ABSTRACT

 The study assessed community involvement in the management and conservation offorest resources: A Case Study Of Ukpom Bende Forest Reserve, Abia State, Nigeria. Simple sampling techniques were employed to obtain information from a total of 120 respondents from randomly selected villages bordering the forest reserve for the study. . Descriptive (Tables, frequency and percentages) statistics was used to analyze the data obtaine. Majority (65%) ofthe respondents were female, while the rest (35%) were male. Also, majority (35.0%) ofthe respondents were within the age bracket of 39- 48years, 30.0% of the respondents were within the age bracket of 29- 38years, 20.0% of the respondents. With respect to level of education, 33.3% ofthe respondents had Higher Education and 29.2% of them had secondary education. 22.5% had primary education and 15.0% had no formal education. Also, a greater percentage ofthe respondents (51.7%) were married, while (20.0%) were divorced, 15.0% were single and only 15.0% of the Respondents were widowed. Conservation methods with high percentage ofrespondents indicating effective were no felling offorest trees without permit(92.50%), no indiscriminate burning of parts offorest(90.83%), prevention ofclearing of forest area for agricultural purpose (95.82%) and making laws against indiscriminate felling of trees(85.83%) Based on the findings of the study, it is concluded that many forest conservation activities are identified in the community and these includes entering the forest without permission, no felling offorest trees without permit, no hunting in the forest without permission, no indiscriminate burning of parts offorest, prevention of clearing offorest area for agricultural purpose, provision of forest guards for forest preservation, imposition offines/sanctions on illegal exploiters, making laws against indiscriminate felling of trees etc. With respect to the effectiveness forest conservation measures in the area, it is concluded the level of effectiveness of forest conservation is low in the study area and since host Communities have longed been seen as important partners in the conservation as the effective forest conservation methods were no felling of forest trees without permit, no indiscriminate burning of parts of forest, prevention of clearing of forest area for agricultural purpose and making laws against indiscriminate felling of trees Also, Community participation in forest conservation in In Ukpom Forest Reserve Bende was observed to be constrained by multiple factors which include inadequate local people’s involvement in conservation decisions, hunting in secret, indiscriminate logging, inadequate finance, no guards or insufficient forest guards, 'lack ofstorage facilities for forest resources, lack of deforestation without afforestation, deforestation and over grazing/ damage by grazing animals etc . Based on the findings ofthe study, it is recommended that Government should design forest conservation programmes that are community participatory, democratic and bottom-top by integrating the people in the planning, design and implementation offorest conservation activities. This will give the local people a sense of belonging and responsibility towards forest conservation