Abstract
Ensuring local community support for national parks is viewed as a paramount ingredient for conservation and sustainability. This is advocated for the park to meet its conservation goals. The Okomu National Park (ONP), Edo State, Nigeria, is one of such protected areas of lush green rain forest requiring conservation.
This study examined the local inhabitants’ attitudes view on ecotourism towards the national park and its importance to natural resource conservation in ONP. The park is home to the endangered white throated monkey and the forest elephant.
Data were collected on the basis of questionnaires, distributed among eight communities, which have a direct relationship with the park. A total of 338 questionnaires were distributed in eight communities around the park. The results of the survey revealed positive attitudes towards ecotourism in the area of the conservation of wildlife (69%). In addition, 71% of respondents thought that ecotourism helped in saving their forests.
A positive relationship between benefits derived, educational level, religion, family size and being a native of the area and attitudes were established, suggesting that these significant factors play an important role in influencing local support for conservation. Among the major limitations the local inhabitants listed their exclusion as copartners in the management of the park and the prohibitive laws that deprive the locals of gathering non-timber forest products, which negatively affects their livelihood. ONP conservationists should work at improving their relationship with the host communities, and include them in management activities. Only then can development and conservation goals be achieved.