Ethnobotanical Leaflets 13: 564-67. 2009.

Conservation and Biodiversity Erosion in Ondo State, Nigeria: (1). Assessing Wood used for Carving in Ondo Kingdom

J. Kayode^1,3, O.E Ige¹and I. O. Opeyemi²

¹Department of Plant Science and Biotechnology, Adekule Ajasin University, Akungba Akoko

²Department of Plant Science, University of Ado-Ekiti, Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria

³E-mail:jokayode@ymail.com

Issued 01 April 2009

ABSTRACT

The botanicals used for carving in Ondo kingdom of Ondo State, Nigeria were identified. These species were found to be mostly indigenous species, mostly found in the existing forest community in the study area. The various factors confronting the continuous supply of these botanicals were identified and strategies that would conserve the species were proposed.

INTRODUCTION

The Ondo Kingdom is situated some 40 kilometres from Akure, the capital city of Ondo State in the southwestern Nigeria. Ondo the traditional headquarter of the kingdom lies on latitude 7⁰ 60’ North of the equator and longitude 4⁰ 50’East of the Greenwich Meridian (ODSG 1980). The kingdom is situated in the humid tropical forest region of Nigeria. The kingdom enjoys abundant rainfall of 1500millimetres annually with the rainy season lasting from March to October and the dry season lasting from November to February.

The kingdom, like every other parts of Nigeria, is currently experiencing massive deforestation, which has constituted a great threat to the survival of biodiversity, yet the Egin-the major ethnic people in the kingdom-are highly reputed for the preservation of their culture that involved the use of different kinds of wood for caving objects.

The unprecedented deforestation rate, currently estimated at 200hectares of forest areas per annual in Ondo State, makes the enumeration of the available species in the study area imperative. It is expected that this could form the basis for management planning and conservation of useful but endangered species in the Kingdom. Thus the study being reported here is part of an on-going collaborator studies on the ethnobotanical utilization in Ondo State being conducted by the Department of Plant Science, University of Ado-Ekiti, Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria and the Department of Plant Science and Biotechnology, Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko, Nigeria.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Five communities, all situated within 10Km radius of Ondo town were selected for this study. In each of these communities, twenty respondents were randomly selected and interviewed with the aid of a semi-structured questionnaire matrix. Also in each community, wood carver(s) was/were sought and interviewed. Species used for carving were identified; sources where the species were derived were identified. 25 households were randomly selected in each community and sampled for the use of carved items in each household by interviewing the heads of the households.

The indigenous knowledge on the identified species were also obtained and documented. Secondary information was obtained from the officials of the Forest Department and the Local Governments in the study area.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The study revealed that woods are used in carving a total of six different groups of items in the study areas (Table 1). The decorative items were diverse; they include name tags, plaques, vases, vessels among others. Most of these items had their markets available in the cities as field observation revealed the existence of some middlemen that trade on these products in some Nigerian cities while some were even taken abroad. The items ranked fourth in the local utility test carried out in the study area.

The local chess game box ranked second in the local utility test. The box is used in playing the traditional Ayo game, a popular game among the entire Yoruba race of southwestern Nigeria. It is played as both an indoor and outdoor game, and by people of all ages usually in the evening time. Walking stick, ranked third, is a supporting walking aid that was meant for the aged but it is now commonly used by the youths as well. In the study area, walking stick is considered as an important part of dressing. When the traditional Agbada, Buba and Sooro or Dansiki and Sooro are worn, the dresses were considered as incomplete without Papa -walking stick- to complement the dress. Pestle and mortar are important indispensable household materials in the study area. They are used to prepare Iyan (Pounded yam), the food considered as ‘King of all foods ’in Yoruba land. Field observation revealed that Iyan is eaten at least once a day in most households in the study area. It is also the food given and used to honor important visitors in the study area. Field observation revealed that all the households sampled (100%) had and used pestle and mortar on regular basis.

Statues of human and different animals were equally carved in the study area. Field observation revealed that human statues are now usually carved based on order as their demands had fallen drastically due to their condemnations by the existing religion believes of the residents in the study areas. The study area is presently dominated by adherents of Christianity and Islam, both of which considered the act of having or keeping human statues as creation of micro gods. Present orders were observed to come from middlemen who aimed to trade them abroad and relatively few orders from extremely few adherents of traditional religion.

Masks used by masquerades were also being carved in the study area but these were produced based on order. The use of masquerades is a common feature in Yoruba land. They are numerous and type available varied from one community to another. They are commonly owned by some specific group of people in each community. Masquerades were usually considered as sacred beings in Yoruba land and they come out only at specified times and local festivals which also varied form one community to another. Quite often, during festivals, they object of amusements hence people come from far and near to watch them.

A total of 41 botanical species, belonging to 12 different families (Table 2) were observed to be in use as source of wood for carving purposes. All the species were local species and the existing forest estates in the study area were identified as the primary source of these species, the identified secondary source being the sawmill industries in the neighboring communities in the study area. Collections in the primary source were observed to be dependent on young growing tree seedlings. The collectors were usually the wood carvers who scavenge through the forests for a long period before the desired species could be seen. This has brought about considerable reduction in the demand of the wood carvers for specific species for a particular carving assignment. Thus, carvers, interviewed during the study, were mostly reluctant in stating the particular species used for specific carving items. Hence the field observation revealed that diverse species were used for carving specific items however it was observed that the carvers and some of the house heads interviewed were acquainted with characters of the botanicals identified. The consensus aboriginal practical acquaintances on these species are presented in Table 2.

In conclusion the study revealed that the aboriginal communities of the study were not likely in an hurry to do away with the use of carve items. Field observation revealed that a decline is present being experienced in the existence of indigenous professional carvers and the indigenous professional knowledge of the carvers on botanical species. The caving problem is further complicated by the fact that dependency on botanical species had been limited to the indigenous botanical, as previously by Kayode (2004), Kayode and Omotoyinbo (2008), Omotoyinbo and Kayode (2008). It is now a common knowledge that the Nigerian indigenous tree species have poor regrowth capacities while they present rate of deforestation had continued to be on the high scale. They are equally poorly represented in the sapling stage hence the already removed individuals are not likely to be easily replaced. Conservation actions aimed at providing accurate data on the demography of the species should carried out in the study area. Species that are seriously endangered should be identified and actions should be taken towards their conservation.

REFERENCES

ODSG1980. Spotlighting major towns: Ondo. Information Services Division, Ministry of Home Affairs,

Sports and Information, Akure, Nigeria, 20pp.

Omotoyinbo, M. A. and Kayode, J. (2008). Checklist and conservation status of chewing stick plant

species in Ekiti State, Nigeria. Pp. 27-33. In: Research for Development in Forestry, Forest

Products and Natural Resources Management (Eds. Onyekwelu, J. C. , Adekunle, V. A. J.

and Oke, D. O. ).Proceedings of the First Conference of Forest and Forest Products Society,

Federal University of Technology, Akure, Nigeria. 16^th – 18^th April, 2008.

Kayode, J. (2004). Conservation perception of endangered tree species by rural dwellers of Ekiti

State, Nigeria. Journal of Sustainable Forestry 19(4): 1-9.

Kayode, J. and Omotoyinbo, M. A. (2008). Ethnobotanical utilization and conservation of chewing

sticks plant species in Ekiti State, Nigeria. Research Journal of Botany 3(3):107-115.

Table 1. List of items caved in Ondo Kingdom of Ondo State, Nigeria.

S/n Item Vernacular name Rank/ Household

1. Decorative items Oona orisirisi 4 (57%)

2. Local chess game box Opon ayo 2 (88%)

3. Masks (as costume for ‘spirits’ masquerades) Aago eegun 5 (21%)

4. Pestle and Mortar Odo 1 (100%)

5. Statues Ere 6 (12%)

6. Walking Sticks Papa 3 (68%)

Table 2. Botanical Species used for carving in Ondo Kingdom of Ondo State, Nigeria.

S/N Species identified Vernacular Family Aboriginal practical acquaintance on species

name

1. Afzelia africana Apa Caesalpiniaceae Hard, resistance to insect and fungi

2. Afzelia bipindensis Ayan olutoko Caesalpiniaceae Hard, resistance to insect and fungi

3. Afzelia pachyloba Apa igbo Caesalpiniaceae Hard and resistance to insect and fungi

4. Albizia adantifolia Ayinre bona bona Mimosaceae Hard, resistance to insect and fungi

5. Albizia coriaria Akudinrin Mimosaceae Hard, resistance to insect and fungi

6. Albizia ferruginea Ayinre ogo Mimosaceae Hard, resistance to insect and fungi

7. Albizia glaberrima Ayinreta Mimosaceae Hard, resistance to insect and fungi

8. Albizia zygia Ayinreta Mimosaceae Hard, resistance to insect and fungi

9. Alstonia boonei Ahun Apocynaceae Soft, liable to insects,

10. Antiaris africana Oro Moraceae Soft and easy to work with

11. Canarum schweinfurthii Origbo Burseraceae Soft, liable to fungi and insect attacks

12. Cordia millenii Omo Boraginaceae Soft, resistance to insect and fungi

13. Cordia platythirsa Omo wewe Boraginaceae Soft, resistance to insect and fungi

14. Daniellia ogea Ojia Caesalpiniaceae Hard, not resistance to insects and fungi

15. Daniella oliveri Iya Caesalpiniaceae Hard, not resistance to insects and fungi

16. Distemonanthus benthamianus Anian Caesalpiniaceae Hard, resistance to insects, not resistance to fungi

17. Entandrophragma cylindricum Ijebu Meliaceae Hard, resistance to insects and fungi

18. Entandrophragma utile Ijebu Meliaceae Hard, resistance to insects and fungi

19. Gossweilerodendron balsamiferum Moboran Caesalpiniaceae Hard, resistance to insects and fungi

20. Khaya grandifoliola Oganwo Meliaceae Soft, resistance to insect and fungi

21. Khaya ivorensis Oganwo Meliaceae Soft, resistance to insect and fungi

22. Khaya senegalensisi Oganwo Meliaceae Soft, resistance to insect and fungi

23. Mansonia altissima Ofun Sterculiaceae Hard, resistance to insects and fungi

24. Melicia excelsa Iroko Moraceae Hard, resistance to insects and fungi

25. Nauclea diderrichii Opepe Rubiaceae Hard, resistance to insects and fungi

26. Nauclea vandeguchtii Opepe ira Rubiaceae Hard, resistance to insects and fungi

27. Nesogordonia papaverifera Otutu Sterculiaceae Hard, resistance to insects and fungi

28. Piptadeniastrum africanum Agboin Mimosaceae Hard, resistance to insects and fungi

29. Pterygota macrocarpa Oporoporo Sterculiaceae Hard, not resistance to insects and fungi

30. Pterocarpus erinaceus Osun dudu Papilionaceae Hard, resistance to insects and fungi

31. Pterocarpus osun Osun Papilionaceae Hard, resistance to insects and fungi

32. Pycnanthus angolensis Akomu Myristicaceae Hard, resistance to insects and fungi

33. Sterculia rhynopetala Orodo Sterculiaceae Hard, not resistance to insects and fungi

34. Sterculia tragacantha Alawefun Sterculiaceae Hard, not resistance to insects and fungi

35. Terminalia avicennioides Idi Combretaceae Hard, resistance to insects and fungi

36. Terminalia glaucescens Idi odan Combretaceae Hard, resistance to insects and fungi

37. Terminalia ivorensis Idigbo Combretaceae Hard, resistance to insects and fungi

38. Terminalia laxiflora Idi odan Combretaceae Hard, resistance to insects and fungi

39. Terminalia superba Afara Combretaceae Hard, not resistance to insects and fungi

40. Terminalia macroptera Orin idi odan Combretaceae Hard, resistance to insects and fungi

41. Triplochiton scleroxylon Arere Sterculiaceae Soft, not resistance to insects and fungi