Cost and Compensation Issues in Protecting a Peri-Urban Forest in Ogun State, Nigeria: A Case Study of Arakange Forest Reserve (AFR)

1052-B5

Adekunle, M.F. Oluwalana, S.A., and Fasinasi, A.

ABSTRACT

Peri-urban forest reserves are typical in Ogun State. These forest reserves are often subjected to multiple forms of uses, which are both timber and non-timber based. These uses often subject the forest reserves to different levels of degradation, which are not in line with the principles of sustained yield management. An example is the Arakanga Forest Reserve (AFR) located about 5 kilometers from the center of Abeokuta, the Ogun State Capital.

In this paper, we identified nine of the user groups in AFR and used the payment card system (PCS) under the contingent valuation method (CVM) to elicit information on the users' willingness to accept (WTA) compensation if they are asked not to use the reserve for some time to give room for rehabilitation vis-à-vis reforestation.

The result showed that an aggregate value of 25.76 million Naira () per annum, or a one-off compensation of 9.9 million Naira (), might make the sample population as well off with the reserve as without it.

As compensation costs appear to be a significant part of the true cost of implementing protected area projects, we suggested that it should be built into project design at an early stage.

The conclusion was reached that willingness to accept compensation by forest users might indicate their preferences for protecting forest resources or benefits of improving forest qualities.

Hence, the WTA compensation responses and amounts could be a reliable predictors or indicators of future behavious if a rehabilitation vis-à-vis reafforestation projects were actually initiated for AFR, or even as a measure of resistance and displeasure against conversion of urban and peri-urban forest lands to other uses.

Key words: Contingent valuation method (CVM), Payment card system (PCS) Naira (N), Arakanga Forest Reserve (AFR), Willingness to accept (WTA), Compensation, Rehabilitation, Protection, Abeokuta, and User groups.

INTRODUCTION

Tropical countries in Africa, especially Nigeria, lay emphasis on management and protection of forest through forest reservation. This process of reservation has significant social, economic and environmental impacts. Reservation of forests, especially urban and peri-urban forests, gives rise to benefits in terms of conservation of biodiversity. The bio-diversity of plants and animals provides goods and services. The myriad of goods and services provided by urban and peri-urban forest have been reported by some authors such as Osemeobo et al. (1986), Adekunle (1998) and FAO (2001). They are timber and non-timber based: examples include sawn wood, fuel wood, medicines, leaves, roots, bark, mushroom, wild animals and geological materials such as sand, gravels, stones and soils.

The environmental service functions of forest have also been reported by Popoola and Ajewole (2001). They include moderation of climates, protection of soil and water values, air and noise pollution control. In spite of the goods and services provided by the forests, especially when the forests are under reservation, there are some negative impacts borne by the people living in and close to such forests which depend on these resources from the forest for their livelihood generation. For instance, traditional users rights are lost when large areas of tropical forests are put under reservation protected or converted to other land uses. Arakanga Forest Reserve (AFR) is one of the nine forest reserves in Ogun State that falls under the purview of a peri-urban forest (Wiggins and Holts 2001). They defined a peri-urban as area beyond the closed settled limits of any urban area but are sufficiently close enough to the urban area to have frequent and substantial interactions with the urban economy. Close enough was taken to mean within 30 minutes of journey of the city by public transport.

It has been observed that development projects have often failed to take into account the opportunity cost of people with traditional rights to forests where large forest areas are reserved to other land use activities. A typical example is the AFR which have been subjected to different degrees of degradation both by the government projects and some private user groups. The failure to compensate adequately or involve local people in the establishment and management of protected areas has resulted in poor performance of many projects dealing with forest reserves and nature parks. This is because these parks and reserves are often exposed to open access, non-rivalry and none excludability problems from local populations.

In the light of the above, suppose the government or any non-governmental concern intends to carry out a ten-year rehabilitation and reforestation activities in the reserve to alleviate its present state; what is the level of compensation required monthly, annually and one-off that would make up for barring the people from using the reserve? This study intends to provide answers to this hypothetical questions by identifying some of the private user groups and determine the level of compensation that would make them as well off as with the reserve as without using the contingent valuation methods (CVM) Krammer, et al. 1994; Ajewole, 2001 and Geogiou, et al.1997).

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The Environment of AFR

AFR is one of the nine forest reserves in Ogun State and about 2.3km2 It is made up of both the high forest and savanna vegetation. Although the reserve is situated in Odeda Local Government Area (LGA), it is closer to Akomoje, the headquarters of Abeokuta North LGA and about 5 kilometer from the center of Abeokuta, the capital city of Ogun State. The environment of Ogun State has been described by some authors such as Awojuola (2001). Onakomaiya (1992) and Adekunle and Oluwalana (2002). The AFR is presently in various degree of degradation. For instance, a large proportion have been clear-felled to give room for the Ogun State Water project as well as the State and Federal Forestry Projects as well as the LGA Staff quarters. Some other parts are presently under mono-culture plantations of Tectona grandis and Gmelina arborea while the remaining natural trees are being constantly exploited. The villages inside and surrounding the AFR include Feure, Maronko, Abule Ayo, Oniroko and Quari.

Data Collection and Analysis

The data used in this study were obtained between September and December 2002. Some major user groups were identified through the assistance of the forest officers in charge of AFR. Nine (9) user groups were identified. They are as follows: farmers, hunters, recreationist, timber contractors, wrapping leaf collectors, fuelwood collectors, medicinal plant collectors, traders and geological materials collectors.

Twenty respondents each were randomly selected from each of these user groups. These respondents were interviewed following the format of a standard questionnaire, which were used to guide the questions put to them. A total of 180 interview were successfully conducted after a protesting of the questionnaire.

The Contingent Valuation Method (CVM) under the non-market valuation approach (NMVE) was adopted to elicit information on the willingness to accept (WTA) compensation for loosing access to the reserve for at least ten year for a rehabilitation project in the reserve. The contingent valuation question used was "Suppose you are asked not to carry out your usual activities in AFR for a period of ten years and in order to make up for asking you not to use the forest for this period of time, which of this amount of monies ('000), 0, 5, 10, 15, 20 or 25 are you willing to accept every month from now on? Would this make you as content as before when you could use the forest? This system is referred to as the Payment Card System (PCS) under the (CVM) and is in line with Ajewole (2001); Geogiou, et.al. (1997); Krammer. et. al. (1995) and Micheal (1995).

Before the contingent valuation questions were posed, questions bordering on the bio-data of the respondents, different types of benefits, experiences in AFR and their opinion on whether or not the AFR should continue to exist were asked.

Data Analysis

Statistical and econometric methods were used in the analysis of data collected. The methods include the use of descriptive statistical-tools such as frequency distributions, mean, percentages and tabular analysis. These tools helped in giving insights into the respondents' disposition to forest protection activities and with compensations. The multiple regression statistics was also employed to determine the variables that significantly influence the respondents' expressed WTA compensation models for the study was specified as:

WTA = f (x₁ + x₂ + x₃ + x₄ + x₅ + ED --------------------------------(1)

Where:.

WTA = expressed aggregate willingness to accept compensation (i.e. dependent variable)
X₁ = age, X₂ = Monthly income; X₃ = Household size; X₄ = experience; X₅

Distance to house; ED = error term.

The aggregate WTA expressed by the respondents was discounted at 10% discount rate for a period of 10 years using the model specified below:

-------------------------(2)

Where:

NPV = Net Present Value
r = discount rate

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Socio-economic profiles of the respondents and their expressed WTA compensation

Nine (9) user groups were identified in this study. They are as follows: Farmers; geological materials collectors, Hunters, Medicinal plant collectors, Wrapping leaves collector, fuelwood collectors, timber contractors, traders and recreationist. All the respondents answered in the affirmative to the questions whether they would like the reserve to be rehabilitated and continue to be in existence or not. They were all also in support of rehabilitation projects in the reserve. These positive responses may at least reflect their preferences for protecting forest resources or the benefits of improving forest qualities in line with Jenkins, et. al. (2002).

A large number of the respondents, i. e. 132 or 73.3% of the total were in the age group of between 31-40 years while the least number of 17 or 9.4% of total were 30 years old and below (Table 1 ). The large incidence of working class adults as found out in this study could mean more and constant exploitation of natural resources such as the forests for livelihood generation. The same trend was recorded in Omo forest reserve by Adekunle (1998). This category of people could have a large family to cater for in line with Babalola (1992). The low number of respondents under 30 years might be their being in school in the towns or they might have migrated to large cities in search of white collar jobs.

Table 2 showed the summary of gender distributions of respondents with a large number of the respondents, i.e. 122 or 67.8% of total found to be males while the remaining 32.2% or 58 in number were represented by female. The large number of males recorded could be because, traditionally, men are regarded as breadwinners hence their being more involved in forest resources exploitation to cater for their families. This could be the reason for their positive response for the WTA compensation and support for rehabilitation project in the reserve.

More than halve of the respondents (i.e. 99 or 55%) of total had no formal education as shown in Table 3 while the least number, i.e. 15 or 8.3% of the total respondents had secondary school education. Over-exploitation of forest reserves might result where majorities of the users are illiterates as similarly expressed in Adekunle (1998). However, the acquisition of formal education might not be a necessary factor in holding protection preferences and values for natural resources like the forests. It also showed that the local people might have realized the need to protect natural resources before the advent of modern systems of resource conservation and protection. Not withstanding, formal education of users could enhance the protecting values held by the community for sustainable management of natural resources.

The distribution of the respondents according to household sizes is shown in Table 4. 169 respondents 0r 93.8% of total had between 0 and 10 people in their households. A large number of people in household could mean or lead to frequent exploitation of forest resources for sustained living. More than half of the respondents. i.e. about 55% of total were in low-income group as indicated in Table 5. They earn 10,000 Naira and below monthly. This is more than the minimum wage paid by the Ogun State Government to her employees. Only one respondent each were represented in the income group 31-40,00 and 41-50,000 Naira. The need for a sustained livelihood especially through income generation from the forest might have informed the users positive response towards improvement programmes in AFR. Expressed WTA compensation by respondents in the different socio-economic groups

The expressed aggregate WTA compensation are indicated in Table 1-5. These are in relationship to the socio-economic variable like age, income, gender, education and house hold size.

The largest aggregate amount of 1.56 million/month was expressed by respondents in age group of 31 - 40 years while the least amount of 0.4 million was expressed by youths of age 30 years and below. This amount represents 70.05% and 8.6% of the total aggregate amount of WTA of 2.13 million/month respectively (Table 1).

The male respondents in this study expressed the largest amount of WTA (Table 2). An aggregate amount of 1.5 million/month was expresses by this group of respondents representing 67.8% of the total aggregate WTA compensation. The least amount was expressed by the female respondents.

Table 3 revealed the aggregate WTA according to educational status of respondents. Respondents without formal education expressed the largest WTA per month of approximately 1.03 million. The least amount of compensation was expressed by the Secondary School leavers, i.e. 0.2 million.

The largest amount of WTA was expressed by respondents with 0-10 people in their households, i.e 1.98 million or 93.8% of the total aggregate WTA (Table 4). The table showed that a monthly aggregate amount of about 1.7 million was expressed by respondents earning 10,000 and below per month. While the least aggregate amount was expressed by the high-income respondents.

Expressed aggregate WTA compensation by different user groups

A summary of expressed WTA compensation is shown in Table 6. According to the table, the largest amount of approximately 0.31 million/month was expressed by the sampled timber contractors operating in the AFR. This represented 14.43% of the total WTA of approximately 2.14 million per month. The least amount of 0.12 million was expressed by the sampled wrapping leaf collectors. Correspondingly, the largest annual WTA compensation was expressed by the timber contractors as revealed in Table 7. This was estimated at 3,7 million with a net present value PV of 1.4 million at 10% discount rate. The farmers and geological material collectors expresses close WTA approximated at 3.4 and 3.5 and 1.34 million respectively. The least annual WTA of approximately 1.4 million and a corresponding NPV of 0.5 million was expressed by wrapping leaf collectors. The total aggregate WTA compensation expressed per annum was approximated at 25.66 million and a NPV of 9.9 million at 10% discount rate and a ten-year time horizon.

Preferences for forest goods and services have been found to differ across different interest and user groups as revealed in this study. Expressed WTA compensation might indicate user preference for protecting forest resources or benefits of improving forest qualities (Jenkins, et. al. 2002). Therefore determining WTA compensation might be useful and important to policy makers in targeting uses of forest for budget priorities and in determining which user group of the forest that receive the largest gain from forest reservation and protection.

This study is also in line with Michael (1995). He used the CVM to measure the impact of the formation of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park (BIMP) Uganda to local people. He found out that an average, a compensation of 5 bags of millet equivalent to approximately 80 dollars per households as well off with the park as without. This study also agreed with Kramer, et. al. (1995) in Madagascar that obtained a value of US 108 dollar per household to make households as well off with the park as without.

The regression analysis (Table 8) indicated that there was no correlation between the aggregate WTA compensation expressed by the different sampled user groups and socio-economic variables such as age, income, household size, experience in reserve and distance of reserve from respondent houses; except geological material collections and Hunter groups where these variables accounted for 66% and 57% variabilities in WTA compensation respectively. Other variables might be contributing to the WTA variabilities. This might require further investigations. However, t-values of variables like experience in reserve, income and distance of house to reserve were significant among other user groups like fuelwood collectors (years in reserve); geological material collectors (income); medicinal plant collectors (income) Hunters (income) (Distance from reserve); Traders (Distance from reserve) and Timber collectors (Distance from reserve) as shown in the table.

CONCLUSION

Since the policy of forest reservation in Nigeria and Ogun State is informed by economic interest on forest products and by conserving surface water for domestic use, the need to enhance the quality of forest cannot be over-emphasized. Based on the result of this study, therefore, approximately 754,706 (Awojuola, 2001) people in Abeokuta North and South LGA would be negatively affected if rehabilitation projects were implemented in AFR at least during the period rehabilitation. It is therefore essential to compensate adequately if any meaningful rehabilitation should be carried out in a forest reserve like the AFR. This is because the pursuit of rehabilitation and conservation objectives without an effective participation of the local community is unsustainable.

In the light of the above, this study indicated that an annual compensation of 25.7 million or a one-off compensation of 9.9 million would make the sampled respondents as well off with the reserve as without if a rehabilitation of the reserve is to be carried out. As compensation cost appears to be a significant part of the true cost of implementing protected areas projects, it should be built into project design at an early stage. However, compensations could be made in form of transfer payments such as education, health facilities, roads rehabilitation and alternative income earning enterprises.

The results of this study also suggested that it is possible to carry out a CVM on a peri-urban forest and obtain a reasonable result, however, it important to bear in mind that special care is required in such cases; for instance, further research is required to find out other variables the influences WTA compensation by users of forest resources.

Finally, the WTA compensation responses and amount could be a reliable predictor or indicator of future behaviour if a rehabilitation and protection projects were actually initiated for AFR. They can equally serve as a complimentary input for decision makers and forest managers to use in assessing public support for protecting a peri-urban forest. They can also be used as a measure of resistance and displease against the conversion of peri-urban or any forestland into other uses.

Table 1: Age distribution of respondents and expressed WTA compensation

Table 2: Gender distribution of respondents and expressed WTA compensation

Table 3: Educational status of correspondents and expressed WTA compensation

Table 4: Household sizes and expresses WTA compensation

Table 5: Income distribution and expressed WTA compensation of respondents

Table 6: Expressed aggregate monthly and annual WTA compensation according to user groups

Table 7: Monthly, Annual and NPV of WTA compensation according to user groups

Table 8: Regression model summary

ns - not significant s - significant

REFERENCES

Adekunle, M.F. 1998. Survey of Non-timber forest products (NTFPs) and their uses in Ogun State, Nigeria: A Case Study of Omo Forest Reserve. M.F. Thesis, Dept. of Forestry, University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Nigeria. 158p.

Adekunle: M.F. and Oluwalana, S.A. 2002. Utilization of forest plant leaves in Omo Forest Reserve, Ogun State. Nigeria. Ogun Journal of Agricultural Sciences (OJAS), Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, Nigeria, Vol.II (200) 238- 253.

Ajewole: O.I. 2001. Economic valuation of forest environmental functions in Ibadan metropolis. M. Phil. Thesis, Dept. of Forest Resource Management, University of Ibadan (UI) Nigeria. (Unpublished) 165p.

Ajewole: O.I. and Popoola, L. 2001. Monization of forest service functions for sustainable forest management. Journal of Environmetal Extension, University of Ibadan (UI) 1 (1) 117-125.

Awojuola: E. 2001. Ogun State Investors Guide. Published by Eni-Meg Nigeria Ltd. In collaboration with Ogun State Ministry of Industries and Social Development. 382p.

Babalola, FA. 1992. Population structure in Ogun State. In: Ogun State in Maps. Onakomaya S.O. at.al. (eds). Rex Charles Publications, Ibadan, Nigeia.pp 36-40.

FAO 2001 Non-wood News, N0.8, March 2001. An Information bulletin on Non-wood Forest Products. FAO (Rome) Italy.

Geougiou, S; Whittington, D., Pearce, D; and Edward, E. 1997. Economic values and the environment in the developing world. Edward Elgar Publishers Ltd., Chaltenham, U.K. 167p.

Jenkins, D.H., Sulivan, J; S; Amacher, G.S; Nicholas, N.S; Reares, D.W. 2002. Valuing high altitude spruce-fir forest improvements: Importance of Forest condition and recreation activities. J. Forest Economics 8, 77-99 (2002).

Krammer, RA; Sharma, N; Munasinghe, M. 1995. Valuing tropical forests; Methodology and case study of Madagascar. World Bank Environment Paper N0.13, Washington D.C. The World Bank.

Michael, S.G. 1995. Economic valuation of the multiple use of forest. The case of Burundi Impenetrable National Park (BINP), Uganda. M.Sc. Dissertation. University of Edinburg. (unpublished). Quoted in FAO 1997 (pp.117-122).

Onakomaiya, S.O., Oyesiku, K. and Judge, F.J. 1992. Ogun State in Maps. Rex Charles Publications. 6a, Polytechnic Road, (Sango) Ibadan, Nigeria. 187p.

Osemeobo, G.J., Omoluabi, A.C., Okonofua, SA. And Offokansi, L.I. 1986; Pre-feasibility study on urban forestry development in Nigeria. Prepared by Consultancy Unit, Federal Dept. of Forestry, Lagos, Nigeria, 101p.

Popoola, L. and Ajewole, 0.1.2001. Public perceptions of urban forests in Ibadan, Nigeria: Implications for environmental conservation. Arboricultural Journal, 2001, vol.25,Pp. 1-22.

Wiggins, S. and Holt, G. 2000. Poverty, Urban Poverty, and Forest and tree goods and services. Report for Forestry Research Programmes: Researchable Constraints to the use of forest and tree resources by poor urban and peri-urban households in developing countries. (ZF0136) Dept. of Agricultural and Food Economics, The University of Reading, U.K. 40p.

To: wfc-XII @ fao.org.,
Sub. Re-paper for presentation at wfc 2003
Attention: Michele Millanes
Dear Sir,
I attached here with the electronic version of the paper: Cost and compensation issues in protecting a pari-urban forest by Adekunle et.al. This is in reference your last mails an same.
Thanks.
Michael Femi Adekunle
Dept of Forestry,
University of Agriculture,
Abeokuta, Nigeria.