10/10 Ian Elgie knows about the #Iroko or #Mvule tree as he and the Eastbourne United Nations Association are very involved in the Mvule Tree Planting project in #Uganda. This is an #Offsetting scheme which, of course, many are rightly super sceptical of, but anyway, here the link in case you are interested. Helping to plant #Mvule trees in Uganda probably a good thing?

https://www.unaeastbourne.org/store/p2/Carbon_Offset_Tree_Planting.html

7/x But of course #Iroko has, in fact, been logged extensively for many years, since early colonial days - it was promoted energetically by the colonial forest department as a durable hard wood & became one of Nigeria's 5 most popular timber exports.

So this is a good example of how, in practice, you often have a plurality of different ways of relating to trees or animals in one place - the environnmental anthropologist Brian Morris wrote about this kind of #Pluralism, to me really important.

6/x If someone does cut down an #Iroko tree, the punishment can be terrible, specially if it is a sacred Iroko trees in a shrine.
This is what happened in 2018 to the people of Iguoma in Edo State (former #BeninKingdom), when the pastor cut down a sacred Iroko tree planted 500 years ago. #ThickTrunkTuesday

https://effiezy.com/2018/03/25/benin-residents-are-being-killed-by-a-sacred-iroko-tree-that-was-cut-by-a-pastor/

3/x The #Iroko tree is rich in meaning: Edo people believed Azen (witches) had their lairs in Iroko trees, one reason for not venturing into forests alone. There are also many #Yoruba stories about Iroko trees, for example "Olunronbi and the Iroko Tree" #Folktales #Folklore #Mythology #Nigeria

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNi5EfsfK8s