Community-based Forest Resources Management in Nigeria: Case study of Ngel Nyaki Forest Reserve, Mambilla Plateau, Taraba State, Nigeria

Abstract

In Nigeria, human communities are found within or beside forest ecosystems, depending on these ecosystems for survival. Their forest exploitation is considered a threat to conservation efforts, leading to constant conflicts between Government, law enforcement agencies and the communities. The best solution is a win-win system of participatory community-based forest resources management, in which the communities are regarded as stakeholders rather than as threats. This paper explains the adoption of this approach in Ngel Nyaki Forest Reserve, Mambilla Plateau, where the communities were trained in establishment and management of forest plantations with readily available market for their timber; employment for some of the community youths as well as community development projects. This paper calls for the adoption of this system in other protected areas in Nigeria, while the Government should provide basic amenities for the communities as alternatives to those forest products.

Agroforestry Practices and Carbon Sequestration Cost Estimates among Forest Land Dependent Households in Nigeria: A Choice Modelling Approach

“…either decrease or increase the likelihood of the choice of categories but were not significant. The estimation shows that the higher the household size among farming household the more the likelihood of selecting one of out of the categories (i.e., [1][2][3][4]. This implies that a unit increase in the household size will cause 2 percent decrease in the likelihood of rejecting all the agroforestry system alternatives while a unit increase will result to a proportional increase in likelihood of selecting any of the agroforestry systems in category 2 (i.e., Alley cropping, Shelterbelts and wind breaks).…”

“…Greengrass [1] noted that most of the households living within the forest communities are farmers and timber workers, indicating that their livelihood depends on the forests. Forest community households have been depending on forests from several centuries back and worse still, their illiteracy and poverty level is very high [2].…”

Saving Dupinga Watershed in Gabaldon, Nueva Ecija Philippines: Insights from Community Based Forest Management Model

“…For instance, trees are filtering carbon dioxide that causes harm to health of human persons. The forest ensures economic survival of million communities depending on it for livelihood [5] [6]. It further ensures continues supply of high quality water necessity to innumerable communities and agricultural farm lands.…”

Rural Farm Households and Forest Land Use Change in Nigeria: A Primary Siamese Twins?

“…Greengrass [3] observed that most of the households living within the forest communities are farmers, and timber workers, and their livelihood depend solely on forests and its resources. Worst still, illiteracy and poverty level of rural households within forest communities are very high, and these contribute to the level of unhealthy forest land use practices among them [4].…”

“…It has been established that forestland use change in Nigeria is caused mainly by rural farming activities following their strong dependency on forestland [7,9,21,11,22]. Several studies affirm that rural farmers (more than 20 million) practice shifting cultivation where by each farmer cultivates a plot of land for two to three years after which soil fertility is depleted and he moves to another plot to allow the previous plot to fallow and recuperate [22,4]. The tendency is for farmers to look for a virgin forestland where soils are relatively more fertile.…”