Abstract

Gashaka Gumti National Park covered an area of 6,411 km² the park provides home to various faunas and florae with endangered species like the lions and chimpanzees, and all this with the support of 25 neighbouring communities. Evaluation of community contributions to wildlife conservation in Gashaka Gumti National Park Serti, Taraba State, Nigeria was carried out. The objectives of were to; determine the role of community in wildlife conservation in Gashaka Gumti National Park and examine how PA’s enable the achievement of sustainable development and improved human welfare. Paper questionnaires, face-to-face interviews and group observations were used in administering questionnaires to 100 households in six selected communities, four within the park and two neighbouring ones. Research shows that more than three-quarters of the respondents can participate in the conservation activities of their own accord, and this is composed of people in the young adult bracket of between 21-40 years (n = 115, 87%). There is consensus that numerous conservation initiatives are significantly gendered, and age related since age is a decisive factor that influences participation of the respondents (χ² = 14. 00, p < Sex significant difference was noticed whereby 61% of the participants were male; this could be due to social cultural factors that may hinder women’s participation in exhaustive conservation efforts (χ² = 4. Additionally, status of marriage (χ² = 11. 56, p < 0. 05) and level of education (χ² = 15. 92, p < 0. 05) significantly affected the community participation thus, indicating the socio-economic related factors in the engagement issues. The level of participation was different with 48 % in awareness creation and 23 % in park surveillance, meaning that people of Jibu had a multi-form participation in the conservation activities including community-led conservation project (chi-square = 54. 46, p < 0. 05). Though, factors such as poor income sources (45. 0%), restriction by park laws (13. 0%) and poor infrastructure (10. 0%) limit expanded community involvement (χ² = 40. 40, p < 0. 05). A very high percentage of the respondents reported moderate incidences of illegality in the protected area. Being the case, enforcement activities must be stepped up (χ² = 336. 9, p < 0. 05). These results highlighted the necessity of an adaptive community-centred conservation plan for the park taking into consideration sociodemographic factors which may reduce hindrances and promote community involvement in sustainable utilization in the National Park.

Keywords

Community-Based Conservation, Wildlife Conservation, Gashaka Gumti National Park, Sustainable Development, Socio-Demographic Factors