Missing the forest for the trees: Ekiti State’s quest for forestry revenue and its impact on forest managers

Many countries’ forests are over-exploited and mismanaged, including through ineffective taxation. This is the case across Nigeria, where forest management has been decentralised to individual states. In this paper we assess the forestry tax regime in Ekiti State, where forests represent more than 50 % of land area and forest revenue has been historically relevant. We aim to complement a literature on tropical forest management often based on big-picture theories with a close empirical examination of the experiences of forest managers. Based on 16 interviews with public and private stakeholders, as well as data from the Forestry Commission, our analysis suggests that the Commission excessive focus on forests’ revenue-generating capacity is contributing to their depletion, which remains driven by economic phenomena. The conceptualisation of the Forestry Commission as a revenue-raising agency rather than a management one, non-transparent tax rates, and a view of the industry potential disconnected from reality, are perversely associated to decreasing forestry revenue. While there is potential to reform both the structure of forestry taxes and their method of administration, evidence suggests that priority should be given to enforcing lower levels of forest exploitation and to allowing government reserves to regrow. This will require substantial sensitisation and engagement with actors in the sector, as well as increasing the monitoring capacity of the Forestry Commission, which does not currently have enough staff to guarantee the enforcement of existing legislation.