Nature conservation in Cross River National Park, south-east Nigeria: promoting collaboration between local people and conservation authorities

Abstract

In most developing countries, there has been a long-standing conflict between nature conservation and local demands for natural resources. This paper reports a study on the preference of local people for different incentives that could help increase local support for nature conservation. It also explores the possibilities for designing a sustainable incentive strategy. Data were obtained from personal interviews conducted with community members around the Okwangwo Division of the Cross River National Park in south-east Nigeria, and were analysed using a multinomial logit model. The results showed that skill development was the most preferred incentive, followed by community forestry. The gathering of non-timber forest products under the supervision of national park officials was least preferred. The local people's preferences were influenced by factors such as education, extraction of bush mangoes, membership of environmental group, farmland size, income from non-timber forest products, ownership of commercial cocoa farms and gender. We conclude that an incentive-based strategy for nature conservation will be more effective if local people are more involved in negotiations regarding the incentive that are being offered. The findings from this study could assist nature conservation managers in designing a more acceptable and effective nature conservation strategy.