Talk about real economic trees in Nigeria and the Palm tree readily comes to mind.
Palm trees are indeed economic in every sense of the word.
In Nigeria, no part of the palm tree is ever wasted, each part of the palm trees is as useful as the other.It's an embodiment of many things,many useful things.

Tall as a giant,the palm tree is as useful as follows:

(1) Its fruit(palm fruit) is used in preparing a popular soup in Nigeria.
(2) The palm fruit is also used in making palm oil in fact, it is the only source of our palm oil.
(3) The palm kernel is eaten as a fruit itself after crushing it open with a stone or heavyweight object.
(4) The leaves of the palm tree(palm frond) outside being a habitat for birds and their nest, serves as a meal for goats.
(5) Palm fronds are chiefly used in Nigeria to mark off holy places like the Church and the Shrine. They are also used to guard farmlands against intruders.
(6) The spine of each leaf in the palm fronds are used in making brooms for sweeping.
(7) The palm fronds are also used in constructing makeshift huts, kiosk, Bush meat joints and also in making the roofs and fence of some houses.
(8) During the Palm Sunday,Christians,in their numbers, use the palm fronds to demonstrate the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem.
(9) The palm kernel when grinded is used as feed for fowls.
(10) The palm head that holds the fruit is used in making a liquid that is used for cooking.
(11) The Palm kernel is also used in making a local medicinal fluid called "Ude aki".
(12) The tree itself is also not left out, as wine tappers make a meal of them in the production of palm wine.

Now,my interest is in the production of Palm wine from the Palm tree as well as the use of its palm fronds.
It is clear that Palm wine makes the day of many Nigerians,especially the elderly. It is a heavily consumed commodity here but my worry is essentially on the way it's obtained.
Naturally,there is a special tree for wine tapping,that is the Raffia palm tree it is called "Ngwo" in Eastern Nigeria and spontaneously produces palm wine that are ready for tapping. And from my investigations,after tapping all the wine of the Raffia palm, the tree naturally dies and the tapper shifts to another.

But then, the wine tappers also get their wine from the Palm tree in fact,both the wine tappers and the consumers prefer the wine from Palm tree as they say it ia  sweetet,stronger though it is more expensive. It is certainly not a bad thing that these wine tappers make use of the resources of the Palm tree but how they do it leaves much to be desired.
Just below the Palm fronds is a place where the wine tappers bore holes through which the wine flows(look closely at the picture to see the hole). After creating the hole and peeling a leaf from the Palm frond,the peeled leaf is inserted into the hole and the wine tapper ties a small gallon close to the point of the hole so that the wine will easily flow into the gallon.
The problem with this practice is that more often than not,the wine tappers end up killing the Palm tree after ruthlessly tapping there wine.In fact,what prompted me to carryout a thorough investigation on this was the increasing number of dead palm trees around my envirlnment and 90 percent of them are linked to the dangerous activities of some unprofessional wine tappers.

HOW THEY DO IT:
From my inquiries, I found out that the Increase in housing has contributed to this as most builders when clearing their land ,deliberately request the services of the wine tappers to kill the tree via excessive tapping so as to save them the cost of cutting down the tree.
Again,some farmers after seeing their palm trees grow so tall and feel they can't get fruits anymore from them ,leaves it in the harsh care of the wine tapper who taps them to death with the head of the palm tree going completely off after being tapped to death or bending downwards. Many palm trees have gone this way and still counting.
I learned that the Palm tree can still survive excessive tapping after some months of recovery but some tappers are just bent on destroying this truly wonderful creature.
Again, the vast use of the palm fronds have also made them an easy target and this has contributed to the slow reduction in the number of Palm trees in my community. It is all the more worrisome that in a time where we need as many trees as possible because of the large volume of carbon we produce,we are losing more than we can urgently replace.

However, it is good I am having all this in my note ahead of my visit to the newly appointed commissioner for Environment in Anambra state(which the date will be communicated to me by next week) as I will be making recommendations in that regard.
Reducing the rate at which people use the palm fronds to feed their goats by providing alternative feeds,educating the farmers especially the wine tappers on professional and environment-friendly wine tapping practices, using the traditional rulers to speak to the farmers will form part of my recommendation in this regard.
And to set the ball rolling, I am already in the process of consultations with locals on how to visit their traditional rulers as they will be playing a big role in helping my quest to save the environment by speaking to their subjects and suggesting my recommendations to them.Green earth remains the way to go as a major contributor to the amount of carbon in the world environment. Massive awareness also remains the key to the success of my moves and I am very hopeful it will yield fruitful results.