Authors:
Adeoye A.S., Abegunrin O.O., Oke O.O, Ogunwale O.G. and Jatto K.A. ,Nigeria |
Abstract:
The Non-Timber Forest Products play an important role in livelihoods sustainability of dwellers
around forest environment. Therefore, information needs arise due to dearth of information on
practices in the NTFPs sector. The NTFPs gatherers’ commitment to information seeking
however will facilitate sustainable utilization of non-timber resources of the forest. This study
was carried out in Gambari forest environment, Oyo State to examine forestry information needs
of non-timber forest products gatherers. Purposive sampling procedure and proportionate sample
to size was used to select 93 NTFPs gatherers. The data for the study were analyzed with both
descriptive and inferential analytical tools. The findings of the study showed male (58.4%)
dominant in NTFPs utilization and in seeking for information about practices in the sector, and
60.2% of the respondents has level of education significant enough to seek for useful information
pertinent to their operations. The result further revealed significant correlation between
gatherers’ access to information sources and there information needs (r=0.643, p<0.05). In
conclusion, the findings showed that most gatherers seek for various forms of information which
may not be adequate for information needs. It is recommended that government should allocate
more forest extension agents and forest guards to help provide and disseminate adequate
information needed among the NTFPs gatherers’ operations in the Gambari forest environment |
