- Akure-Ofosu Forest Reserve in southwestern Nigeria, home to rare primates and valuable timber trees, has some of the highest deforestation rates in the country.
- Logging is ostensibly prohibited, but sawmills thrive here, while farmers who clear land inside the reserve often have their actions legitimized by the authorities.
- Researchers say poverty and a lack of jobs are at the root of the problem, with communities compelled to farm, log and hunt in the absence of other forms of livelihoods.
- With Nigeria’s forest reserves among the few areas left unfarmed, population pressure threatens to drive an influx of newcomers from all around the country into these reserve areas in the competition for arable land.
IJARE, Nigeria — The silver blade slides through the log laid over a metal bed beneath the sawmill machine. When the careful routine ends, one of the two operators pulls off a flat board, guided by instructions from a colleague. “Pull the plank out quickly!” he yells, his voice floating over the rattle of old machinery. “And then fix the logs back to match the teeth of the blade and move back.”
Sawmill chief Dare Ayesoro stands nearby on a wooden deck behind a heap of sawdust and a power generator. “Money is in the forest,” he tells Mongabay with a bright grin that radiates contentment. Yet, what’s success for Ayesoro is quite the opposite for conservationists who seek to protect Nigeria’s vanishing forests.
Every month, logging trucks loaded to capacity deliver hundreds of logs to Ayesoro’s sawmill in the town of Ijare, whose single machine churns out more than 200 planks daily and employs eight laborers when in full operation. Ayesoro explains how much of the timber processed by this sawmill, as well as hundreds of others across the state of Ondo in southwestern Nigeria, are sourced from protected forest reserves.
One of these forest reserves is Akure-Ofosu, which lies some 200 kilometers (124 miles) south of Ijare and has been subject to some of the worst deforestation in the country. Between 2001 and 2018, the reserve lost 30% of its forest cover, according to satellite data from the University of Maryland. The data show the deforestation rate is increasing, with two-thirds of that loss happening in just the three years between 2016 and 2018. Preliminary data for 2019 and 2020 indicate deforestation surged to a new high last year, and this year may be on track to do the same.
A critical situation for wildlife
Established in 1936 and comprising some 400 square kilometers (154 square miles), Akure-Ofosu Forest Reserve also borders the Ala, Owo, Ohosu and Idanre reserves, together forming one of the largest areas of forest remaining in Nigeria. The forests contained within are home to many different species, including threatened primates. Red-capped mangabeys (Cercocebus torquatus), Nigerian white-throated guenons (Cercopithecus erythrogaster pococki), putty-nosed monkeys (Cercopithecus nictitans), mona monkeys (Cercopithecus mona), and others can all be found in what remains of Akure-Ofosu’s forests.
The region is also inhabited by endangered Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes ellioti). According to the IUCN, fewer than 6,000 individuals likely survive in the wild, making it the rarest chimpanzee subspecies.
The current status of chimpanzees in Akure-Ofosu is unclear. Locals who have lived near the reserve for decades tell Mongabay they routinely encountered chimpanzees while growing up, and many say they believe chimpanzees still inhabit its remnant forests. In 2007, primatologists Babafemi Ogunjemite and John Oates confirmed the subspecies’ presence in Akure-Ofosu after interviewing local guides and finding 33 nests in four different areas. Published in 2011, their study concluded the reserve has “potential as a chimpanzee conservation site.”
However, with so much habitat cleared over the past decade, the researchers warn that if chimpanzees are still present in Akure-Ofosu, they may not be able to hang on there for much longer at current deforestation rates. Along with logging, land is also being cleared for agriculture in the reserve. Exacerbating the situation is poor enforcement, regional insecurity — researchers have been killed in the past, according to Ogunjemite — and poaching.
“The situation of the animals in the reserve is critical. That’s why we weren’t able to state boldly the population of chimpanzees left in the reserve. We would at best speculate,” Ogunjemite tells Mongabay. “When these chimpanzees are hunted, they are used most often for rituals.”
It’s not just Akure-Ofosu. The bushmeat trade, hinged partly on profit but even more on the perceived medicinal and spiritual value of animal parts in traditional medicine, is putting pressure on chimpanzees and other primates throughout Nigeria, according to the IUCN.
Adding insult to injury is a common side effect of encroachment: fire. A short trip along the border of Akure-Ofosu in March revealed vast swaths of land burned in December and January. Often set to clear land, fires can get out of control and are difficult if not impossible to contain due to a lack of staff and firefighting equipment, according to forest officers. February rains eventually extinguished these particular blazes, but not before they destroyed forest and farmland and killed wildlife.
Logging and farming win out
In 2013, foresters Samuel Olajuyigbe and Ayodeji Adaja, studied the tree “composition, plant species diversity, tree canopy structure and regeneration” in Akure-Ofosu, observing that while degradation is significant, the reserve is still “highly diverse in plant species composition” and has “great potential for restoration.” Using line transect sampling techniques, they recorded more than 80 plant species, 46 of them tree species, including obeche (Triplochiton scleroxylon), iroko (Milicia excelsa), African mahogany (Khaya ivorensis), and African walnut (Lovoa trichilioides).
However, what makes for good restoration potential also makes for good business, and sources say Akura-Ofosu’s tree diversity attracts loggers seeking to harvest its variety of timber to feed a growing demand for wood products both in Nigeria and abroad.
“This is the only business that has numerous standby buyers,” says Sesan Olukayode, a sawmill operator with more than 30 years of experience. “It doesn’t require any jingles for adverts, just pull down the trees, saw them today and customers are waiting. Demand is growing and far exceeding supply.”
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