Fuel Wood Consumption and Species Degradation in South-Western Nigeria: The Ecological Relevance

The continuous dependence of man on fuel and service wood has resulted in serious degradation of the fragile forest ecosystem. Therefore, this study evaluated the sources and patterns of fuel wood and examined the rate of consumption in the study area. This was with the aim to assess the ecological implications of fuelwood consumption on species degradation. The study utilized both, primary and secondary data. Information was extracted from topographic map on the scale of 1: 50,000 and satellites imageries that cover the study area. Questionnaire administration, field observation and weight measurement of fuel wood were carried out. The results showed that the sources of fuel wood for domestic cooking were forest, nearby bush and abandoned farm while the sources of domestic energy were fuel wood (61.17%), charcoal (27%), kerosene (10%), electricity (1.33%) and gas (0.5%). Fuel wood for small scale industries were: forest (49.23%), farmland (34.62) and fallow land (16.15%). The trend of fuel wood consumption was on the high side from 1995 to 2011, it was 58% in 1995, 70% in 2000, 82% in 2005 and 92% in 2010 and 2011 respectively. Many valuable economic tree species such as Triplochiton scleroxylon, Nesogordonia papaverifera, and Cordia spp. are near their extinction. Animals such as antelope, wolf and fox are going into extinction while monkey, grasscutter, hare, rabbit were endemic in the study area. The study concluded that the patterns of fuel wood use and fuel wood saturation presents a great danger for biodiversity products and services.