Assignment on FWL 312.2: Agroforestry

Your community’s population is rapidly increasing while the available farmlands are decreasing due the expansion of settlements to accommodate the growing population; a situation that threatens food security. As an agroforestry student, how will you convince your community to adopt agroforestry in order to maximize food production on the available farmlands and ensure food security?

New release - Career Prospects in Forestry and Wildlife Management

About the Book

Despite the unending global advocacy for sustainable forest management and a greener planet, Nigeria still lacks adequate hands to tackle the contemporary conservation problems, and there exists palpable lack of interest in studying Forestry and Wildlife Management among the Nigerian youths; a trend that is quite inimical to our collective desire to achieve sustainable development and bequeath a habitable planet to posterity.The book was written out of a dire need to arouse interest in Forestry and Wildlife Management among the Nigerian youths in general and students in particular. It is loaded with vital information on career opportunities in forestry and wildlife management. It also provides a perfect and complete answer to a  question frequently asked by the Forestry and Wildlife  Student: “What can I become with Forestry and Wildlife Management?” by providing a compendium of Nigerians who have excelled in different areas of endeavour, with the course. The Appendix provides a list of over 100 forestry- and wildlife-related websites.

Emeritus Professor D.U.U. Okali: A Forest Ecologist Per Excellence

Professor D.U.U. Okali was born in 1936 at Abiriba in Abia State, Nigeria. He is an Emeritus Professor of Forest Ecology at the Department of Forest Resources Management, University of Ibadan, Nigeria, and the immediate past President of the Nigerian Academy of Science. He retired from the University of Ibadan in 2001 after 38 years of university teaching, research and administration, having taught, supervised and mentored many Nigerians and non-Nigerians now in prominent positions in national and international service.

Besides contributing to the development of high calibre human resources as above, Professor Okali has helped to advance knowledge in many aspects of tropical forest ecology, principally on tree growth rates and water relations, forest hydrology, rain forest regeneration and applied ecology in agro-forestry. He has been in the forefront of the development of national awareness and action on environmental resources management and conservation. As Chairman of the National Committee of UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Programme in Nigeria from 1978 to 2001, he was instrumental to organizing studies, workshops and state of knowledge publications on the major Nigerian biomes of rain forest, savanna, and wetlands. A comprehensive survey of the biodiversity of rain forest at Omo Biosphere Reserve was also accomplished under his chairmanship of the MAB National Committee. He carried out the forest studies leading to the setting up of the Cross River National Park as a conservation area of international importance being contiguous with the Korup National Park in Cameroun. Studies led by Professor Okali produced a comprehensive inventory of the biodiversity as well as guidelines for the wise use of the resources of the Hadejia Nguru Wetlands, contributing to the selection of that site as the first Ramsar site in Nigeria. His current contribution to environmental management focuses on the topical issue of climate change, in which he is leading project work on building Nigeria’s response to the global problem. The project seeks to identify adaptation options that will enhance the national effort at combating poverty while reducing our contribution to causing the problem and the risks from its impact.

On institutional building, Professor Okali participated in the founding, and has remained a principal driver of the highly effective environmental non-governmental organization, the Nigerian Environmental Study/Action Team (NEST), and as President of the Nigerian Academy of Science (2006 – 2009), he mobilized the scientific community in the country to interface with government, the public, the private sector and international bodies. He has served and still serves in national and international policy-making bodies such as committees of the Federal Ministries of Environment and Science and Technology, member Advisory Group of UNDP Africa 2000 Network Programme (1989 – 1995), member Expert Panel on Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) with regard to Genetic Resources, UN Convention on Biodiversity (1999), and the Board of the African Forest Research Network (AFORNET).

Professor Okali was a Visiting Professor of Agroforestry at Yale University, School of Forestry and Environmental Studies in 1987; Visiting Professor of Tropical Forest Ecology, also at Yale University, School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, July - December, 1983; Visiting Professor in Ecology, Imo State University, January - June, 1983; and Head, Department of Forest Resources Management, University of Ibadan, 1979 -1982. His other organizational and administrative experiences include among others: Member, Advisory Panel and Steering Committee, NigeriaCAN (2008 to date); Member expert Panel on Climate Change, African Forest Forum (2009 to date); Chairman, Project Steering Committee and Co-Director Building Nigeria’s Response to Climate Change (BNRCC) Project, funded by CIDA, (2007 to date); Vice-President, Network of African Science Academies (NASAC) (2007 – 2009 ); President, Nigerian Field Society (2005 to 2010); Chairman, Project Management Team, Canada-Nigeria Climate Change Capacity Development Project (2001-2004); Chairman, Steering Committee of Nigeria NGO Consultative Forum (NINCOF) (1995 – 2000); Member Expert List for the Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel (STAP) of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) (1993); Member Board of Directors of Earthcare Africa, Nairobi, Kenya (1993); Member International Advisory Group for the Population Programme of the MacArthur Foundation (1992); Member Focal Point Secretariat for UNCED National Report (1991); Member Editorial Boards of Journal of Tropical Forest Resources, Journal of Tropical Ecology (1985-1992), Forest Ecology & Management (1978-1982), Nigerian Journal of Agricultural Sciences, The Nigerian Field, Nigerian Journal of Basic and Applied Sciences and Journal of Agriculture, Science and Technology; Chairman, Management Board of the Zoological Garden, University of Ibadan (1981-1984); and Member, Forestry Commission, Imo State (1978-1980).

His professional affiliations, fellowships and honours include: FAO Fellow, Oxford University, (1966-1968); Member, British Ecological Society (1961 -2000); Member, Ecological Society of Nigeria; Member, Agricultural Society of Nigeria; Member, Nigerian Field Society; Yamani Fellow, University College of North Wales, Bangor, UK, (1988); Fellow, Nigerian Academy of Science (FAS); Fellow, Forestry Association of Nigeria (FFAN); Fellow, Academy of Sciences for the Developing World (TWAS); Member, New York Academy of Sciences; and D.Sc.(Honoris Causa), Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike (2009).

Professor Okali supervised so many students both at the undergraduate and graduate levels. He was equally an external examiner to many universities both within and outside Nigeria; and an assessor for professorship and associate professorship (readership) to so many universities. He has consulted for several reputable organisations including the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN), African Academy of Science (AAS), AFORNET, World Bank, UK Department for International Development (DFID), Commonwealth Foundation, African Forest Forum, and Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). He has over 160 high quality publications to his credit. Professor Okali is married with five children.

Source: Chima, U.D. (2012). Career Prospects in Forestry and Wildlife Management. Emhai Publishing Company, Port Harcourt, 255pp. ISBN: 978 – 33527 – 09 – 2 

Be Forest-Friendly, Aiyeloja Advices Varsity Community

Acting Head, Department of Forestry and Wildlife Management [University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria] – Dr Adedapo Aiyeloja, has advised the University Community to promote actions that can sustain the forest for it to continue to provide essential goods and services to mankind.
Dr. Aiyeloja gave the advice while speaking as a Guest Lecturer at this year’s World Environment Day (WED) celebration in the University organised by the Campus Environmental Beautification and Sanitation (CEBAS) Unit, with the theme: Forests: Nature At Your Service, at the Ebitimi Banigo Auditorium, University Park, last Monday.
The Gusest Lecturer, who stated that forest is paramount to the survival of man due to its advantageous effects on biodiversity, economy, livelihood and socio-cultural and religious values, stressed the need to explore its tourist and recreational potentials, reiterating the popular saying that “when the last tree dies, the last man dies”. ...In his address, the Vice Chancellor, Professor Joseph Ajienka, appealed to the University Community to change their negative attitudes towards environmental issues and adopt the Donate-a-Tree-Today Campaign of CEBAS to the preserve the environment....
By Otikor Samuel
Source: Uniport Weekly Vol. 5 No. 3, June 13-20, 2011

Mining in Africa

The natural and environmental resources of Africa like land, minerals, gas, oil, timber, territorial waters among others have been the object of the persistent scramble for the continent. Natural resources are often at the heart of the scramble for Africa.

Behind the political and military interventions by Coalitions of Western powers outside or under the auspices of the United Nations in countries such as Somalia, Sudan, The Democratic Republic of Congo, The Comoros, Chad, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Central African Republic, Liberia, and of late Libya and Ivory Coast is the issue of access to and redistribution of the resources of Africa.

In the full glare of international military might, the Democratic Republic of Congo signed and sealed some of the worst forms of mining contracts with transnational corporations of a number of the western countries seeking to maintain peace in that country. These contracts up-scaled the grip of transnational mining companies on the mineral resources of DRC.

The rise of foreign direct investment and by extension the rise of capitalist accumulation presupposes the subordination of local productive sectors including alienation of communities from their land. The process of accumulation squeezes value from all other sectors of the economy and the state apparatus. It also then means decreased possibilities of the African state to intervene when and where it matters most.

The extractive sector of Africa, in particular mining and petroleum has been the foremost receipt of the FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) flows to Africa and is one of the areas in which the displacement of whole communities and dispossession of millions of rural populations from access to land through the process of capitalist accumulation clearly manifest. The accompanying disorganization of their economic and social relations remains one of the persistent features of communities in mineral and petroleum extraction areas in Africa.

Resource extraction involves several stages from exploration, site preparation and development, production, processing to decommissioning. Each of the different stages require large tracks of land to facilitate the extraction and refinery of these resources.

Between 1990 and 1998, a single large-scale open mine in Tarkwa in Western Ghana displaced a total of 14 communities with a population of over 30,000. This displacement resulted in a net loss of over 7000 jobs in the area as people lost access to land and could not also be employed by the mine due to skills mismatch. Again Newmont Ahafo mine project in the north-west of Ghana displaced over 355 households in Kenyasi area alone.

Another project of Newmont in Eastern Ghana is set to displace one whole village with a population of over 300 men and women. In addition, implementation of the project would result in destruction of 1465 hectares of land and lost of 3057 farm holdings belonging to 1,208 individuals.

Further, the project would destroy 74 hectares (13%) of the Ajenua Bepo forest Reserve one of the last vestiges of Ghana's forest reserves. Along the West Coast of Ghana, more than 72 villages are complaining of access to fishing grounds due to the intensity of offshore oil exploration and production.

The different types of capital competing for land in Africa i.e. land for local production versus land for food production and export to foreign markets; land for biofuel plantations; and land held as an asset title for financial market activity including trading and speculation further pushes farmers away from local production and undermines the potential growth and development of domestic agriculture, livelihoods and sense of communal ownership.

In Africa, particularly sub-Saharan Africa, most people still live in rural areas, where they farm crops and livestock or derive other livelihoods from land and land-related activities. Land is thus a critical and an indispensable natural and environmental resource. Further to being a factor of production, store of value, space for shelter and recreation, and disposal of waste for animals and human beings, land is also an object that defines a constellation of social and political relations in rural communities.

Rural communities in Africa are already marginalized in terms of access to formal employment, education, health, safe water all year round, and other economic infrastructure. The basis of the popular struggles in communities affected by mining and oil extraction across the continent has been to redress the injustice of being deprived from land, the destruction of livelihoods, the disproportionate share of benefits accruing to mining companies, and general lack of developmental impact.

Clearly it is the liberalized framework that has been the benchmark for agreements that facilitate the massive transfers of land and general expropriation of Africa's natural resources. In the same but opposite measure, the still incoherent and unplanned new phase of land grab can also become a compelling argument for policy and developmental alternatives.

Excerpted and adapted from: “Mining to Undermine Access to Land”, Abdulai Darimani, Third World Network-Africa, 20 April 2011, published in Mines and Communities, http://www.minesandcommunities.org/article.php?a=10858

Source: WRM's bulletin Nº; 167 June 2011

Nigeria: The Devastating Flames of Abacha Coal-Pots and the People’s Forests

The political instabilities in Nigeria during Abacha's regime in 1993/94, which was an aftermath of the annulment of June 12, 1992 presidential election won by the late business mogul -Chief M.K.O. Abiola- created an acute scarcity of kerosene that was seriously felt in different parts of the country. The kerosene scarcity led to the invention of “Abacha Coal-Pot” – a locally made cooking stove that uses charcoal.

Over the years, the cooking technology Abacha Coal-Pot, has been widely accepted, and the use spread rapidly, due to incessant increases in the prices of kerosene and cooking gas. In Nigeria, the official price of kerosene per litre has been increased by more than 200% over the last decade and presently, it is sold at an unofficial price that is almost 100% more than the current official price of about US$0.5. This ugly trend has given a boost to the charcoal trade in different parts of the country and now, the people's forests are suffering.

The charcoal business, which is about the most thriving business in Oke Ogun area of Oyo State -an area that houses the Old Oyo National Park- has extended to different parts of Kwara, Lagos, and Ogun States.

In Saki --an ancient town and the largest town in Oke Ogun area--, there is no street without a mega dealer who is patronized by wholesalers and retailers even from the neighbouring States. The business is getting so organized that different stakeholders have their associations. Presently, there are strong indications that the dealers have started exporting charcoal as trailers, carrying containers, now come to Saki to convey charcoal to Lagos, which is a coastal state. There is no doubt that this would spell further disaster for the forests of the area.

Unlike the land expropriation cases of the Twa in Rwanda, the Ogiek in Kenya, the Batwa in Uganda, the Amerindians in Guyana and the Suramaka in Suriname, this is a pathetic case where the people, aided by economic hardship orchestrated by insensitive administrations, are destroying their forests at an alarming and unprecedented rate.

The impacts, which traverse economic, social and environmental spheres, are quite enormous and devastating. The old-growth forests are almost gone and now, the attention of producers is shifting to previously less preferred species including exotics. The prices of wood-based products have increased tremendously over the last decade due to scarcity of wood. There is felt reduced food production as people have abandoned farming for the more lucrative charcoal business. The environment is seriously being polluted and there have been some cases of clashes due to illegal encroachment on other people's forests to cut wood for charcoal production.

To make the matter worse, the respective governments have not made and are not making concerted efforts to discourage or stop the trend. There are no serious enlightenment campaigns to educate and sensitize people especially on the environmental consequences of the charcoal business. While there is no deterrent legislation on the charcoal business in the affected States, Kwara State --probably because of its fragile savanna vegetation--, had sometime announced a ban on the use of charcoal, though, this has not been enforced. The people insist that government should show seriousness on their own part by reducing the prices of kerosene and cooking gas.

As a result of the rapidly spreading nature of the cooking technology and the concomitant impacts on the environment, there is an urgent need for governments (Federal, State and Local) and the Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) to intervene. Governments should come up with appropriate legislation to stop the use of Abacha Coal-Pots and charcoal business. For this legislation to work, governments should make kerosene and cooking gas affordable. NGOs and governments should provide households and other users of Abacha Coal-Pots with kerosene stoves and empower them to use them. Alternative means of livelihoods should also be provided for those that depend on the charcoal business especially the forest dwellers who produce or sell their trees to producers. More importantly, the degraded forests should be restored. The time to act is now! The devastating flames of Abacha Coal-Pots must be quenched to save the people's forests.

By: Chima, Uzoma Darlington, Indigenous Peoples Rights Crusaders, email: punditzum@yahoo.ca

Source: WRM's bulletin Nº 106, May 2006

Nigeria: Tree plantations at the expense of forests and forest people’s livelihoods

The Omo Forest Reserve –located in the South west of Nigeria- was legally constituted as a forest reserve by Order No. 10 of 1925 and the Order was amended in 1952. The forest was practically unexplored by then. The forest was ceded to Government for reservation on the 8th of October, 1918. The agreement was made between the District Officer, Ijebu Ode on behalf of the British Colonial government and the Awujale of Ijebu Ode on behalf of the Ijebu Native administration. The Omo Forest Reserve, which is 1305.5km2, is divided into Area J1 –J3 (519.3km2), Area J4 (565.8km2), Area J6 (220.4km2), and enclaves (65km2) (Ola-Adams, 1999).

A survey conducted in the reserve between 1916 and 1918 reported the existence of 5 villages, a total of 30 settlements and a human population of 610 (300 males, 190 females and 120 children). Settlements have continued to increase in number and sizes, and the present population of the reserve cannot be less than 25,000; and the number of people deriving benefit from it estimated at between 80,000 and 100,000 (Karimu, 1999).

The reserve lies within a tropical lowland rainforest (otherwise known as high forest). The forest in its undisturbed form had the most complex and productive vegetation type in the country. The high forest is part of the Guinea-Congolean tropical moist forest zone and it is estimated that the system supports about 8,000 species of plants. Part of the southern portion of the reserve falls within the original mahogany belt in the system.

As a result of continuous human activities especially logging and establishment of monoculture tree plantations by the Ogun State Forestry Plantation Project, the vegetation pattern in Omo has changed remarkably. The original vegetation of the reserve now occupies about 0.3 % of the total area, with the disturbed (logged) forests, monoculture plantations and farming areas occupying about 60%, 30% and 10% respectively. Not less than 35,775 logs of sixty-five tree species are removed annually from Omo Forest Reserve (NFWSG, 1994 cited by Ola-Adams, 1999).

The precursor of the Ogun State Forestry Plantation Project started in 1966 as Gmelina Pulpwood Plantation Project. The purpose of the Project was to raise Gmelina arborea plantations for pulpwood that would feed Iwopin Pulp and Paper Mill.

The Western State Government funded the project up to 1972 when a total of 2,000 hectares of Gmelina arborea plantation was established in Area J6 of the reserve. Between 1973 and 1979, the Federal Government of Nigeria sustained the project with grants for additional 6,000 hectares of plantations of Gmelina.

Ogun State through the Federal Government of Nigeria then took a loan from World Bank and utilized it to raise a further 10,000 hectares of Gmelina arborea from 1980 to 1987.

At the approach of the termination of the World Bank loan in 1987, African Development Bank (ADB) was contacted for a continuation loan to proceed with the project. The loan was granted and became effective as from 1989. By the end of the ADB assisted portion of the project around 1995/96, the project had established 23,130 hectares of plantation. The ugly trend still continues till date with funds from Ogun State Government.

The resultant effect of these unsustainable practices is increased hardship on the forest communities. In a recent study conducted by the Indigenous Peoples Rights Crusaders (IPRC), forest dwellers interviewed in most of the enclaves reported a fall in the quality and quantity of forest resources with continuous forest degradation through over exploitation. The resources mentioned include bush meat (which constituted their major source of animal protein), timber and non- timber forest products.

Even with the presence of World Bank and ADB in the reserve, the Ogun State Government has not made concerted effort to ameliorate the sufferings of the forest dwellers either through the provision of infrastructural facilities and social amenities like accessible roads, electricity, good water supply, or the provision of alternative means of livelihood for them.

Due to the very poor state of roads in the reserve, movement of goods and people within the reserve and the nearby towns is always very difficult and expensive. This has culminated in a very high cost of living in a community dominated by very indigent people.

In the enclaves visited by the IPRC, there was no good source of drinking water. The enclaves depend on contaminated perennial streams which are becoming seasonal because of the deleterious effect of vegetation modification on watersheds. With respect to electricity, the only place that is electrified is the Grace Camp, where the Project has its offices and residential quarters.

The unacceptability of the unsustainable and non-participatory approach of Ogun State Forestry Department to forest resources management was made clear in an ugly incident that took place on the 23rd and 24th of February, 2006, when the State Government Squad led by the Commissioner for Agriculture and Forestry, Mr. Dele Odulaja went to destroy Cocoa, Plantain and Cola nut farms owned by the indigenous farmers at Ebulende enclave (along Iho area) of the reserve, claiming that the farmers destroyed their monoculture plantations to establish their farms. The farmers who came out to fight the government officials, were overpowered, their farms destroyed and some of them arrested.

It is high time Ogun State Forestry Department stopped this act of brutality and injustice. It is also high time they recognized the importance of the involvement and the integration of the indigenous people in the management of their forest resources as being preached the world over. There is an urgent need for the government to review her activities in the reserve with a view to ameliorating the sufferings of the forest dwellers and improving their standard of living.

By: Chima, Uzoma Darlington, Indigenous Peoples Rights Crusaders, e mail: punditzum@yahoo.ca

Source: WRM's bulletin Nº 105, April 2006

Oil palm in Nigeria: shifting from smallholders and women to mass production

West Africa used to be the centre of the palm oil industry. The export of palm kernels began in 1832 and by 1911 “British” West Africa alone exported 157,000 tonnes of which about 75 percent came from Nigeria. In the 1870s, British administrators took the plant to Malaysia and in 1934 that country surpassed Nigeria as the largest exporter of the product. By 1966, Malaysia and Indonesia had surpassed Africa’s total palm oil production.

In Nigeria, oil palm is indigenous to the coastal plain, having migrated inland as a staple crop. 80% of production comes from several million smallholders spread over an estimated area ranging from 1.65 million hectares to a maximum of 3 million hectares. For millions of Nigerians, oil palm cultivation is part of their way of life –indeed it is part of their culture.

As reported by Chima Uzoma Darlington, an Ngwa man from Abia State of Nigeria, “in Ngwa land and most parts of eastern Nigeria, the palm tree is highly valued. It contributes so much to the rural economy that we call it ‘Osisi na ami ego’ in my dialect, which literally means ‘the tree that produces money’. Apart from the oil, virtually every part of the tree contributes to rural livelihood. From the palm fronds, we get materials for making baskets and brooms. The tree is tapped for palm wine especially in Enugu State; and many young men in the rural areas earn their living as palm fruit harvesters while many women (married and unmarried) trade on the fruits.

In my place of origin, many of our prominent sons today, were trained using proceeds from palm trees. Up till today, many community developmental projects are financed using proceeds from the sale of oil palm fruits. In view of any developmental project, the Head of the Village or Community places a ban on individual harvesting of oil palm fruits for a specified period. When it is time for harvesting, individual members of the village or community are mandated to pay a specified amount of money to qualify them to partake in the harvest, which takes place collectively on an agreed date. This was also how they were able to train some of our prominent sons. Even as at today, indigent rural dwellers still pledge their palm trees to others in order to get money to take care of some needs like sending their children to school.”

As documented in the case of Akwa Ibom State, a southeastern coastal state in Nigeria and one of the areas where oil is produced in large quantities, women play an important role in the production, storage and commercialization of red palm oil, a common ingredient in the cooking of almost every type of dish prepared in Nigeria.

The processing of the fruits into vegetable oil is most commonly carried out by women. It begins with harvesting the ripe fruits which grows in clusters weighing between 20-30 kilos. The women work communally in groups of 2 or 3. The harvested fruits are cut into smaller clusters and sprinkled with water, and then, covered with thick jute bags or banana leaves to aid fermentation and make it easy for the seeds to be picked easily from its spiky stalks.

Two or three days after, the seeds are picked, washed and packed in to iron drums and boiled. Fire kindled from gathered fire-wood is usually prepared a night before and at intervals, rekindled to keep the fire cooking constantly hot. As early as 4 or 5 a.m. the boiled seeds whose fleshy pericarp has become soft and tender are scooped with a small basket or sieve bowl into an earth dug-out mortar, which has been fitted with a metal drum. The boiled seeds are then pounded with a wooden pestle to separate the fleshy pericarp from its hard kernel seeds.

The next stage involves scooping this mixture onto a flat trough or onto the ground which had been covered with banana leaves. The kernel seeds are then separated from the fibrous mash. This is then scooped into a cylindrical hollow press. The wrench is then turned slowly and gradually, as this is being done, the extracted oil from the holes in the press is guided through a duct at the bottom of the press into a large bowl, trough or container. This process is carried out several times until oil is drained from the marshy mixture.

The next stage is carefully draining the oil into containers; in doing so, the women are careful not to allow dirt, fiber or other foreign matter into the oil. The finished product if in large quantity may be further stored in larger metal drums awaiting buyers who come to buy them off these women and transported to other towns. If the oil is not so large in quantity they are then taken to the local market for sale; either way, the Akwa Ibom woman earns her money.

“These palm trees”, informs Chima, “are mostly the ones occurring naturally on their pockets of land and not monoculture plantations. Most parts of the eastern Nigeria bear secondary regrowth forests with the oil palm tree being the dominant tree species.”

In the past, the Nigerian government had tried to implement large-scale oil palm plantations, most of which resulted in complete failures. Such were the cases of the 1960′s Cross River State project and of the European Union-funded “Oil palm belt rural development programme” in the 1990′s. This project included the plantation of 6,750 hectares of oil palm within an area thought to be one of the largest remnants of tropical rainforest in Nigeria and it was implemented by a company called Risonpalm Ltd., partly owned by the government. In spite of local opposition, the project moved forward and EU funding was only discontinued in 1995, seven years after its approval. The plantation was abandoned in 1999 and reactivated in 2003. In 2010, the local governor announced his intention to privatize it.

The World Bank played an important role in the promotion of the oil palm business in Nigeria. According to a recent World Bank document, Nigeria has been “the second largest recipient of World Bank palm oil sector projects, with six projects over the 1975 to 2009 period. One project is still under implementation. Results achieved included the plantation of 42,658 ha of oil palm, as well as road improvement and increased milling capacity.”

The Federal Government appears to be now willing to revitalise oil palm production. In April 2010, the government launched a Common Fund for Commodities “in order to improve the income generating potential of oil palm in West and Central Africa.” The initiative was developed by UNIDO and funding is shared between Nigeria, Cameroon, UNIDO and the private sector.

In line with the above, officials of Nigerian Institute for Oil Palm Research (NIFOR) have recently said that “promotion of private sector participation in oil palm plantation holds the ace in effective revival of the produce business in the country.” Director of NIFOR, Dr Dere Okiy has stated that “the land tenure system in the country” is a “limiting factor against private mass production of palm oil by individuals” and “called on local and state governments to provide land areas to oil palm farmers to encourage mass production of palm oil.”

Everything seems to point at the possible expansion of oil palm plantations in Nigeria -revitalizing old ones and establishing new ones- both aimed at the national and international market. But, as Chima warns, “The establishment of monoculture plantations usually involves the destruction of the existing vegetation, and this will amount to the felling of the naturally occurring oil palm trees on which the people depend for their livelihood.” And he concludes: “Land grabbing from rural people to encourage large scale monoculture oil palm plantations will impoverish them the more and cause hardship.”

Source: “Oil palm in Nigeria”, WRM draft at http://oilpalminafrica.wordpress.com/2010/08/06/oil-palm-in-nigeria/ and comments from Chima, Uzoma Darlington.

Source: WRM's bulletin Nº; 161 December 2010