obtained from the bark and roots of some trees. Substantial quantity of tannin have been extracted from Mangrove trees (Rhizophora spp)., Khaya spp. and Entandrophragma spp.
The forest in West Africa contains different types of non-timber products in large quantities. These products have both economic and social importance in the life of the people. Some of these products can supply raw materials to sustain different cottage industries in the rural areas.
There are six distinct ecological zones in West Africa, these include: Mangrove or swamp forest, Rainforest, Guinea Savanna, Sudan Savanna Sahel Savanna and Desert.
The mangrove forest covers the land area around the coast especially in Nigeria, Republic of Benin, Togo, Ivory Coast, Sierra Leon, and Liberia. Fresh water swamp also exist in river valleys subject to flood. The main tree species in the mangrove forest are Rhizophora racemosa, R. harriconni, R. mangle and Avicenia nitida. These tree species are used for construction and as fuelwood while tannin is also extracted from the mangrove trees. The common trees species in the fresh water swamp include Alstonia congensis, ficus spp., Cleistopholis patens, Berlinia auriculata, Grewia coriacea and Raphia spp.
The rain forest is jut north of the mangrove. It occupies the central part of Liberia, Sierra Leone, Southern part of Ivory Coast, South Western part of Ghana and Southern Nigeria. The main trees in this ecozone belong to the families: Meliaceae
Leguminosae, Moracea, Ulmaceae and Steculiacea. Most of the preferred timber species such as K. ivorensis, K.grandifolia, M.ultisima, M.exselsa, Lovoa spp, Lophira spp. Stercula and T. Scleroxylon are found in this zone. Numerous nontimber products such as rattan, chewing stick, palm wine, Irvingia spp.., Bread fruit trees are also derived from this zone.
The Guinea Savanna vegetation is a transition between the Sudan Savanna and rain forest. The Guinea Savanna occupies spreads through central part of Senegal, Gambia, Northern part of Liberia, northern part of Ivory Coast, Southern part of Mali, Burkina Faso, Central and Northern part of Ghana, Togo, Republic of Benin and middle belt of Nigeria.
The common trees in this area include Lophira alata Terminalia spp. Daniella oliveri, Vitex doniana, Aflexia africana, Cassia sp and Acasia spp. Many valuable timber species in these eco-region are found very close to the rainforest and in the riparian forest. The non-timber forest products derived in the zone include, locust bean, baobab fruit Shea butter, tamarinds, Gum arabic and varieties of local fruit trees.
The Sudan Savanna extends across the northern belt of West Africa covering areas around central part of Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, Northern part of Republic of Benin, Northern Nigeria and Niger Republic. The Sudan Savanna is predominantly occupied by grass, dum and fan-palms.
The sahel savanna occupies the land arid north of latitude 17o N it spread across northern part of Senegal, through Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger Republic. The vegetation is characterised by feathery grass, interspersed with thorny trees. Non-timber products that are used as food and medicine are the major forest resources in this area. The desert patches in West Africa are found in Northern part of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger Republic.
Investment in the forestry sector depends on the status of the forest cover, demand for forest products and growth in population. The high population growth rate and accelerated urbanisation have resulted in increase in demand for forest products in West Africa. Over the years much exploitation of the forest has been done in order to meet the increasing demand of the teeming population. This has resulted in serious depletion of the forest resources base to the extent that some favoured timber species have been scarce while others have become extinct in certain ecological zones.
The forest resources base has been further reduced as result of the conversion of many forest areas to farmlands and housing estates. The natural forest resources in Nigeria decreased at the rate of 1570 ha per year between 1978 and 1995 (FORMECU 1998.
Measures must therefore be taken to stop deforestation by investing in reforestation and forest management. The problems with reforestation activities have been due to inadequate funding, lack of cooperation by land users and lack of appreciation by the public of the value of forests and forest cover as well as narrow perception of forestry practice.
It has been reported that over 70% of the total domestic energy consumed in the rural communities of West Africa is generated from fuel-wood (FAO, 1983). Almost all the people living in rural areas in West Africa depend on fuel-wood for cooking.
Fuel-wood is the dominant source of energy throughout the developing countries (Earl, 1976 and Fuwape, 1993). About 13% of the world's primary energy was derived from forest biomass in 1987 (Hall and Groot, 1988) while two thousand million people in the rural communities of the developing countries depend on biofuel for domestic cooking, steam raising, heat generation and crop drying (FA, 1986). Fuel-wood constitutes 30-84% of total energy consumption per annum in Latin America and 57-90% of total energy consumption per annum in Africa (Vergnet, 1987). The average consumption of fuel-wood per person in the developing countries is estimated to be 0.8m3/year (FAO, 1983). Approximately 80% of the total energy used for domestic needs per annum in rural areas in Nigeria, Kenya, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Senegal, Ivory Coast and Namibia are sourced from charcoal and firewood (Ayensua et al, 1981; Vergnet, 1987; Fuwape 1993).
Demand for fuel-wood is in general terms is more than the supply in some countries located in semi-arid region. About 245 million people in Africa: especially in Northern Nigeria, Madagascar, Congo, Uganda, Botswana, Ethiopia, Chad, Senegal, Mali, Guinea, Cameroon, Kenya, Tanzania, Angola, Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Burundi, Somalia and Burkina Faso were affected by acute fuel-wood scarcity in 1980 (FAO, 1981). In order to avoid further environmental and ecological degradation that scarcity of fuel-wood may cause, it is necessary to consider methods of alleviating the current fuel-wood crisis. Growing more trees may solve the problem of acute scarcity and deficit supply of wood. The concept of growing high-yield multipurpose plantation trees under short rotation and intensive culture (SRIC) has been introduced (Hansen, 1991). Such multi-purpose trees, in addition to providing fuel-wood may also be sources of forage for livestock, silkworms, herbal medicine, gums, dyes and vegetable oil. The selection of SRIC energy plantation tree species depends on the ease of tree propagation, initial growth, biomass yield, ability of the trees to coppice after harvest and good wood combustion characteristics (Lucas and Fuwape 1982). Some of the suggested tree species for fuel-wood plantation are: Acacia auricliformis Casuarina equisetifolia, Gliricidia Sepium, Gmelina arborea, Sesbania grandifolia for humid areas and Acacia species. Albizia lebbeck, Azadirachta indica, Cajanus cajan, Cassia siamea and Encalyptus species for arid and semi arid regions (Ayensua et al 1981).
Forestry has made substantial contributions to the economy of West Africa. The demand for forest products is expected to continue to increase thus there is need for reforestation and effective management of forest resources. In order to be able to harness the full potentials of the forest resources on sustainable basis, the following concluding remarks and recommendations are regarded as important:
1. The forest resources: in West Africa are still able to sustain well-planned investment for economic development. Integrated wood industries may be established to utilise the abundant forest plantation wood resources while cottage industries may be established to produce adhesives, dyes, cosmetics and handicrafts from the varieties of non-timbers forest products.
2. The establishment of forest plantation has been recognised as means of supplementing wood resources from the natural forest in order to meet the demand for wood and wood products. Plantation grown wood is now being used as lumber for construction purposes.
3. Most of the small-scale sawmills in West Africa do not have modern log processing facilities. Therefore log processing is characterised with low lumber recovery and high quantity of wood residues.
4. The operations of the forest-based industries (especially wood industries) in West Africa are negatively affected by frequent interruptions in public electric power supply and scarcity of petroleum products.
5. Forest management in West Africa started with well-articulated and sound practices but degenerated with time. Consequently there has been disregard for standard forest management techniques.
6. The stakeholders especially people in the communities and investors are not usually consulted or involved in formulating forest policies and management plans.
1. The forest must be managed on sustained yield basis. Appropriate forestry policies should be put in place.
2. Government should provide adequate fund and facilities to the forestry department. Training should be provided for forestry staff in forest management an administration.
3. More plantations of exotic species like Teak (Tectona grandis) and indigeneous species should be established to ensure supply of timber. There should be an aggressive move towards Teak plantation establishment in order to supplement supply from natural forest.
4. The establishment of integrated wood industries should b e encouraged while small sawmill holdings should be effectively controlled to minimise wastage of wood resources.
5. Government involvement in Wood Industry should be reviewed. Government should ensure a stable macroeconomic environment to improve the overall business climate and strengthen the degree of confidence of both foreign and local investors in the economy.
6. The present forest management practices must be restructured. Management plans for the forest resources should be strictly adhered to, the forest reserves must be well monitored.
7. Political will must be secured to ensure that forestry initiatives are upheld, the level of public awareness of the value of forests must be increased while Non-Governmental organisations and Donor agencies should be encouraged to play more active roles in forestry development.
1 Department of Forestry and Wood Technology,
Federal University of Technology, P. M.B. 704, Akure