Timber

Nigeria was once a one-time largest exporter of timber in West Africa, and the major areas of production located in the rain forest areas such as; Cross River, Edo, Ondo, Ogun, and Delta State. Timber or Lumbering is predominant in areas with high rainfall, Nigeria is one of those areas with high rainfall and numerous rain forest and is widely engaged in lumbering.

In Nigeria, of its total area of 373,000 square miles (966,000 square kilometers), about 139,000 square miles (360,000 square kilometers) are forest lands. However, it is the Western Region which contains the important timber bearing areas of Nigeria: there is no extraction for export in the Northern and little in the Eastern Provinces of Nigeria.

The total area of the Western Provinces is 44,000 square miles (114,000 square kilometers), of which 18,529 square miles (48,000 square kilometers), or 42 percent is forest land, over one half of this area – 10,571 square miles (27,400 square kilometers) – is closed forest, which means the trees grow so close together, there is a continuous closed canopy of foliage.

Forest reserves account for 3,863 square miles (10,000 square kilometers) of this area, while 6,708 square miles (17,375 square kilometers) are unreserved. The reserved forest does not consist of a single block of land, but of a large number of isolated irregularly shaped islands of reserve scattered over the whole closed forest area.

The trees are planted and allowed for 3-5years to mature after which is fell or cut down from the stem, it is then processed into beams and planks. The trees lumber can either be a hardwood like Mahogany, White Oak, and Ebony or softwood like Hemlock, Fir, Cedar and many more, softwood is readily available and consist about 80% of lumber than hardwood which takes longer time to grow.

Timber cultivation in Nigeria and in all other parts of the world is very beneficial, as it doesn’t only provide opportunities for its use in all kinds of wood work and furniture but it is also safe, readily available and naturally anti-corrosive.