Nick Ashton-Jones, with Oronto Douglas and Susi Arnott

“ State governments are generally ignorant of the potential financial value of the forests and effectively give away logging concessions or land use concessions as political favours or in return for favours. Local People, on the other hand, may also be ignorant of the financial value of the forest but may in any case be unable to take advantage of the market for forest products. Either way the forest does not yield its potential financial returns and is therefore not seen as something that is valuable. ”

“ In this chapter the forests are considered as a resource which is useful to mankind.
Forests constitute the most valuable renewable resource in the Niger Delta, which after Cross River State, has the largest area of relatively undisturbed forest in Nigeria and probably West Africa. The resource is especially valuable because the hot humid climate of the Niger Delta encourages the fast regeneration of forest, so that the economic returns are far greater than for forests in other biomes. ”

“ The condition of these forests is that some are lost to agro-industrial rice and oil palm, small-farmer rice, urban uses, and oil extraction related activities. All accessible areas are depleted, and are cultured close to settlements. In less accessible areas the forest is depleted or natural.
Within the Niger Delta, these forests probably have the highest economic value in terms of all forest resources, particularly timber, but they are under greatest threat from both small farmer and agro-industrial agricultural expansion. ”

“ Nonetheless it is necessary to make the effort so that the costs of losing forest are fully understood by political leaders and their advisers. For instance a proposal to convert high yielding natural forest to an oil-palm plantation might analyse costs and benefits upon the following basis.
The problem with current methods of Economic Cost Benefit Analysis is that it they do not adequately take into account the future value of forests because the present value of the income from a forest in 25 years time is negligible. ”

“ The bottom line for the villager is survival: if she cannot feed and support her family from the forest as it stands, then it must go for farmland. The bottom line for the state government is to maximise income for the period that a particular regime is in office. ”

“ If they were to be established on the most degraded agricultural soils, perhaps around a surviving forest shrine or beside a riverine forest, and properly managed by the local community, such forests would give higher returns than current arable agricultural practices and could therefore be attractive to Local People. Also, these restored forests would have the additional economic advantages of improved and more biodiverse ecosystems. Such forests would supply local timber needs for construction and joinery, which are currently imported into the area. ”

“ Elsewhere in the Delta large areas of forest are intact in their various conditions because of their comparative inaccessibility for large-scale logging or plantation activities, compared with other parts of Southern Nigeria. However as forest resources are used up in these parts, the FAM ecozone of the Niger Delta, in particular, becomes more economically attractive
Small businessmen and Local People have, nonetheless, found it economically worthwhile to exploit timber in some of the most inaccessible areas of the Fresh-Water ecozone since the 1960s and perhaps earlier. ”

“ These usually are greatly in favour of the forest, often because the management costs of a forest are so much less than of plantations. Moreover NTFP prices are rather less elastic than the prices of plantation products: future prices of mahogany are likely to be a good deal more stable than cocoa prices.
We stress, however, that forestry will only be attractive if cash returns reach the man in government house or in the village. If it does they will fight to retain the forests. If it does not, the forest and future income will be lost. ”

“ Where the bigger trees have been removed, where some of the populations of the larger animals are reduced or extinct, and where other forest products are exploited to some degree, these are forest ecosystems which operate much as natural forests. ”

“ Hard pressed decision-makers, (whether they are state governors wanting to pay salaries or villagers wanting to eat and pay school fees) are, understandably, more interested in immediate financial returns. ”

“ The forest condition here is mostly lost, degraded and cultured.
Competition for arable agriculture is intense but there is some potential for reforestation along the lines described for the LEM ecozone above, and in conjunction with agroforestry techniques described in chapter 17. ”