Rainforest degradation in southern Nigeria: role of forestry institutions

The exclusionary ‘top-down’ and management models that were introduced by the colonial administration in the governance of Nigeria’s rainforest over a century ago have endured till present day in the federal and state forestry services. From the establishment of the Nigerian Forestry Department (FD) towards the end of the 20th century, the post-independence era through to contemporary times; the exploitation of Nigeria’s most diverse forest under the guise of sustainable forest management went through a range of management regimes. Timber Rules, Proclamations and Ordinances are all based on the colonial models. For over a century, the country’s forest policies and institutional frameworks have been designed towards boosting revenues or economic fortunes of the state. Sadly, all forestry policies enunciated in the past, and indeed up to contemporary times, were subsumed within the bureaucratic civil service system that relies basically on ‘fences and fines approach’. Also, is the belligerent and divisive land tenure and land use systems, that were heaved upon the people through Ordinances during the colonial era and also by the 1978 Land Use Act. These policies did not only nationalised all lands in Nigeria authoritatively, but also made excruciating impacts on both the rainforest and the people whose livelihoods are dependent on it. Over time, the rainforest ecosystem has been progressively turned into mere vestiges – triggering irreversible damage to species and ecosystems; and weakening the livelihood systems of forest-dependent populations. While it is imperative to replace the obsolete policies and incongruent institutional frameworks at all levels of government with good participatory governance, intensified efforts should be made towards confronting direct drivers of rainforest degradation (e.g. surge in human population) and other cross-cutting elements in the rainforest degradation equation.