Monday, 3 July, 2006

Session: Gathered resources: foragers, wood fuels and the environmental impac

Humans and the mangrove in southern Nigeria

M. Adebisi Sowunmi,
c/o Department of Archaeology and Anthropology,
University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria

ABSTRACT
The mangrove, the "rainforest by the sea", dominated by the red mangrove,
Rhizophora spp., was abundant over much of the West African coast in the
early and middle Holocene. In the late Holocene, the mangrove either
disappeared or became drastically reduced in the region. Today, it is
mostly restricted to southern Nigeria. Recent palynological studies,
supported by archaeological evidence, suggest that, for southern Nigeria,
this very drastic change in vegetation, though primarily caused by climatic
and geomorphological factors, was likely to have been exacerbated by human
action from some time after ca. 3,109 ± 26 BP. The current fast rate of
disappearance of Rhizophora in south-western Nigeria underscores the
adverse human impact on this important coastal ecosystem.

……………………………………

...

return to Monday schedule

Tuesday 4 July . . . Wednesday, 5 July, 2006 .......

Send mail to d.fuller@ucl.ac.uk with questions or comments about this web site.
Last modified: 1/06/06