ABSTRACT
Out of all the forests and
forest reserves in Nigeria that remained relatively undisturbed, significant
portions of them have been lost in the last two decades. As these natural
forest ecosystems disappear, so do many of the goods, which they provide. In a
bid to incorporate local people into the management of community forest, Cross
River State became the pioneer state in introducing forest management
committees (FMCs) to co-manage the forest resources of the state alongside the
states forestry department, hence the spring board for this research. It is
aimed at examining the performance of FMCs in the management of forests in
Cross River State. Information were obtained from 15 leaders of randomly
selected FMCs through interview questions, and 90 other respondents using a set
of structured questionnaire. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics,
binary probit model, student t-test, and likert scaling techniques. The
intensity of forest management practices was higher in communities with FMCs
than in those without FMCs. This showed significance different (t=4.234,p <
0.05) in the two communities. Average household income from forestry/forest
products in communities with FMCs, and those without FMCs also indicated
significant difference (t=1.972,P < 0.05). The income was significantly
higher in communities without FMCs than in those with FMCs. Among the factors
influencing the perception of the local people as regard the use of FMC for
forest management, five were statistically significant, age P(0.0309),
education P(0.0172), income P(0.0378), presence of erosion in the communities
P(0.0445) and forest use P(0.0149) showed positive influence on the
perception. The Likert scale rating of the constraints encountered by FMCs
indicated lack of commitment of members, change in government policies,
financial constraints, inter and intra-community conflicts, inadequate support
from community leadership and negative attitude of community to forest
conservation as the most challenging constraints to the FMCs. Finally, it was
recommended that government should initiate policy to encourage communities to
organize themselves into groups for involvement in forest management. The
initiatives should be tailored towards policies and programs that cut across a
review of the land use act, provision of finance, formation of cooperatives and
substitution of wood usage among the rural households. This will be effective
in the conservation and management of forest through FMCs.
CHAPTER
ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background
Information
Forest and tree resources are
of extreme importance to mankind. They provide the resources for a multiple of
products, which feature in peoples day to day lives (Falconer, 1990). The
contributions of forests to sustainable livelihood cannot be over emphasized.
Forest which include all resources that can produce forest products, namely,
woodland, scrubland, bush fallow and farm bush and trees on farms, as well as
ecosystem dominated by trees, provide household with income, ensures food
security, reduce their vulnerability to shocks and adversities and increase
their well being (Arnold, 1998).
Out of all the forests and
forest reserves in Nigeria that remained relatively undisturbed until the
1980s, significant portions of them have been lost in the last two decades. As
these natural forest ecosystem disappear, so do many of the goods and services,
like timber, fuel wood, water shed, charcoal, pharmaceutics, erosion control
and prevention, soil stabilization, food, fruits/nut etc, which they provide.
Estimates of forest cover range
from 9.7 million hectares to 13.5 million hectares in Nigeria (FAO 2005a). This
extensive vegetation has over the years reduced as a result of the various
human activities. According to FAO (2005a), forest area declined during the
1990s at an estimated annual rate of 2.6% or 398,000 hectares per year caused
by agricultural expansion, encroachment, over harvesting, bush burning, illegal
harvesting and de-reservation. As a consequence, the benefit which forest
bestowed on the people is becoming more difficult and expensive to acquire.
Nigeria’s total forest area in 1990 stood at 14,387,000 hectares. But in 1995,
it stood at 13,780,000 hectares with a total change, (1990-1995), of -607,000
hectares at an annual change of -121,000 hectares (i.e-0.9%) (Eboh and Ujah,
2000).
Government of Nigeria (1997)
noted at the fifth session of the United Nations Commission on Sustainable
Development that the bulk of this forest cover is the Savannah woodland type.
This is about 70% of the open natural forest, with the remaining 30% closed
forest. The closed forest includes mangrove and coastal forest (22%), fresh
water swamp (38%) and low land wet forest (40%). It also went further to state
that the southern
Ensuring that these forest wood
trees are maintained requires both intra - and inter generational
sustainability. In other words, a sustainable and productive forest reserve
resource base can ensure enduring food and environmental security (FAO, 1997).
Forest conservation is defined
as actions taken in management of a forest that result in maintenance of the
possibilities for future forest related benefits (Wollenberg, Nawir, Uluk and
Pramono, 2001). For Forest Wood Trees, conservation means the sustainable
management of the species for the products it yields in order to ensure
availability in the future. Conservation of forest wood tress and indeed
biological resources can be in-situ or ex-situ. In situ conservation of
biological resources involves conservation of ecosystem / species in their
natural surroundings while ex-situ conservation involves the conservation of components
of biological diversity outside of their natural habitat (domestication)
(Laird, 2002). As stated in article 8 of the convention on biological
diversity, in-situ conservation of forest resources can be achieved, among
others, through the establishment of a system of protected areas. Ex-situ
conservation can be achieved through the establishment of gene bank,
cultivation of species in lots or in agro forestry systems, recovery and
rehabilitation of threatened species and for their introduction into their
natural habitats under appropriate conditions, among others.
Conservation initiative will be more successful if the
local / indigenous people participate. This is based on the advantages that can
be gained by drawing on indigenous knowledge of the forests and forests
products, and by building on the sustainable systems.....
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