CONTRIBUTION OF SUPPORT ZONE FORESTS TO LOCAL LIVELIHOODS IN CROSS RIVER NATIONAL PARK, NIGERIA

Abstract

Ecosystem services are the conditions and processes through which natural ecosystems and the species that make them up, sustain and fulfil human life. The extent to which community forests contribute to local livelihood in the Support Zones Communities of Cross River National Park (CRNP) were explored in this study. Fields survey was conducted in eleven (11) villages support zone. Data were collected through questionnaire administration, Focus Group Discussion (FGD) and direct observation to identify provisioning and cultural resources of economic values in the selected community forests. A sample size of 377 respondents was randomly selected from 20,590 total populations of all the selected communities. Data obtained were presented descriptively and analyzed with Chi-square and t-test. Result from the study showed that the vast majority of the respondents were men, married, age group distribution was between 21-40 years old, the educational level was more of primary and secondary school levels and household sizes were between 1-5 and 6-10. Local resident’s main livelihood activities that were ecosystem dependent were farming and highest monthly income earning range between N10, 000 – N50, 000 for livelihood activities. Awareness of Ecosystem Provisioning and Cultural services in the community forests was high in both divisions (94.7% and 87.3% in Oban East and West respectively). The result further revealed that ecosystem services in the community forest provided them the provisioning services in forms of water, fuel-wood, charcoal, food (Irvingia gabonensis - bush mango, Cola nitida - kola-nut, Lactuca sativa - salad, Hensia crinite - atama, Agaricus bisporus - mushrooms), meat (Macaca fascicularis - monkeys, Erethizon dorsaum - porcupine, Antilocapra Americana - antelope, Thryonomys swinderianus - grass-cutter, Serpentes spp - snake), fishes (Oreochromis niloticus - tilapia, Neochama apoda - mud-fish, Malapterurus electicus - electric-fish, Channa striata - snake-fish, Squalus acenthias - dog-fish),