INFLUENCE OF POVERTY ON FOREST I FOREST MANAGEMEW POLICIES OF CROSS RIVER NATIONAL PARK. AKAMKPA

This research attempts to investigate attd examine the influence of poverty on forestlforest management in the rural areas of Mbarakpa, Igbofia, Uyanga, Oban, Nsan and Obutong in Akamkpa Local Government Area of Cross River State. The population of this study comprised the total number of 620 household heads in the six communities. The primary objective of this study was to it.!estigate factors responsible for high poverty rate in the rural areas that has made the application of forest management policies unworkable. Analysis of data from the 150 sampled household heads in the study area revealed that the level of poverty and general standard of living in the study area are highly deplorable, leading to high rate of forest exploitative drive. The study further indicated that majority (68.67 percent) of the sampled respondents had no gainful employment, hence the propensity for forest resource exploitation. It showed further that about 77.33 percerit of the sampled respondents were ignorant of the forest bye-laws. Based on these findings, it was recommended that the rural people in the study area should be empowered to take active part in sustainable management of the forest as this would help to reduce the level of poverty. Also other sources of income and nutrition (example, fish and snail farming) apart from forest resources should be developed and encouraged.

About 1.8 billion people in the World today live in abject poverty (Yesufu, 2000). It is a global phenomenon. In Africa and sub-Saharan Africa, majority of the populace especially in the rural areas are the worse victims of poverty. These people are "caught in a vicious cycle of poverty". This is evidenced in the pattern of housing, income distribution and inequalities, level of malnutrition which from available statistics are responsible for more than 60 percent of infant mortality. and 86 percent morbidity (infants and adults alike) (FOS. 1996). All obstructions to the regular flow of income would certainly bring about poverty. The severity of poverty in the rural areas are partly attributed to absence of government (Federal) presence, imbalance in social emenities and infrastructural development, lack of implementation of policies and programmes in favour of the rural areas etc.
At the micro-level, other poverty-inducing factors such as death, illness, accident, old age and lack of employment of the head of the household are prevalent. These are complemented by lack of occupational training and excessive family size (World Bank. 1994). At the macro-level, Nigeria is classified as a lowincome and severally indebted economy and by implication a poor country (World Bank, 1994). Given this scenario, the World Development Report (WDR) considers the various mechanism adopted by successive government at resolving poverty crisis as effective. Accordingly, four .mitigation measures have been identified as having the potentials to increase the income of the poor. These measures are: (i) increasing the demand, and therefore, the .price for those factors of production that the poor own (example, their labour); (ii) transferring physical assets to the poor (e.g. land); (iii) providing social services to the poor (e.g. land; and (iv) transferring current income to the pooi (e.g. through cash or food subsidies) (CBN Bullion. 1997).
However, community forestry and stakeholders' participation in sustainable development has never, ..been recognized as an effective measure for poverty reduction in Nigeria and Cross River State in particular.
Forest management and policies development was seen by successive governments since independence as the ex':actbn of timber for maximum revenue generation. Poverty was not the only factor that has degenerated the forest reserves of the National Park in the study area but the population pressure as evidenced in the large number of children in the rural communities nationwide.
In view of this traumatic situation, it then became imperative for the present government to tackle the problem of rural poverty through effective forest management policies. The present Poverty Alleviation Programme (PAP) introduced by the present government is geared towards ameliorating poverty especially in the rural settlements of Nigeria.
The specific objectives of the study are: (0 To investigate factors responsible for the high poverty rate in the rural areas; (ii) To determine the relationship between rural poverty and management of forests and forest policies; (iii) To evaluate the socio~economic background of the respondents; (iv) To determine the consequences of rural poverty on effective forest management; (v) To make useful recommendations for alleviating rural poverty based on the . 'findings.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The study which seeks to reveal the relationship between rural poverty and management of forest and forest policies was carried out in six rural communities (Mbarakpa, Igbofia, Uyanga, Oban, Nsan and Obutong) in Akamkpa Local Government Area of Cross River State. The population of this study comprised a total number of 620 identified household heads. Out of the total population of 620 household heads, 150 respondents were randomly sampled.

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Data generated for'the study were c6lIecled from 150 mmpled respondents through the use structured questionnaire (primary data) and from publisr.ed academic .-journals and bulletins (secondary sources). Adminisiration of the survey instrument (questionnaire) were adopted by the use of random sampling techniques in the six wards. Twenty-five questionnaires were administered to household heads in each of the wards making a total of 150 questionnaires in the entire wards.
Several statistical procedures such as descriptive statistics (frequency tables, percentages etc.) inferential statistics such as student 1-test and F-test and the regression analysis (bivariate function) were adopted to investigate and examine the level of rural poverty as it affects forest exploitation vis-a-vis management policies. The inferential statistics such as the F-ratio and the t-test were used to determine the degree of associations and to estimate the differences between two means (variable) respectively.
Two hypotheses were generated for the study. These include: (1) There is no significant relationship between rural poverty and management of forest resources.

(2)
There is no significant difference in the rate of poverty (income level) and poor housing pattern in the study area. l t l e l in the country. Despite the introduction of Poverty Alleviation Programme (PAP) in 1999 by the government, poverty level is still on the increase with the rural settlements being the worse victims. In the first place the programmes were hijacked by the political elites who use them for political patronage. Equally, most of the programmes like NAPEP (National Poverty Eradication Programme) did not take the interest of the rural dwellers into consideration while implementing their programme. Infact, there was no direct and tILUIYI sustainable empowerment of the rural dwellers, in terms of modern amenrt~es and employment opportunities generation. revealed that only 2.00 percent of the respondents had 1 -3 household members, 12 percent had 7 -9 household size, and 34 percent had 13 or more members in their household. A further revelation from the table shows that majority of the respondents (46.0 percent) had large family size of between 10 -12 or more members. Large family size is of immense importance to farmers in the farming communities in that -it provides cheap labour since it is not costed (Eyo, etal, 2000). Large family size has dual effects on the economic wellbeing of the household especially in rural settlements. This is consistent with the positions held by Silva and Bysouth (1992), Arsenio (1995) and Adeleke (1985) that "poverty has both social and economic implications which cannot be alleviated through a short term piece-meal approach".   Table 3 shows the level of educational attainment in the study location. The table reveals that 16.00 percent of the samples respondents had no formal education, 30.00 and 42.00 percent had primary and secondary schools education respectively; while only 12 percent of the respondents had attained tertiary institutions. The implication of this low level of educational attainment is that majority of the people in the :study location are not gainfully employed resulting in growing poverty level in the area. Such growing army of the unemployed therefore fall back on the available forest   Table 4 shorn that 68.67 percent of the study lndtcates that majortty of people In the study area earned population are not gainfully employed. whle only 31 33 x5.0001month representtng 64 67 percent of the sampled percent a n employed. The employment poiq in both the populatton, whtle 18 percent earned less that x5.000 per run1 and urben areas haw not been adequately addressed by month. Thls presents a plcture of low lncome level among the the pest and present government Thls explalns why Yesufu study population Thus, low level of lncome and growlng (2000) opined that, 'the Fsderal Government and the Central poverty became clearly the most visible and challenging Bank authorities seem suddenly and ~nexpllcably, to be bereft phenomena of viable economic and monetary ideas and policies to move the economy forward". This scenario has implication for the income level of the study area as evident in table 4. Theatable The reasons for such illegal exploitation of forest resewes were as follows:

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
(a) -poverty; (b) lack of employment; (c) forest products were sold for means of livelihood; (d) habits of the people Measures adopted as a panacea to end exploitation of the forest resources include: fine, jail terms for serious offences arid conviction, and corporal punishment for offenders.

Employment Level
Reoponses 1   Incessant Poaching Total Table 6 shows the prospects of effective As shown in table 8, the calculated R-value was 0.34, management policies on forest resources. The table revealed on conversion to t-test, 4.38 was obtained. While the strongly that tourism is one of the major prospects of tabulated value (1-critical) at 0.05 level of signifiance with 148 management policy of forest resources representing 24.12 degree of freedom obtained was 1.64. By this reslllts, the percent of the sampled population. This is followed by alternative hypothesis was accepted. The increasing rate of ecological balance, representing about 23.28 percent. Others poverty is responsible for forest management lapses and rnclude; aesthetic value (20.17 percent), educational services consequently accounts for the wanton exploitation of forest wealth (Hypothesis 1).

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30.1 5 100 ~ ~e s u i t s of the analysis of variance (ANOVA) f o r income level and poor housing in the study area was statistically significant at 0.05 level of probability (with calculated value of 3.22 against the critical value of 3.1 1). The implication here is that it is the level of income that justifies the housing types of the people. Hence, the null hypothesis was rejected in favour of the alternative hypothesis ( Table 9). The low income level of the people made it impossible for the people to adopt a meaningful standard of living vis-a-vis housing pattern with well defined facilities and standard engineering parameters.  The level of educational attainment in the study area is low. (C) Some species of animals in the forest reserve are getting extinct due to the high rate of hunting among the people in the study area.

(d)
The income level among the people in the study area is generally low with grave consequences on forest and forest management policies. Poverty, especially among the rural dwellers has continued unabated due largely to the imbalance in resource allocation vis-8-vis the seeming lack of opportunities for high level of.educational attainment and gainful employment. This scenario has accounted largely for the dislocations in most of our rural communities today in terms of ruralurban mjgration, high crime rates and over exploitation of forest resources even in reserve areas in complete defiance of LkUIlYL exlstlng forest management policieslleg~slstions Such neglect or ~mbalance can only be corrected when polic~es and programmes are largely or~ented towards the needs and development aspirations of the people n the rural areas, especrally In the study locat~on RECOMMENDATIONS Frat,,

3.22'
Based on the-findings and conclusion of thls research, the following recommendations are made: Forest-based jobs should be created to enable rural dwellers masskfy take part in forestry activities, especially tourism development. (c) Other sources of nutrition. and income should be introduced and encouraged (example. piggry, goatry, fishery and snail farming) to help discourage over reliance in forest wealth by the rural dwellers. (d) Finally, the rural people should be kept abreast with forest management byelawsllegislations to reduce the rate of illegal hunting (poaching) on forest resources, especially endangered species.