ASSESSMENT OF COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION IN FOREST CONSERVATION IN ONDO STATE, NIGERIA
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Date
2021
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Abstract
This study assessed community participation in forest conservation in Ondo State, Nigeria. The
study specifically described the socio-economic characteristics of respondents in the study area;
evaluated the perception of the respondents about forest conservation; determined the awareness
of any forest conservation programme among the respondents; identified different forest
conservation association among the respondents; examined the perceived benefits derived by the
respondents from the forest reserves; assessed the level of willingness of the community to accept
a premium for conservation of forest; and identified factors that influenced the respondents
willingness in forest conservation in the study area. A multi-stage sampling technique was
employed to select 200 respondents. Stage one involved purposive selection of two Agricultural
zones out of the four zones in the State for occupying the largest sqkm2
of forest reserve. Stage
two involved purposive selection of two Local Government Area (LGAs) from each of the selected
Zones that are identified as having forest reserve in the State. In the third stage, five rural
communities around the forest reserves were selected randomly from each LGA. The last stage
involved random selection of 10 respondents from each community. Data obtained were analysed
using descriptive statistics, Likert Scale, Contingent Valuation Method (CVM) and Doublebounded Logit Model.
The findings of the study revealed that average age of the respondents were 41.90 years which
indicate that they were in their active age and most (49.5%) of them had secondary school
completed. Also, larger proportion (63.0%) of the respondents were indigene of the villages around
forest reserve and some (35.0%) of them had lived in the area for more than 21 years. On the
average, the distance of the respondents from their home to forest was 2.68km while their mean
income earned on monthly basis was ₦27,580. All the respondents have no access to social
amenities. From the respondents’ perception, it shows that they strongly agreed that forest
protection programme is necessary to sustain the forest reserve with mean score of 4.7. Larger
proportion (65.0%) of the respondents were aware of forest degradation while some (29.0%) of
them got their information on forest degradation from community leaders. From the result, it also
shows that 49.0% of the respondents were aware of forest conservation programme (FCP) and
40.5% of them identified REDD+ (Reducing Emission from Deforestation and Forest
Degradation) programme as their FCP. 44.9% of the respondents are fully involved in planning
stage on how to control illegal logging in REDD+ programme. Most (85.0%) of the respondents
harnessed fuel wood from the forest reserve while 81.0% of them were using the reserve for
agricultural production. Furthermore, larger proportion (95.0%) of respondents were willing to
accept a premium to conserve forest reserve and the exact mean of WTA monthly was ₦42,325.00.
The double-bounded logit regression model showed that bid amount, age, marital status, income
and forest distance were factors that significantly influenced the respondents WTA premium for
forest protection. This study concluded that the respondents` were aware of forest degradation, and
the importance of maintaining, conserving and sustaining forest reserve. In addition, the
respondents` were willing to accept a premium for forest conservation. The study recommended
that since they are willing to accept premium, Government and other Stakeholders should use the
opportunity to involve the rural dwellers in conservation program so that forest management will
be participatory in nature.