Economic Valuation of Forest Conservation by Villagers in Ibadan Oyo State Nigeria

Economic valuation of forest conservation by villagers living at the perimeter fence of International
Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria was undertaken to describe socioeconomic
characteristics of the respondents, determine the total value of forest conservation using
willingness to pay approach and assess the determinants of socio-economic characteristics of the
respondents to their willingness to pay (WTP) for forest conservation. Multi stage sampling technique
was adopted for the study, four hundred and eight respondents comprising of farmers, hunters,
herbalists and herb sellers were randomly selected and interviewed using copies of well-structured
questionnaires. Descriptive statistics and Logistic regression model was used to analysed the data
collected. The results showed that farmers and hunters had average age of 55 and 57 years while
herb sellers and herbalists had average age of 43 and 63 years respectively. Majority of the
respondents pooled together are male, married, having average age of 55 years and household size
of 7 members. The highest percentage of them are closer to the forest by 1-3 km, native of the study
area, not educated and not employed but had monthly income of 12,000-20,000 naira (US$33.38 to
US$55.63). The mean willingness to pay for forest conservation was N114.38 (US$0.32) per month
per household and the total value of forest was N3, 461,024.42 (US$9, 627.32) per month. The study
further revealed that WTP was significantly impacted by several factors such as sex, educational
level, occupation, income and bid amounts. The study therefore recommends that monetary value
should be placed on the social, cultural, ecological and economic services generated by the forests
for the forests to continue to provide goods and services on a sustainable basis. Also, the willingness
to pay for forest conservation can be used as an alternative measure of displeasure against the
conversion of the forests to other uses and as a supportive argument for the invaluable roles the
forests play in sustaining the livelihood of the people. The estimated WTP values can be used in costbenefit
assessments of forest ecosystem protection programs in the study area.