FOREST CONSERVATION POLICY: THE ROLE OF STATE FORESTRY DEPARTMENT IN OYO STATE

Forests provide diverse services and will continue to remain an integral part of rural livelihoods. Demand for forest products, especially timber became insatiably high as results of increasing human population pressure and economic growth. This led to unregulated forest exploitation, thus resulting in degradation of the resources in the country. Lack of forest management plan, primitive silvicultural operation, and under-utilization of resources and high rate of illegal logging in the forest plantation resulted in alarming failure of forest plantation to meet the current demand for both timber and non – timber forest products. Forest policies have to be tailored in a way that the primary focus is on maintaining ecosystem integrity. In Nigeria constitution Oyo State is a typical example of where timber exploitation has been taking place without adequate regeneration despite regular payment of regeneration fees. The study was conducted in Onigambari which is located in Oluyole Local Government Area. Simple descriptive statistics such as frequency and percentages were used to describe the socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents. Chi-square analysis was also used to analyze the relationship between the activities of forest users and the roles of State Department of Forestry in Oyo State.This paper focuses on forest conservation policy with a view to examine activities of forest users and the role of State Forestry department under the auspices of Ministry of Agriculture in Oyo State, Nigeria. Illegal activities being perpetrated by various forest users has been found detrimental to the forest reserves. Poaching (e.g. hunting of animals, harvesting of forest resources, and mismanagement of eco – system among others) has been identified as the major threat such that little or no other form of illegal activity can be carried out in the forest reserves except through poaching. These illegal activities have been however checked and reduced to manageable level by the forest law enforcement agents in the state under the auspices of Ministry of Agriculture. Thus, the culprits are subjected to varying degrees of penalty and punishmen