Factors Preventing Wider Commercialization of Nigerian Trees

Escalating costs of wood in Nigeria, as in several other countries, have led to the campaign to increase the number of commercial species taken from the forests to include virtually all of the 560 indigenous tree species that are known to attain merchantable sizes. The feasibility of this proposal will be governed by the factors that have hindered the commercialization of the lesser used species and the chances of containing these factors in the present and future technological advances. In this paper, these factors are discussed under four headings: exploitation, conversion, wood properties, and the technology base for tackling local problems. The total dependence on imported machinery and techniques, largely from the temperate regions, means in most instances that the imported facilities can, at best, be marginally adapted to tackle localized problems and conditions. However, the position of the lesser used species will stabilize when pressures on land for several purposes will have forced large scale utilization of available forest lands for the establishment of plantations of the more efficient, fast-growing, better quality timber species.

You must be logged in to download any documents. Please login (login accounts are free) or learn how to Become a Member