Evaluation of Institutional Arrangements for Sustainable Forest Resources Management in Edo State, Nigeria

The unending decrease of the world’s forest resources has become a great global debate. Ineffective forest resources management strategies have often be blamed for the uncontrolled rate of forest resources harvests. Institutions, the fourth factor of production in the economy, matters so much, because of cost – benefit effects. Forestry in developing countries often suffer from poor supply of institutions and so not only becomes less competitive than that of developed countries, but also less well managed than other sectors in the same countries. These underscore this research; evaluation of institutional arrangements for sustainable forest resources management in Edo State. The research aims to evaluate the performance of the state’s legal framework and give recommendations for ensuring sustainable forest resources management. The data for the study were captured through questionnaire administration, Focus group discussions, interview schedules, oral testimony field observation and institutional decomposition. A total of 50 senior staff of the ministry of Agriculture and the department of Forestry were interviewed. Results from the studies shows that there are 48 governments forest reserves totaling 439,139.02 hectares. The government manages forests through legal frameworks. It was discovered that the richness in terms of biodiversity of the forests was on the decline, trees spacing becoming wider, timber harvests were continuous and the whole essence of government management, is revenue driven. The paper recommends that both the government and the local people should diversify their sources of income to reduce dependence on forest resources, establishment of forests management committees embracing all the forest stakeholders, sharing the proceeds from forests among the stakeholders, as these will ensure sustainable forest resources management in the state.