<p style="text-align: justify;">This article is in continuation of my recent visit with a colleague to one of the forest reserves in Nigeria. The forest is located in Aponmu, a small village between Ondo and Akure, Ondo State in Southwestern Nigeria. The first part of the visit can be found in&nbsp;<a href="https://steemit.com/steemstem/@gentleshaid/my-visit-to-aponmu-t-1549211987" target="_blank">this post</a>.</p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: 18px;">Away from the protected portion - The Gmelina Plantation</span></b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">After recording observations and collecting soil and litter surface samples from the protected and undisturbed portion of the forest, we proceeded by retracing our steps back indirectly towards the rendezvous. I used the word&nbsp;<i>indirectly&nbsp;</i>because we had to branch to another portion of the forest along the way.</p>
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<p style="text-align: justify;">Our first branching point after the protected portion is a burnt plantation of&nbsp;<i>Gmelina arborea,&nbsp;</i>a tree commonly known as beechwood, gmelina&nbsp;or white teak. The tree naturally grows and is native to Asian countries. Hence, it is exotic to Nigeria where it is grown primarily for its wood which is utilized in construction and other structural uses. The tree is well known for its tolerance against fire in several parts of Nigeria and this particular characteristic is one of the reasons hunters and their allies do not hesitate to set gmelina&nbsp;plantations on fire to drive out games during the dry season.</p>
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<p style="text-align: justify;">The portion of the gmelina plantation where we chose to establish transient sampling plots and collect soil samples was dominated by young trees and saplings with the herbaceous cover that is usually a characteristic plantations totally lacking as a result of fire ravage.</p>
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<p style="text-align: justify;"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/drrz8xekm/image/upload/v1549915598/ul5s6x5d6zfnbksraq7i.jpg" data-filename="ul5s6x5d6zfnbksraq7i" style="width: 527.5px;"><br></p>
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<p style="text-align: justify;">Due to the high demand for gmelina&nbsp;wood, the relatively matured part of the plantation is constantly under the attack of logging and lumbering activities. There was distinct evidence to these claims as shown by the huge amount of logged gmelina captured along several paths within the gmelina plantation. It was quite obvious that these logging/lumbering activities are illegal, a pointer to the insincerity of those appointed to manage the affairs of the forest as a whole. While there are a lot of campaigns against deforestation and degradation of forests, some individuals or even bodies would not stop removing trees without replacement until there exist not a single standing tree in the forest.</p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 18px;"><b>The cocoa plantation</b></span></p>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">After managing to collect samples in the gmelina portion, we proceeded to another part of the forest which is a plantation of cocoa,&nbsp;<i>Theobroma cacao.</i>&nbsp;If you love eating chocolates, then the name of the plant should ring a bell. It is a cash crop plant grown specifically for the seeds in its fruits and Nigeria use to be a leading producer in the world in the 60s and 70s, before the discovery of crude oil. Talk about the oil curse!</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/drrz8xekm/image/upload/v1549916784/ktyepbaqwlg9jiktudy4.jpg" data-filename="ktyepbaqwlg9jiktudy4" style="width: 527.5px;"><br></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/drrz8xekm/image/upload/v1549916841/srix5gdtzjjwxekljupk.jpg" data-filename="srix5gdtzjjwxekljupk" style="width: 527.5px;"><br></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">Just as expected, the cocoa plantation is characterized by heavy surface leaf litters and very little herbaceous cover because the medium sized trees tend to grow with the crowns more or less touching to create shade on the plantation floor. Oil palm plant,&nbsp;<i>Elais&nbsp;guineenses</i>&nbsp;interspersed the cocoa plants within the plantation and activities relating to the harvest of the oil palm fruits were evident.&nbsp;</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/drrz8xekm/image/upload/v1549916904/d1qs9li9b6bietmbpoer.jpg" data-filename="d1qs9li9b6bietmbpoer" style="width: 527.5px;"><br><span style="font-size: 18px;"><b><br></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 18px;"><b>Conclusion</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">By the time we were done establishing plots and collecting samples in the cocoa plantation, it was getting late already and we quickly took the now short trip back to our rendezvous, arranged all the collected soil and little samples together and drove the long journey back home. What is actually the aim of collecting the soil and litter samples? I will talk more about this in my future posts.</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">Meanwhile, I was able to get my trip partner to sign up on the steem blockchain. I am extremely glad to have a more experienced colleague in the plant ecology division in steemstem. He is currently studying for is Ph.D in Chinese Academics of Science in China and is only in Nigeria briefly on a holiday. You can see his introductory post&nbsp;<a href="https://steemit.com/steemstem/@creativedee/introducing-myself-to-the-steem-community" target="_blank">here</a>.</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;"><i style="line-height: inherit; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: &quot;Apple SD Gothic Neo&quot;, &quot;Malgun Gothic&quot;, &quot;Source Serif Pro&quot;, &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;, Helvetica, Arial, serif; font-size: 17px; letter-spacing: 0.4px; text-align: start;">All images were taken by me using Nikon D75 camera</i><br><br></div>
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