NewsA Nigerian reserve, once a stronghold for chimps, is steadily losing its...

A Nigerian reserve, once a stronghold for chimps, is steadily losing its forest to farming

  • Oluwa Forest Reserve once protected an island of old growth forest in southwestern Nigerian.
  • But satellite data show only about half of its intact forest remained at the turn of the century — and it’s only dwindled further since then.
  • Poverty-driven smallholder farms and profit-driven industrial plantations are the main causes of deforestation in the reserve.
  • Researchers worry that habitat loss in Oluwa is driving endangered species — such as the Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzee — to local extinction.

Oluwa Forest Reserve, located in southwestern Nigeria, contains some of the last large swaths of old growth — also called “primary” — forest in the region. These forests are home to a rich diversity of wildlife, including endangered species and subspecies such as red-capped mangabeys (Cercocebus torquatus), Nigerian white-throated guenons (Cercopithecus erythrogaster pococki), white-bellied pangolins (Phataginus tricuspis), and Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes ellioti).

But Oluwa and its wildlife are under increasing threat from both smallholder farmers and large-scale plantations. The reserve, established in 1918, has been severely impacted by land encroachment, with thousands of farmers converting forested areas into farms. This has led to significant deforestation, with satellite data from online monitoring platform Global Forest Watch (GFW) showing the reserve lost 18% of its primary forest between 2002 and 2023.

Only about half of Oluwa Forest Reserve was covered in primary forest as of 2001. Eighteen percent of that which remained was cleared between 2002 and 2023, with large areas of further loss in 2024.Only about half of Oluwa Forest Reserve was covered in primary forest as of 2001. Eighteen percent of that which remained was cleared between 2002 and 2023, with large areas of further loss in 2024.

Preliminary data from GFW, as well as satellite imagery, show ongoing clearing of the reserve’s remaining primary forest. Satellite data from the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA) indicate the reserve has experienced an “unusually high” number of fires in 2024 — the highest since measurement began in 2012.

Oluwa is situated in the humid tropics, where nearly all fires are caused by human disturbance such as slash-and-burn agriculture — also known as “shifting cultivation” — and for industrial plantation expansion. Research shows that unlike ecosystems such as boreal forests that evolved hand-in-hand with fire, humid tropical forests are not adapted to fire and less likely to naturally recover.

Previous Mongabay reporting found that farmers, especially young people seeking livelihoods amid Nigeria’s high unemployment and poverty rates, view the reserve’s fertile land as an escape.

“This place has helped a lot of poor families,” Ayodele Aina, who has farmed in the reserve for more than four decades, told Mongabay in 2023. “For some of us, this is the only means of livelihood we know. And since there are no jobs in the cities, a lot of youths are returning to farming.”

Members of an Oluwa farming community process cacao. Image by Orji Sunday for Mongabay.Members of an Oluwa farming community process cacao. Image by Orji Sunday for Mongabay.

The Ondo state government has attempted to evict farming settlements from the reserve.

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