Attitude of Peri-Urban Households towards Environmental Protection in Rivers State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study focused on the Attitude of peri-urban households towards environmental protection in Rivers State. Specifically, the study described the socio-economic characteristics of the respondents, identified areas of environmental issues, identified the peri-urban households’ sources of information on environmental issues, ascertained the strategies adopted by periurban households for environmental protection, examined attitude of peri-urban households towards environmental protection strategies and identified the factors affecting the periurban household’s attitude towards environmental protection strategies in the study area. Multi-stage sampling was used to select a sample of 200 respondents. Data were collected with the use of questionnaire and analyzed using frequency, percentage and mean. The hypotheses were tested using Regression Analysis and t -test and results obtained were 6.60 and 0.33 which implied that there was significant relationship between peri-urban households’ sources of information on environmental issues in the study area, a nd there is no significant difference between peri-urban households’ attitude towards environmental protection in the three senatorial district, respectively. The result revealed that 61.51% of the respondents were male, 63.0% of them were married with mean age of 47 years old. Air, water, soil and other forms of pollution ( ̅ 3.57),increased threat on public health ( ̅ ), loss of biodiversity ( ̅ , ocean becoming more acidic ( ̅ ), rapid and steady depletion of atmospheric ozone layer ( ̅ , increase cases of deforestation ( ̅ etc were agreed by the respondents to be environmental degradation issues in the study area. The respondents agreed that their sources of information on environmental issues were mostly radio programmes ( ̅ , print media ( ̅ ), television programmes ( ̅ friends and neighbours ( ̅ The strategies adopted by the respondents for environmental protection include reuse of nylon and other carry bags, protect and use natural resources in an appropriate and cost effective manner. The factors affecting respondents attitude towards environmental protection were media and family influence. It was recommended that Peri-urban, urban and rural dwellers should adopt the various environmental protection strategies to ensure the safety of the environment.