PROBLEMS OF SUSTAINABLE FOREST MANAGEMENT IN NIGERIA SINCE THE COLONIAL TIMES: A HISTORICAL ANALYSIS

Abstract

This paper argued that certain gaps existed between the colonial governments' responses to, and handling of forest management challenges and that of the post-independence governments in Nigeria. It held further that these gaps negatively impacted on the effective forest resources management in the post-independence years. The paper consulted both relevant primary and secondary data. Primary data were retrieved from the National Archives, Ibadan while secondary sources were obtained from relevant existing literature on the problems of forest management in Nigeria. The paper was anchored on the dependency theory approach wherein the African colonial dependencies were adapted to serves the interests of the metropolitan economies in Europe over and above the colonies themselves. It found that forestry and forest reservation, as practised today, was established by the colonial authorities in Nigeria. It further found that the colonial forest services were strictly guided by policies, practices, laws and regulations that combined to ensure the sustainability of the forest resources management. It also uncovered that the Nigerian government, at independence, inherited a well consolidated forest service. It found as well that the Nigerian government, soon after independence, gradually but steadily abandoned many of those factors that had allowed for sustainable forest management in colonial Nigeria. Another finding was that some new challenges emerged in the post-independence period to further menace sustainable forest management. The paper concluded that the threat to the sustainability of forest resources management in Nigeria in the recent times resulted from the failure of the Nigerian governments to harness the factors that enabled sustainable forest management under colonial government and their failure to tackle the new challenges that faced forest management in recent times.