166 WEST AFRICAN FORESTS AND FORESTRY 



towards them. In each case, however; it is essential to have either 

 co-opted or elected representatives of the locality, either by the 

 chiefs or by representatives of the people, so that the wishes and needs 

 of the locality may be thoroughly considered. 



Lastly, and by no means the least important feature of the Forest 

 Reserve, is the aesthetic view. In the regions of Permanent Forests, 

 healthier localities are afforded for the people, and they are also prettier 

 and more pleasant. This applies not only to temperate-zone forests, 

 but also to tropical forests. It is a well-known fact also that where 

 there are permanent forests the value of the other land in that locality 

 is always rated higher, and is worth more for leasing if adequately 

 covered with a sufficient proportion of forest. 



IV. Afforestation in Nigeria. 



The Forest Department, not being content with obtaining a revenue 

 out of the forests from the trees cut down for export or for local use, 

 have spent and are spending several thousands of pounds each year 

 in planting valuable forest trees. Going back historically before the 

 time when the Forest Department had a sub-head in the estimates for 

 " Labour for Plantations "or " Teak Plantations " or " Upkeep and 

 Improvement of Forest Reserves," we had the annual planting of many 

 tens of thousands of mahogany-trees by the timber leaseholder. The 

 whole of this was chiefly done in the Benin district of the Benin province. 

 Although this transplanting of self-sown mahogany-trees into better 

 situations near timber camps, or at the side of falling roads and into 

 the spaces left by the fallen mahogany-trees, was by no means carried 

 out very systematically or under very expert planters, the results are 

 all the more creditable to those who so early started to reproduce 

 the forests. It is most interesting to see in different parts on the banks 

 of the Osse River young thrifty plantations now nearly twenty years 

 old and nearly 30 feet high. In a similar way in the forest there are 

 to be seen large numbers of somewhat smaller sized mahoganies growing 

 singly or in groups, only needing a certain amount of clearing and tend- 

 ing to prevent their being overgrown by other forest trees. Scattered 

 though they are throughout the forest, it is not too much to say that 

 the prospective younger aged forest will be more valuable than that 

 which originally stood in its place. 



Easier to find, though in some way less attractive to look at, are 

 the regularly made mahogany plantations of the Forest Department. 

 In addition to isolated specimen trees which are found in the forest 

 Arboretums at Calabar, Degema, Benin City and Olokemeji, several 

 thriving plantations are found near Benin City in the Ogba and Obagie 

 Reserves, in the Ilaro, Mamu and Olokemeji Reserves. In the last- 

 named are the most extensive areas of all, and also, despite 



