Forced marriage between Communities and Okomu National Park

This paper presents data collected from a case study of host communities around Okomu National Park (ONP) which is the smallest of Nigeria’s seven national parks, covering a total area of 181km2 and home to the endangered... [ view full abstract ]

This paper presents data collected from a case study of host communities around Okomu National Park (ONP) which is the smallest of Nigeria’s seven national parks, covering a total area of 181km² and home to the endangered white-throated monkey. The biggest problem facing flora and fauna conservation is the increasing rate of habitat loss or modification due to human activities (Ayodele, 2008). The park also preserves a little portion of the rich tropical forest that used to cover a wide area of the region.  A multi-stage sampling procedure was used to select host communities near the park and was categorized into three groups based on their distances from ONP. The precinct <1km was tagged the Proximate precinct (PP), 1-3km intermediate precinct (IP) and those >3km was called the Remote precinct (RP).  A simple random sampling of 50 % of the communities in each precinct was selected, and from the selected communities 10% of the host community respondents were interviewed. A total of 350 questionnaires were  administered, but 338  were collected and usable for analysis (60 in PP, 74 in IP and 104 in RP).  The result revealed that communities in (IM) had higher levels of interest and participation in conservation and ecotourism than the other two precincts (PP and RP).  Duncans post hoc test revealed that there were significant differences in involvement in the three precincts. It also showed that there are major differences in the three precincts in the attitudes of the host community members towards ecotourism.  The results revealed that there was a significant relationship between awareness of ecotourism and community engagement (p < 0.05). In a bid to  foster community involvement in conservation, there is the need for increased awareness of conservation and to improve higher levels of community engagement which will be effective if the right political, social and economic indicators are properly factored in then policy formulation and implementation process