From ancestral groves to sustainable goals

By: Tajudeen Amusa

ON Thursday, September 4, 2025, the University of Ibadan will once again open the grand doors of its historic Trenchard Hall to host a voice of scholarship that resonates deeply with both heritage and hope.

At exactly 3pm, the academic community, policymakers, students, environmental advocates, cultural custodians and members of the general public will converge for the 591st inaugural lecture of the University.

On this occasion, the stage will belong to Professor Saka Oladunni Jimoh of the Department of Social and Environmental Forestry, Faculty of Renewable Natural Resources. His lecture, aptly titled ‘Engaging African Traditional and Cultural Practices in Sustainable Forest Management’, promises to be a discourse as layered and enduring as the very forests it seeks to protect. It promises to be a landmark moment: a meeting point of science, culture and philosophy that offers a roadmap for Africa’s ecological future. It will ask not only that we listen but that we reimagine the future of our forests through the timeless wisdom of African traditions.

With about three decades of teaching, research and community service, Professor Jimoh has built an academic and professional career that bridges communities, institutions and continents. His career has been defined by a profound concern for how ecological systems support human livelihoods and how human communities, in turn, shape and sustain those systems.

His work ranges widely, from exploring agroforestry systems that sustain both farmers and biodiversity, to designing community-based forest management models that blend indigenous traditions with conservation science. His works consistently underscore a truth that modern development often overlooks: forests are not luxuries; they are lifelines.

Professor Jimoh, through numerous scholarly articles, conference presentations and community-based studies, has shown how indigenous practices, when properly engaged and respected, can offer sustainable solutions to contemporary ecological crises. His academic pen has been guided not just by data, but by the heartbeat of communities that live closest to the forest.

He has contributed his expertise to numerous environmental impact assessment studies and reports, resource surveys and forest management plans across Nigeria, while also leading cross-border studies on several forest products under the African Forestry Research Network (AFORNET).

His leadership of international projects, including the Volkswagen Foundation study on forest–wildlife–livelihood linkages and ECOWAS–PARI initiative on the sustainable management of African Rosewood (Pterocarpuserinaceus), one of the continent’s most endangered but economically valuable species, reflects his global relevance. Today, he leads a TETFund-supported project developing an index to assess how Nigerian universities contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This is a forward-looking effort that measures not just academic output but impact on society.

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At the University of Ibadan, Professor Jimoh has served as Programme Coordinator and now as Head of Department of Sustainability Studies and Director of the Centre for Sustainable Development (CESDEV), a position he held since January 2022. Under his leadership, the centre continues to serve as a hub for environmental innovation and policy dialogue in Nigeria and beyond.

As a distinguished scholar, Professor Jimoh holds membership of numerous professional bodies, including the Forestry Association of Nigeria, Nigerian Conservation Foundation, African Forest Forum, Commonwealth Forestry Association, International Society of Tropical Foresters and the Forest Stewardship Council. He has also mentored generations of undergraduate and postgraduate students, many of whom now hold prominent positions in academia, government ministries, development agencies and the private sector. His impact, therefore, is both immediate and intergenerational.

Beyond these roles, he is also the Onikoyi-designate of Ikoyi-Ile, an ancient Yoruba kingship that symbolises guardianship and continuity. This cultural dimension mirrors his lifelong mission of uniting tradition with modern sustainability. His upcoming inaugural lecture thus transcends academia; it is a cultural and intellectual milestone, where science, heritage and spirituality converge in service of Africa’s forests and future.

Professor Jimoh’s lecture is poised to expose some poetic truth about forest and scholarship. This is to the effect that forests are not merely stands of trees waiting to be felled or catalogued; they are living archives of memory and identity. They are the whispered prayers of ancestors, the hush of sacred spaces and the living memory of a people.

In some communities, sacred groves have inadvertently become some of the richest reservoirs of biodiversity. Cultural restrictions have served as natural brakes against reckless exploitation. These restrictions, whether against felling certain tree species or hunting during breeding seasons, have acted as unwritten codes of ecological ethics. Where modern policies often falter under weak enforcement and corruption, culture has often sustained balance. To our forebears, the forest was not just a natural capital to be exploited, but kin to be negotiated with, and protected.

In Professor Jimoh’s words and wisdom, the forest becomes more than canopy and timber; it becomes a mirror of ourselves. It becomes a testament to the resilience of roots, anchoring soil and spirit alike. It becomes a guide to a sustainable tomorrow, whispering that the answers to our ecological crises may well lie in remembering the past. The forest teaches patience; it teaches interdependence. No tree stands alone; its roots intertwine with others, drawing strength from the collective. In the same way, cultures and traditions, when properly woven, may yet prove to be the strongest allies in humanity’s struggle for sustainability. The message is both humbling and empowering: the wisdom of the ancestors can illuminate pathways for the future if only we are willing to listen.

So, on that September afternoon, as the lecture hall fills with minds eager for illumination, one truth will become clear: the future of Africa’s forests may well lie in listening to the wisdom of yesterday. To attend this lecture is to allow the forest to speak, not through rustling leaves alone, but through the sacred hush of groves and the ancestral wisdom of tradition. It is to witness the meeting of heritage and science, the union of memory and method and the reconciliation of culture with conservation.

Amusa is a Professor of Forest Resources Management at the University of Ilorin, Nigeria and a Visiting Research Fellow at the Federal University of Paraná, Brazil.