Cultural changes as conservation efforts in Forestry in selected areas of Egbadivision of Ogun State, Nigeria

摘要

Culture is understood as a conceptual scheme encoding social behaviour. The impact of cultural changes on sustainable resource management is poorly understood. This study assessed participation in cultural changes and the factors contributing to cultural changes to promote conservation in forestry and the impact of changes on the welfare of the respondents in Egba division of Ogun State. Stratified Random Sampling was adopted and questionnaire used to elicit information from 200 respondents. Both descriptive and inferential statistics along with econometric tool of Gini index were used for data analysis and impact of cultural changes in the welfare of the respondents. Ratio scale model known as People Participatory Index (PPI) was used to determine people participation in cultural changes. The result showed gender sensitivity as majority, (56%) of the respondents were male and 44% female. On age, some of the respondents were in age bracket ≥61 (27%) with average age of 51years. Educationally, primary education recorded the highest (43%), and tertiary education (4.5%) had lowest. On participatory level, 25.4% had moderate participation, 47.5% had low participation while 27.2% had high participation index in the changes. The major income recorded a Gini index of 0.375, minor income 0.188 and total income 0.336 showing the pattern of contribution to income inequality. Conclusively, majority of the respondents participated in cultural changes unconsciously for conservation. It is recommended that forest policy should advocate for more participation in changes that promote conservation and forest protection among rural populace who are mostly farmers.