The effect of distance on community participation in ecotourism and conservation at Okomu National Park Nigeria

Abstract

Okomu National park is one of the seven national parks in Nigeria; it is the smallest and the last to be created, which has generated some hostility from the local communities who have been stripped of their ownership. The study focuses on the participation of communities in ecotourism and conservation based on their distance from the park applying the distance decay effect. The host communities were divided into precincts based on their distances from the park with the primary aim of investigating the level of participation in ecotourism activities based on their distances from the park. The study revealed that the communities in the intermediate precinct had higher levels of participation than in the proximate and remote precincts. The study revealed that distance had an effect on participation in ecotourism, but it did not clearly align with the distance decay theory.