As Nigeria celebrates her centenary of existence, its forest resources has little to be proud of. The current condition of the rainforest ecosystem and the spate of decline of biodiversity aptly portray the gloomy circumstances of the livelihood system of subsistence populations. The nation has been faced with enormous governance crisis and arrant waste of resources impelled by corrupt leadership and inspired by rent-seeking bureaucrats. At independence in 1960, the forest reservation policy of the colonial government had set aside 9,700,000 ha of the country as forest reserves. Historical accounts indicate that the country's rainforest which was over 60,000,000 ha in 1897 was reduced by less than 50% in 1960. The resource plunged to 1,190,000 ha in the late 1990s with only about 288,000 ha in official forest reserves (Blaser, et al. 2011). Beyond the 1990s, most published data and statistical information on the size and condition of the rainforest of Southern Nigeria have been based principally on simulations obtained largely from speculative reports.

4 p.