Adopting a participatory approach to community forests management in rural Nigeria

The study examined the willingness of rural households to pay for sustainable management of community forests in Southwest Nigeria. The value elicitation format used was the dichotomous choice contingent valuation technique. The multistage random sampling technique was used in selecting 180 rural households for the study. Data obtained were analyzed using descriptive statistics and logit regression analysis. Evidence from the logit model indicated that the mean willingness of rural households to pay for sustainable management of community forests was ₦389.04/month. The result also shows that bid, perceived importance of forests, age, educational level of household head, total household income, perception of deforestation effect and intergenerational equity were the significant factors that influence the rural households’ probability of willingness to pay for community forests management.  The study recommends policy measures aimed at inclusion of rural communities in the management of community forests as the rural people are willing to pay for its management which will help ensure sustainable management of forest resources and as well improve the welfare of the rural households.