Abstract
Rural communities around Akure forest reserve depend mostly on forest and its products for their livelihoods, which results in its high rate of deforestation. Meanwhile, the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation programme (REDD+), one of the international forest-governance initiatives to address sustainable forest anagement and climate change mitigation has been introduced to the reserve. This research investigated the socio-economic status of the communities in Akure forest reserve, level of dependence on the forest resources and their level of awareness and perception about the REDD+ project. Six communities were selected randomly from around the reserve which were in the readiness phase of the REDD+ project. Data were collected through household survey with the use of semi-structured questionnaire administered to 120 respondents (household heads) selected randomly from the communities as well as information from 6 key informants (village heads). Descriptive Statistics and Chi Square test were used in the analysis of the data and the result showed that the main income-generating activity in the communities was farming accounting for 70.8% of the respondents. This affirms that the high level of the households’ dependence on forest resources is traceable to their socio-economic characteristics. Considering the level of awareness of REDD+ project, results revealed that the level of awareness of the key informants about REDD+ was very high (83.3%) while it was very low at the local community level with only 35% of the respondents being aware of the REDD+ project among which 23.3% found it beneficial. Therefore, to enhance the level of effectiveness of REDD+ project implementation, there should be an increase in the level of awareness in the communities.
 Keywords: Forest Communities, Awareness, REDD+ Project, Rural livelihood, Deforestation
Highlights
United Nations Collaborative Programme on REDD+ (UN-REDD) in their REDD+ implementation (IPCC, 2007)
Before project implementation, it is necessary to assess the socioeconomic status of the forest communities and the dependence of the people on the forest and the level of awareness of the project and the perception of the members of the community in order to come up with reflective information about the factors that might influence the adoption of REDD+ by the rural communities
41.7% of the respondents had no level of formal education while 30.8% had primary education, 2.5% had adult education, 24.2% had secondary education and only 0.8% had tertiary education, respectively
Summary
United Nations Collaborative Programme on REDD+ (UN-REDD) in their REDD+ implementation (IPCC, 2007). The introduction of a REDD+ project into the Reserve will reduce deforestation/degradation factors, improve the forest conditions, and enhance the community livelihoods in the forest area. There is no sufficient information on the socio-economic impact of the programme in Ondo State (Federal Ministry of Environment, 2011). There is a need to provide sufficient evaluation required to help the officials of the REDD+ programme to inform the best design and facilitate smooth implementation of its projects, towards the reduction of deforestation without jeopardizing the accessibility of its co-benefits to the forest-dependent communities. This research aimed to provide information on the socioeconomic characteristics of the people in the forest communities in Akure forest reserve and the level of awareness and perception on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation Programme (REDD+) project in the state
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