Page:Niger Delta Ecosystems- the ERA Handbook, 1998.djvu/129

The Resources of the Niger Delta: Forests offshore fisheries, and in the physical stability of the Niger Delta as a whole. Also their production of the NTFPs, oysters, periwinkles and crabs is high and important to communities that live in and adjacent to the mangroves.

Properly managed, mangrove species have very good regeneration qualities and there is a high potential for forestry management to produce wood for charcoal fuel (mangrove species have a high calorific value), and sawn timber for basic joinery, and poles.

Currently, there are two major threats to the mangrove forests. The first comes from careless oil extraction activity, and the second from infestation by the exotic Nipa Palm (Nypha fructicans) introduced in the 1920s from Malaya to supply an alternative to oil palm wine (which it failed to do).

The Nipa palm is becoming a serious problem in parts of the Brackish-Water ecozone. This is particularly the case in the Bonny and New Calabar river systems, and Eastwards towards the Cross River, where it successfully competes with mangrove species. However the palm does not have the same useful land formation and protection qualities; neither is it able to act as a home for oysters and crabs.

However as demand for food increases, trends in the rest of the West African BAM ecozone suggests that pressures will increase to convert much of the area (primarily on the Fresh-Water ecozone fringe) for rice cultivation, the technology of which is well understood by Nigerians.

12.3.6 SAND-BARRIER ISLANDS ECOZONE

In their forest condition, the barrier islands are a microcosm of the Niger Delta, showing, in small areas, the same range of forest as is seen in the Delta as a whole. The overriding impression of the accessible areas is of forest that is depleted and cultured; some is lost, mainly to urban and industrial activities, but not dramatically to agriculture because of the economic dominance of fishing. There are small areas of natural forest remaining (for instance in Adoni where elephants and sea hippopotamus are supported), including mangrove forest. Because the agricultural pressures are not intense at present there is a potential for improving some of the depleted forest.

However the prime threat to the forests of the barrier islands is the decline of fish yield, which would be made worse by damage to the mangrove forests. A substantial decline in income from fishing, would force a more intensive use of the forestland in the future.

12.4 THE ECONOMIC PROBLEM OF THE FOREST RESOURCES

The economic problem of forest resources is that "ownership" is complicated and the resources are sold cheap.

Regardless of formal legality, in essence, state governments control forest reserves and Local People control the forest outside the reserves.

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. Hence the generally held opinion in government house and in the village that the forest is just "bush", and an obstacle to development. 127