The Land Use Decree No 6 of 1978 guides land ownership and tenure. By this decree, the authority to own any piece of land, including forestry land, is exclusively vested on the Governor of the State where the land is located. "The objective of this Decree was to make land easily accessible to every Nigerian for development purposes in any part of the country and to vest the control of such development in the State Government so that the use of the land would be monitored and controlled" (World Bank, 1992). The implication of this decree as far as forest reserves are concerned is that, these lands belong to the various State Governments. In addition, this implies that private investors should not have difficulties in obtaining land for forestry development.
