High Incidence of Forest Fires and Preventive Measures in Cocoa Research Institute Plantations Ibadan, Oyo State

This study was carried out to ascertain the high incidence of forest fire and its preventive measures in Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria(CRIN) plantations Ibadan, Oyo state. Fire is used as work tool by rural population, it serves as land clearing method for agricultural land, flushes management for livestock, wastes disposal, honey gathering, animal tracking and hunting. A multistage sampling approach was used to select 120 respondents. Data were collected using interview schedule on socioeconomics characteristics, perceived causes of forest fire, effect of forest fire and preventive measures to forest fire. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistic. The result revealed that the mean age was 44.9 years and majority (72.7%) were male, 83.0% of them were married. Also a very good number of respondents (97.7%) has various level of education. Bush burning to eradicate weed as a perceived cause of forest fire was ranked 1st with the mean value of 1.36. Destruction of CRIN mandate crops parent materials as the effect of forest fire was ranked 1st with the mean value of 1.42 and controlled bush burning was ranked 1st with mean value of 1.64 among the preventive measure of forest fire. It was revealed that significant relationships were observed between sex (?2= 6.000, p = 0.014), Religion (?2= 8.693, p= 0.013) on the preventive measures of forest in CRIN plantations