In Akwa Ibom State, timber is used for building, construction, furniture making, transmission pole, pulp and paper, and chemicals. Timber harvesting, processing and utilization had remained a big business to quite a number of people with its attendant forest destruction and deforestation. The State was richly endowed with forest resources, which are of great benefit to man but the high demand and continuous harvesting of timber products in the State ecosystems without any deliberate sustainable management programmes has resulted in the over-harvesting and complete devastation of the standing stock of indigenous wood species. In addition, indiscriminate exploitation of these resources has caused depletion of forest leading to serious timber deficit. This work has discussed factors affecting timber production in Akwa Ibom State and the way forward. The paper has identified deforestation and ‘dereservation’, overexploitation of forest resources, revenues target by government, population growth and infrastructure expansion, non-participation of the private sector in forest development, amongst others, as factors responsible for the decline of timber resources in the state. The paper recommends that reforestation and afforestation programmes, conservation of natural forests, private sector participation in forest management, adoption of agroforestry system and sustainable management of natural resources can improve timber production in the State.

With decrease in wood from the forest, non-wood fibres have attracted interest in the production of pulp and paper products in recent times due to their short growth cycles, moderate irrigation and fertilizer requirements as well as their low lignin content. The use of these plants will aid sustainable development in the pulp and paper industry. This study investigated leaf dimensions and fibre characteristics of Agave sisalana and how the leaf dimensions relates to its fibre characteristics. Leaves were collected from three sisal plant stands in Oyo State, Nigeria. The plant whorl was divided systematically into bottom, middle and top from which five leaves were randomly collected from each whorl position. The fibres of the leaves were extracted from which 2cm of fibres were taken from three positions on the leaf (top, middle and base). Extracted fibres were macerated and 3375 fibres were measured. The result shows that Agave sisalana leaves collected at the top had the longest length and was also widest at the base and middle. The average fibre length was 1.69 mm, while the fibre diameter, lumen width and cell wall thickness of Agave sisalana were 16.98 µm, 12.33 µm and 2.32 µm respectively. The slenderness ratio averaged 99.4 while the coefficient of flexibility averaged 72.61. The highest value of the runkel ratio of Agave sisalana was 0.42. There was significant negative correlation between leaf characteristics and fibre characteristics. Young sisal (Agave sisalana) leaves produced the best fibre characteristics suitable for the production of high quality paper.