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| Despite standing policy of maintaining
approximately 20% of the nations land area under forest reserve, only
about 11% of the country's total land area constitute reserved forest
estate. The rate of deforestation in Nigeria far outgrows that of
forestation. This continuous loss of the nations forest eco-system has
serious implications for in-situ preservation of genetic variability and
is a major cause of environmental degradation problems hence the current
policy of aggressive and sustainable forest management to meet the ever
increasing demand for forest products in the country. These policy
objectives were directed mainly towards conservation, environmental
protection, solid economic forestry and provision of essential
information and technical services. Forest product like timber
traditionally was exported to Europe and the America's with little value
addition. Forestry contributed 1.3% to the national GDP in 1994.
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