Geospatial Application in Forest Reserves Distribution and Sawmills Proximity as a Major Sources of Timber Product in Ibadan and Ibarapa Divisions, Oyo State, Southwest Nigeria

The proximity to forest reserves has been considered one of the major factors affecting the spatial distribution of timber based industries. This study assesses the spatial distribution of forest reserves and sawmills in Ibadan and Ibarapa divisions, Oyo State, Nigeria. Existing map of forest reserves of Oyo State and Oyo State shape file was used. The primary data included the geographical coordinates of locations of all existing and functioning sawmills in Ibadan and Ibarapa divisions and this was acquired with Handheld Global Positioning System (eTrex Garmin 30x). The base maps were georeferenced in ArcGIS 10.2 using the coordinates of the base map and the area covered by each forest reserve was digitized. The distance from each sawmill to the nearest forest was determined to ascertain their proximity. The results shows that the forest reserves in Ibadan division covered a total of 47,874.691 hectares of land while a total of 59,011.146 hectares were accounted for the Ibarapa division. From Ibadan division, Ijaiye forest reserve has the highest area of land of 25,544.856 ha (53.36%) and Eleyele forest reserve has the least 526.092 ha (1.10%). Igangan with highest forest reserve of 40,643.885 ha (68.87%) from Ibarapa division, and Eruwa forest reserve has the least 7,488.207 ha (12.69%). Generally from the study area, twenty-one (21) sawmills were visited and recorded in all the forestry zones. Four (4) forest reserves are in Ibadan and three (3) in Ibarapa divisions. The travel distance from sawmills to the nearest forest reserve in Ibadan; Gambari, Osho and Eleyele forest reserves was within 5-15km while other are far. It can be concluded that, more sawmills is needed in the study area like Ijaiye, Lanlate as the travel distance of sawmills to the forest reserves is far and this may cause high price in the price of timbers and other forest products.