1. Local Hunting Strategies in Kwara State, Nigeria: Challenge for Wildlife Conservation policy enforcement.
- Author
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LATEEF ADEFALU, LAWAL, ADERINOYE-ABDULWAHAB, SIDIQAT, JONES, AKANGBE, ABIMBOLA, OGUNLADE, ISREAL, MICHAEL, BABATUNDE, and MATANMI
- Subjects
HUNTING ,WILDLIFE conservation ,ENVIRONMENTAL policy ,DESCRIPTIVE statistics - Abstract
This study was carried out in Kwara State to assess the hunting strategies adopted by the local hunters with a view to examining their compliance with the State Wildlife conservation policy. A well-structured questionnaire was employed to obtain data from 400 respondents, using 3-stage sampling techniques. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data obtained. Findings from the study revealed that majority (65.5%) of the respondents were in their youthful age with mean age of 27.8years, hunters showed low educational status with 41.3% of them indicating no former education and a typical hunter earned average of N13,054.00 (USD 81.60) monthly. Majority (93.8%) of the respondents were not aware of the Wildlife act, Radio was indicated by majority (70.0%) of them as the main source of information on Wildlife conservation while 33.5% indicated protected areas as their hunting ground. Pregnant, nursing mother, infant and disabled animals were respectively killed by 62.5%, 56.0%, 76.5% and 36.0% of the respondents. Pearson correlation analysis showed that respondents' age (r = 0.047), hunting experience (r = 0.003) and income (r = 0.001) were significantly related to illegal hunting activities. It could be concluded that hunters were ignorant of the Wildlife policy which is the regulatory framework on Wildlife conservation in the State. Enforcement of the wildlife policy also appeared to be weak and this might have accounted for illegal hunting activities in protected areas in the State. The study recommends massive enlightenment programme on wildlife conservation for the hunters in the local communities in the study area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] more...
- Published
- 2013