THE BEHAVIOR OF RURAL DWELLERS TOWARDS NON-TIMBER FOREST PRODUCTS UTILIZATION IN NORTH CENTRAL NIGERIA

Abstract

The study examines the behavior of rural dwellers towards non-Timber Forest Products utilization in North Central Nigeria. Data was gathered through the administration of questionnaire to 251 proportionally selected rural dwellers from 9 purposively selected communities in the 3 Local Government Areas of the 2 States that represented the North Central. The data was analyzed using mean score and binomial logit. The study showed that the rural dwellers had very high knowledge (≥2.1), favorable attitude and positive perception of NTFPs utilization. The result of the binomial logit regression revealed that age, income, household size, utilization experience, knowledge of use and NTFPs cost significantly influenced the utilization of NTFPs. Sustainable cultivation, harvesting, processing and utilization of NTFPs through enlightenment campaigns by government at all levels, domestication of NTFPs farming such as mushroom production, nailery, apiculture, rabbitry and grass cutter production, and value addition to NTFPs by the users for enhanced income generation was recommended among others.

Keywords: Knowledge, attitude, perception, utilization and NTFPs.