Sustainable forest management in a human dominated landscape and its implications for biodiversity conservation: a Nigerian lowland forest perspective

Rachel Ashegbofe Ikemeh

Southwest/Niger Delta Forest Project, Abuja, Nigeria

Abstract: Biodiversity loss is often attributed to rapid human population growth, particularly in forest communities. Hence, various forms of forest management tend to merge conservation agendas with rural development objectives, giving birth to the global concept of Sustainable Forest Management. Biodiversity conservation and local livelihoods remain the two most critical factors in attaining sustainability, yet the balancing acts involved are complex and untenable in many forest areas. On one hand, biodiversity-conservation actions restricts access to biological resources, while on the other hand, some community development programs and economic growth agendas contribute immensely to biodiversity loss and species extinction. These two topical subject matters are compounded by other related issues, such as local/human rights, poverty, development needs, and particularly our rapidly increasing vulnerability to climate change. In reconciling these conflicts, sustainable forest-management practices attempt an integrated approach targeted at sustaining traditional means of livelihood and providing job opportunities for local people while encouraging the preservation of forest diversity. Within this context, the interplay of these two factors cannot be more complicated than in managing a unique forest zone within Africa's most populous nation – Nigeria. This paper reviews the interrelatedness and the complexities that exist between biodiversity conservation and local livelihoods; it scrutinizes their analogous underlying problems in Nigeria using the experiences, findings, anecdotal evidences, and observations made during surveys conducted in ten forest reserves within the Nigerian lowland forest ecoregion between 2006 and 2012. The aim of this paper is to draw attention to the region and the associated challenges of forest management in a human-dominated landscape that has an age-old tradition for bush-meat consumption, farming, and a pressing need to survive the upsurge of economic difficulties, political changes, and social limitations.

Keywords: forest management, biodiversity, Nigerian lowland forest, human population, deforestation