The consumption patterns of NWFP in the country has been estimated to be between 10-30% for household materials. These exclude gum arabic, rattan canes, chewsticks and palmwine which are essentially produced for the market (Okafor, et al 1994). By implication therefore, the bulk of the NWFP are produced for the market either at local, regional or national levels. The consumption of NWFP is influenced by many socio-ecocultural factors. These include:
Taboos classified wild biotic resources into two broad categories: holy and unholy (Osemeobo,1994).The so called holy species are used by man to meet his daily needs. The utilization of NWFP at the local level is guided by myths and legends. Changes in religion from traditional to Christianity and Islam have changed the use pattern of NWFP (Osemeobo,1992d).Therefore the significance of taboos in NWFP utilization, though it is weak, it has been significant in reducing pressure in the overuse and abuse in NWFP at local level.
Social acceptance of a resource determined the status of consumption at local, regional and national levels. Over 60% of the total NWFP is consumed at the local level while about 20% is consumed at the regional level and 18-20% is consumed at the national level. The social acceptance of NWFP is also influenced by taboos, religious and cultural practices. The factors affect the non acceptance of the use of snails and monkeys for food in the savannah zones. Moreover the fruits of Irvingia gabonensis are not fully accepted in the savannah areas and Adansonia digitata is not also accepted in the rainforest areas.
Some NWFPs, such as chewsticks, palm oil, rattan canes Parkia biglobosa, the oil palm and rattan cane have attained national acceptance status. This is principally so because the resources do not have any socio- cultural factors limiting their use and the resources occur in most of the ecozones in the country. In areas where the resources do not occur , foreign ones are in use. It means the ones available are inferior in quality to those imported from other areas (Osemeobo,1998).
The diversity of resource utilization and the use importance of a resource to humanity are two factors affecting their consumption. This is applicable to the consumption of the oil palm used to produce wine, edible oil, industrial oil, mats, brooms, baskets, soap, fodder, traditional medicine thatched roof and others (Osemeobo, 1999).
Because Afromomum melagueta is used as a common denominator in traditional medicine, it is consumed in all the ecozones. NWFP that are used in wrapping food , roofing houses, design of masquerades, rituals, etc., are of high demand in rural and urban areas. The volume of resource exploitation and utilization over time highly affect the status of the resources in natural ecosystems.
It has been said that NWFP outside government protected forests are managed under common property regimes. The resources are managed under sets of regulations based on beliefs, traditional culture and ecological knowledge. Tenure issues which affect access to resources, mode of resource exploitation and utilization determine the level of resource utilization. NWFP are managed by the application of free access, open access, restricted access and closed season user rights. These factors affect access to exploitation and control the abuse and misuse of NWFP.
The demands for NWFP vary among the various end uses. The products produced specifically for the market such as gum arabic, rattan canes and soap generally attract high market demand. In this instance, the population of consumers influence the volume of resource utilization.
Some NWFPs that are consumed on a daily basis like fuel-wood, palm oil, chewsticks, vegetables and wine have high consumption rates. The seasonally produced resources such as fruits, mushrooms, nuts and thatch material is less than those produced in all seasons of the year.
Forest foods are defined as consumable materials from the wild. These include leaves, seeds, nuts, saps, roots, tubers, honey, bushmeat mushrooms, fruits and others. Some of the products are eaten raw while others are processed in various forms through boiling, drying and other methods. Poverty among rural communities has increased the volume of forest food consumption. The volume of forest food consumption varies between 50-65% of the total food items extracted from the forests. The balance of between 35-50% is produced for the market.
The consumption of medicinal plants as food items in the Savannah areas of Nigeria was documented by Etkin and Ross (1994). The conclusions from the study were that: (a) almost all plants in the wild used as food also appear in the list of plants used for traditional medicine, (b) because plants play dual roles, they were abundant in the hitherto populated and heavily cultivated areas and (c)the conservation of the species was ensured by the two user groups through cultivation.
In the south-west of Nigeria, Osemeobo (1998) found the consumption of NWFP varied in terms of volume of products. The percentages of volume of consumption varied from 22.4 in household energy through 17.3 in cultural items, 16.4 in construction, 15.6 in food security, 12.3 in farm utensils, 9.7 in small scale industries and 6.3 in traditional medicine.
Fodder is consumed in the livestock industry. The fodder produced in the savannah areas account for about 10-15% of the total number of livestock food in the savannah areas in the dry season. The drier parts of the country with less rainfall have the lowest biomass production. Yet the savannah areas host over 90% of livestock of the total numbers of foraging animals in the country (Osemeobo, 1996).
The consumption of a majority of NWFP is both by the market and the household. These NWFP are grouped into three including:
· Market consumption - chewsticks, gum arabic. Rattan canes, tanning.
· Household and market consumption - fuelwood, dyes, wrapping leaves, thatched materials.
· Household consumption - flavours, toxins, decorations (Rothmanis hispida), mat leaves etc.
Trade in NWFP is organised at three levels. These are at village, urban (regional) and national levels (Osemeobo, 1993). At the village level, exploiters of NWFP sell them to kiosks and by hawking. On market days, urban buyers purchase the products wholesale for the urban areas. At the urban areas, retailers buy from the wholesalers and the products are distributed to nooks and corners of the urban environment. The products for export are marketed at the national level. The products of national significance are gum arabic, skins of wild animals and spices. The issues arising from trade in NWFP are marketing, specialization in marketing of products, prices of items and income from NWFP.
At least two species are reputedly known to provide chewsticks with medicinal properties. These are Massularia acuminats and Garcinia spp. These chewsticks also serve as tooth brush and paste. Reports from Ugarga, Cross River State of Nigeria (a major producer of chewsticks) indicated that the production of chewsticks start from extraction of billets of the tree species to transportation from deforests to the billet-cutting workshops. In the workshop, the billets are cut into different sizes. Varying sizes of the billets attract varying prices. Generally the shorter the billet the higher the cost. Slicing and smoothing the billets into chewsticks with additional drying in the sun mark the end of the production (FORMECU, 1997).
Extraction of NWFP is a subject for rural communities whose livelihood patterns are dependent on forest products. The poor infrastructures in rural areas, such as roads, create difficulties in transportation thereby reducing prices paid for NWFP. Therefore the urban traders make more gains than the rural exploiters of NWFP.
The exploiters of NWFP hardly sell the products in urban areas because of many factors including (i) lack of capital to buy and transport the products to urban areas. (ii) Extraction of the products in piecemeal hence the services of middlemen is required to buy the products in bulk to urban areas. (iii) Difficulties of establishing the business in urban areas where products attract higher demands and market prices because funds are required to rent store, and employ helpers. (iv) Difficulties of meeting the demands of various forest products sellers associations in urban areas. For example there are different associations for sellers of bushmeat, fuel-wood, medicinal products and palm wine.
Gender specialization is pronounced in the marketing of NWFP. At all levels of marketing, men, women and children are either separately or collectively involved as followings:
· men - marketing of rattan canes, carvings, gum arabic, agricultural and household tools;
· women - marketing of leaves, fruits, nuts, seeds, bulbs, dyes, medicinal materials;
· men and women -- marketing of palmwine, charcoal, bushmeat;
· children - marketing of chewsticks, mushrooms, vegetables.
In most cases, about 80% of the volume of available NWFP are marketed by women in both urban and rural areas. The factors which determine the suitable marketers are volume of trade, labour intensive nature of trade, specialization in handling the products, social prestige, cultural factors and capital requirements.
The price of NWFPs are lower in local areas that are centres of collection than in urban areas because of added transportation costs, market fees and storage costs. The low prices of NWFP reflect the low capital inputs involved in the extraction, processing and storage of NWFP. Moreover, the low prices indicate that NWFP are central to the occupation of the people.
The prices of NWFP are not stable. The prices are lower in the seasons and high during the off-seasons. Over 25% of the total volume of perishables like fruits, bushmeat, nuts, seeds and vegetables are lost during marketing due to preservation and storage problems. In products that are preserved for over 6 months, their prices are determined by the economics of supply and demand. These include the seeds of Parkia biglobosa, Garcinia kola and Irvingia grandifolia.
Table 11 presents the estimates of annual costs of producing NWFP per household in rural areas. The data shows that the average household extracts the products from the forests. It also shows that one household does not engage in all the various activities. Moreover, the data in Table 11 show that extraction of NWFP is a specialised occupation.
Table 12 presents the gross income derived from selected NWFP in four ecozones. From the data, the highest income was derived from the sudan savannah followed by the southern savannah and the moist forest. The data in Table 12 showed that income from gum arabic, periwinkle and rattan canes were the highest in the country.
Buying and selling of NWFP is central to the economic life of rural Nigerians. However, because of issues of seasonality and high variance of biological reproduction in the ecozones, prices fluctuate enormously. In addition, export products often attract government intervention in fixing prices and hence income stabilization. The channelling of export products through the marketing parastaters lead to low farm-gate prices to the benefit of exporting agents.
Inadequate data on the volume of products extracted and the unstable prices of the products make aggregate analysis of financial benefits of products difficult. The prices of export products are generally affected by the actions of the buyer rather than those of the producers. This is because the buyers fix the standards of products, dictate prices, determine volume of export commodities and locations of exporting the products.
Some of the export products which were of significance in the past are no longer acceptable in the international market. For example Kapok (natural cotton from Bombax costatum) which was the second important export product to gum arabic in the decades of 1914 to 1919 is no longer an export commodity in the country.
Table 11. Nigeria: Financial estimates of annual costs of production of non-wood forest products for the market per household
Major NWFP |
Quantity extracted |
Extraction cost per annum =n= |
Processing cost per annum =n= |
Marketed cost per annum =n= |
Total cost =n= |
Fuelwood |
985 m3 |
1 295 |
- |
1 295 |
1 295 |
Wildlife |
5 620 kg |
6 200 |
- |
440 |
6 640 |
Oil palm |
432 litres |
410 |
180 |
20 |
610 |
Rattan |
2 340 m3 |
200 |
6 552 |
- |
65 720 |
Chewstick |
600billets |
23 280 |
- |
1 648 |
24 928 |
Palmwine |
4 113 kg |
- |
2 057 |
- |
2 057 |
Irvingia gabonensis |
52 kg |
600 |
- |
- |
600 |
Parkia seeds |
500 kg |
1 250 |
250 |
- |
1 500 |
Mushroom |
1 600 kg |
2 000 |
- |
- |
2 000 |
Shea butter |
42 kg |
500 |
- |
- |
500 |
Fodder |
450 kg |
560 |
- |
- |
560 |
Gum arabic (Acacia senegal) |
28 kg |
1 500 |
- |
350 |
1 850 |
Vegetables (kuka) |
75 kg |
360 |
- |
- |
360 |
Source: Okafor et al., 1994.
Table 12. Nigeria: Estimate of average annual gross income from NWFPs by households in major ecozones
Eco-zone |
Major NWFPs |
Unit price (N) |
Quantity Marketed (million) |
Revenue (N million) |
Mangrove Swamp |
Fuelwood Wildlife (periwinkle) Native salt |
6/m3
5/Kg 15/Kg |
714.78 m3 8,872.00Kg 3.20 Kg |
4,289 44,360 48 48,697 |
Moist Forest |
Palm Oil Rattan Canes Chewsticks Palm wine Irvingia gabonensis Wildlife (numbers) |
11/litre 35/m3 56/billet 4/litre 230/kg 250/each |
27.47 litre 446.47 m3 57.24 billet 1412.68 litre 2.86 kg 4.96 (number) |
302 15,626 3,205 5,651 658 1,240 26,682
|
Southern Guinea |
Fuelwood Parkia seeds Mushrooms Wildlife (numbers) Shea butter |
20/m3 20/kg 10/kg 65/each 33/kg |
32.42 m3 51.70 kg 7.60 kg 4.85 (number) 4.52 kg |
648 1,030 76 315 149 2,222
|
Sudan Savannah |
Fuelwood Vegetable (Kuka) Fodder (A.albida) Parkia Seeds Gum arabic (A.Senegal) |
80/m3 10/kg 2/kg 20/kg 1,622/kg |
15.00 m3 53.57/kg 96.50 kg 38.86 kg 60.00 kg |
1,200 538 193 777 97,320 ======== 177,627 ========= |