Annual report on Nigeria / Colonial Office.

  • Great Britain. Colonial Office.
Date:
[1949]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report on Nigeria / Colonial Office. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    53/134 (page 51)
    Technical development has been most marked in the Western Region. This Region is favoured by nature with well distributed high forests of economic value, and a large but not excessive popula¬ tion. Not unnaturally, it has always, therefore, received first attention, made easier by the practical possibilities of reservation and by a long standing co-operation between the people and the timber firms which has built up a valuable and efficient timber trade. Soon after the end of the war this trade entered upon a new, inten¬ sive, mechanised and managed phase. In Benin this transition from the selective felling of a few species to intensive felling linked with full-scale natural regeneration operations, is now practically complete in the reserved forests. The roads made by the timber firms, taking a fifteen or twenty ton load, the tractor haulage from the stump, the lighterage of “ sinker ” logs in the creeks, the in¬ creasing number of species taken and the rising revenue, all emphasise the complete change from the dispersed felling and the manhauling of logs which were practised only six years or so ago. The large modern plywood mill and the new sawmill erected at Sapele by the largest operating firm are models of their kind. While the other parts have not yet reached the efficiency of Benin, steady progress is being made throughout and forestry has taken its place as a profitable and permanent element of this Region’s economy. In the Eastern Region the dense population west of the Cross River and the demands of agriculture quite clearly allow no room for forestry and the Region must rely upon the extensive and sparsely populated reserved high forests of the Cross River bend and the Cameroons. But, unfortunately, these forests are of comparatively poor timber value and difficult of access. The situation is now clear cut ; vexatious restrictions on peasant activities outside forest reserves have been completely removed and the Department can give exclusive attention to the reserved forests. The problem before it is that of developing exploitation which will provide revenue for the countryside. The investment of capital on a large scale is required in combination with enterprise, experience and skill, to establish an export trade which will “ carry ” the extraction of utility timbers for local use. It is still too early to express an opinion on the future but unremitting attention is being given to the problem. The Northern Region is one of poor savannah woodland or orchard bush,” much distorted by the annual grass fires. This woodland has no export value but with increasing population its local value will become of the greatest importance. Reservation is proceeding but is handicapped by the lack of officer staff, the more unfortunately because the local authorities are most enthusiastic and co-operative. The problem in this Region will be one not of setting aside adequate woodlands but of converting the woodlands to use sufficiently profitable to finance improvement operations. This problem is being studied in the Anara Reserve of Zaria Province where a small tractor driven sawbench, managed by the Department,