My visit to Aponmu - The status quo of forests in Nigeria (Concluding part)

This article is in continuation of my recent visit with a colleague to one of the forest reserves in Nigeria. The forest is located in Aponmu, a small village between Ondo and Akure, Ondo State in Southwestern Nigeria. The first part of the visit can be found in this post.

Away from the protected portion - The Gmelina Plantation

After recording observations and collecting soil and litter surface samples from the protected and undisturbed portion of the forest, we proceeded by retracing our steps back indirectly towards the rendezvous. I used the word indirectly because we had to branch to another portion of the forest along the way.

Our first branching point after the protected portion is a burnt plantation of Gmelina arborea, a tree commonly known as beechwood, gmelina or white teak. The tree naturally grows and is native to Asian countries. Hence, it is exotic to Nigeria where it is grown primarily for its wood which is utilized in construction and other structural uses. The tree is well known for its tolerance against fire in several parts of Nigeria and this particular characteristic is one of the reasons hunters and their allies do not hesitate to set gmelina plantations on fire to drive out games during the dry season.

The portion of the gmelina plantation where we chose to establish transient sampling plots and collect soil samples was dominated by young trees and saplings with the herbaceous cover that is usually a characteristic plantations totally lacking as a result of fire ravage.

Due to the high demand for gmelina wood, the relatively matured part of the plantation is constantly under the attack of logging and lumbering activities. There was distinct evidence to these claims as shown by the huge amount of logged gmelina captured along several paths within the gmelina plantation. It was quite obvious that these logging/lumbering activities are illegal, a pointer to the insincerity of those appointed to manage the affairs of the forest as a whole. While there are a lot of campaigns against deforestation and degradation of forests, some individuals or even bodies would not stop removing trees without replacement until there exist not a single standing tree in the forest.

The cocoa plantation