Forest Products, Livelihoods and Conservation

Atilade Akanmu Adebisi 119

recipes. Traditional herbalists use bitter kola in various pharmacopoeia

preparations for various ailments (Adjanouhun et al. 1991).

Impact of bitter kola production on the livelihoods of J4 Omo

Forest Reserve villagers

The production-to-consumption system of Garcinia kola seeds has an obvious

positive impact on the households of the J4 communities. In particular its

commercialisation has contributed to improving the standard of living of the

villagers. The production system of bitter kola is very simple; the fruits are

collected and the nuts extracted, washed and stored for later sale. Production

costs are minimal. The activity is usually a household affair and most of the

income generated through the sale of bitter kola nuts is spent on household

commitments such as school fees and materials and contracting out the household

work during non–cash crop season, when villagers are able to use their profits to

participate in family ceremonies. The extra income derived from the sale of

bitter kola is thus important to meeting social and educational obligations for

the rural poor from resource farmer to forest dweller (Kabuye 1998).

Economic importance of bitter kola

The economic importance of bitter kola cannot be underestimated, especially

in the area of poverty alleviation among rural people. A cursory survey of

people involved in the trade of this product established that a substantial

amount of revenue can be realised from farm gate to village and urban markets.

Table 1 clearly indicates the revenue position from the resource base (J4 area

of Omo Forest Reserve) up to the common itinerant vendor on the roadside.

The price increases as the commodity changes hands from first degree to

third degree traders. Handling costs and other expenses involved in bringing

the commodity to market contribut immensely to this increase, but looking at

the figures critically demonstrates that the base collectors are at an advantage.

Their only expenses are periodic transportation costs from their villages to

the Fowowa/J4 Junction market if the buyer could not meet them in their

enclaves. The market chain vividly describes the situation. The national,

regional, and global statistics for the economic importance of this commodity

are yet to be computed.

THE PRODUCTION-TO-CONSUMPTION SYSTEM

Resource base of bitter kola

Garcinia kola (Heckel) and its relatives—including G. livingstonei, G. gnetoides,

G. staudtii, G. smeathemannii, G. ovalivolia, G. brevipediellata and G. mannii—

are found in Nigeria as well as generally across the humid lowland plains of

West Africa extending from Sierra Leone to Zaire (Vivien and Faure 1996) and

Angola (Keay 1989).

All the Garcinia species have different uses, using different parts of the

plant, depending on the location where an individual is endemic. In the J4 area

07garcinia.p65 119 22/12/2004, 11:04