Abstract:
This study examined the attitudes of citizens towards Eucalyptus tree replacement programmes in Bui Division, North West Region of Cameroon. The tree species named eucalyptus was introduced in this Region by the German missionaries in view of enabling the inhabitants have access to fuel wood for cooking and heating. But in subsequent years, it was discovered to be environmental unfriendly as it consumes a lot of water, deposit leaves that have poisonous chemicals to undergrowth, extend its roots to neighbouring farms and render those farms unproductive. To mitigate the threats posed by this tree species to the environment and livelihoods, a number of Non-Governmental Organisations, Forest Based Organisations, Local councils as well as the Cameroon government through its ministries have carried out a number of projects as well as sensitization campaigns to enable the citizens replace the eucalyptus tree with environmentally friendly tree species. The descriptive research design was employed for this study and a sample size of 150 participants was purposively selected for the administration of questionnaires containing closed and open ended questions. The questionnaires were complimented by Focused Group Discussions. The data collected were analyzed using the simple percentage, t-test and multi-linear regression techniques. The findings revealed the following: that land ownership as it is controlled by men determined the eucalyptus tree replacement effort; that cultural uses significantly determined the replacement effort but in a negative way; that there is a relationship between eucalyptus replacement effort and campaigns, that is, if the level of information increased by 100% the replacement effort would increase by 21%. However, this information or campaigns did not significantly influence the replacement effort. Also, the level of education of respondents significantly affected replacement effort positively and a 100% increase in the level of education was likely to increase replacement effort by 15%. Based on the economic factors, the value of eucalyptus or income received by citizens was significantly negative and if incomes received by the citizens' increased by 100% there was a likelihood of replacement effort to decrease by 18%. The authors therefore recommended that to resolve the issue of land ownership, the cultural uses and information dissemination about the eucalyptus plant, more education needs to be carried out on the effects of the plant. |
