MECHANISM FOR FOREST BIODIVERSITY PROTECTION AND CONSERVATION TO ENHANCE FOOD SECURITY IN BENUE STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

The study identified mechanism for forest biodiversity protection and conservation for enhancing food security in Benue state. Four research questions and three hypotheses guided the study. Descriptive survey research design was used for the study. The study was carried out in Benue State. The target population consists of 63 extension agents and 25 foresters. The total population was utilized, therefore there was no sampling. A 34 item structured questionnaire titled ‘ Forest Biodiversity Protection And Conservation Questionnaire ’ (FBPCQ) was developed from literature and used for data collection. The instrument was subjected to face validation by three experts. Cronbach Alpha method was adopted to determine the internal consistency of the questionnaire items which yielded a coefficient of 0.71. The questionnaires were analyzed using mean to answer the research questions and t-test statistics to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The result of the study revealed that respondents agreed on most items on the erosion control measures in the forest, tools and methods used to control forest fire, mitigation procedures adopted for biodiversity depletion and government regulation on the use of forest. It was recommended amongst others that state ministry of agriculture should implement mitigation procedures for reducing biodiversity depletion and adopt measures for controlling forest fire. Article visualizations: