Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Community-Based Conservation Programs in Old Oyo National Park, Nigeria

Abstract

This study focuses on effectiveness of community-based conservation programs on communities in Old Oyo National Park. The specific objectives of the study were to Identify community-based conservation programmes carried out in Old Oyo National Park and assess the impacts of community-based conservation programmes.Two (2) ranges (Tede and Marguba range) were selected from Old Oyo National Park. Three communities were purposively selected from each of the selected ranges based on their proximity to the Park, making a total of six communities. Simple random technique was used to administer twenty (20) questionnaires to twenty respondents in each of the selected communities making a total of one hundred and twenty (120) respondents of which one hundred and two (102) questionnaires were retrieved. Data obtained were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The findings showed that the community-based conservation programmes are empowerment of stakeholders, community are involved in conservation projects, community involved in decision making etc. The effectiveness of community-based conservation programmes indicated that highly effective recorded the highest with 40.2%, followed by moderately effective and effective with 31.4% and 23.5% respectively while not at all effective recorded the least mean of 4.9%. Impacts of community-based conservation programmes indicated that job opportunities and CBC has contributed to protecting and preserving natural resources recorded the highest mean value of 4.36 and 4.35 each, followed by it provides opportunity for the community to interact with different people with a mean of 4.34. The major challenges confronting the implementation of community-based conservation programmes were inadequate funding and lack of attention from local administrations. It can be conclude for the findings of this study that community-based conservation programmes are highly effective.