Field Report
2022–2025

This photograph shows the field transport operation at the ECOREWIRE Centre Project site in 2022 — a team member loading freshly nursed seedlings from the Aduwawa nursery in Benin City for transport to the Udakpa project site. By 2022, approximately 5 hectares had already been planted with assorted endangered and vulnerable endemic rainforest timber tree species. Each consignment required careful handling during the journey from nursery to field to prevent root ball damage or desiccation. Additional seedlings beyond those planted at Udakpa were distributed to individuals and organisations to stimulate community and private sector involvement in rehabilitation of declining timber tree species.

In 2024, nursery attention at Aduwawa was focused on raising Nauclea diderrichii and Khaya spp. specifically for refinement and beating-up of the burnt portions at the Udakpa pilot site. This photograph shows the scale of the 2024 nursery production — thousands of potted seedlings in production rows, representing 50,000 assorted indigenous species raised across the full cycle. The nursery functions as both the supply base for external client contracts and as a living gene bank for Edo State's native forest flora, with seedlings matched to specific ecological conditions of each destination site before dispatch.

The CA was delineated into 45 randomly located 50m × 50m quadrats, 45 transects, and 10 subjectively sited 1m × 1m regeneration quadrats. Vegetation profiles were constructed in Plots 29 and 45 using 50m × 6m methodology. A Nikon Laser Rangefinder (Forestry 550) measured tree/shrub height; girth at breast height recorded at ≥30 cm threshold. Wildlife surveys used direct and indirect techniques — sightings, calls, faecal droppings, nesting sites, footprints, burrows — using Bushnell Binoculars (10 × 40). Shannon-Weiner diversity indices calculated. Four LULC maps covering 1985, 1995, 2005, 2015, and 2025 produced using NASA/USGS Landsat data and GIS. The cover photograph shows Acacia tangle infestation — one of the most severe ecological threats identified.