An Appraisal on the Role of Local Communities in Vegetation Dynamics at Kainji Lake National Park, Nigeria

The fact that more people are becoming poorer by the day means that more natural resources around the world would continue to be depleted at a faster rate than usual and this is because the poor are mostly depended on the availability of natural resources around them for their sustainability and Borgu sector of Kaiji lake National Park is not an exception. Just as protected areas may reduce deforestation compared to unprotected areas, they do not entirely eliminate human activities in and around them. This paper assess role of local communities in the dynamics of vegetation within the Borgu sector of Kainji Lake National Park. Questionnaires were administered to selected three communities within two kilometer (2km) of the park boundary. The questionnaires retrieved for each community, were coded and the data entered into the Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS) and analyzed using the simple analytical method of descriptive statistics. The frequency of occurrence of responses was used in the discussion as well as one way ANOVA to test the level of significance of the two hypotheses set for the study. The 2-tailed test carried out showed that there is a significant relationship between the educational background and occupation of the people just as the occupation of the people also affects the kind of resources that is being harvested from the park. The result also shows that Level of Education has a relationship with perception on sensitization carried out and ways of tackling the environmental problems. There are serious human activities around the fringe of the park and this has contributed to the continuous degradation of park resources without the communities understanding the true effects of their actions. The attention of the management of the park should be geared towards involving members of the communities in some decision regarding the park management.