Assessment ofcommercial importance and determinant factors influencing collection of non timber forest products in adjoining communities of lanlate Forest Reserve of Oyo State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study focused on the assessment of commercial importance and determinant factors influencing collection of non timber forest products in  adjoining communities of Lanlate. Purposive sampling was used to select four villages Alapa, Opo Ogede, Afayasoro, and Panlati which are closed to  the forest reserve with protected population of 640,290,540 and250 respectively. Furthermore Diaw et,al (2002)was used to select respondent for the study,113 questionnaire were administered out of which 106 were retrieved..Data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics such as percentage and frequency distribution and inferential statistics. Majority of the respondents were within the age brackets of 42-60 years (30.2%) and mostly male (81.1%); 62.3% of the respondents had secondary education. Results further showed that81.2% of the respondents were married, 57.5% were engaged in farming as occupations and 53.8% had spent 10-20 years in the area. Non Timber Forest Products (NTFPs) collected in the area were34.9% of bush-meats, (45.3%) collected NTFPs between 3 - 5 days in a week and some of challenges faced were unattractive price, poor road network and inadequate credit accessibility. The study recommended that government should encourage development of participative programme involving local people for the evaluation of NTFPs resources for sustainable production, harvesting and use of NTFPs.

Keywords: Assessment, Communities, Factors, Forest Reserve, NTFPs, Respondents.