Public perceptions of Urban Forests in Okitipupa Nigeria: Implication for Environmental Conservation

The paper assessed the public perceptions of urban forest in Okitipupa’ Nigeria with a view to recommending appropriate management strategies. Two hundred respondents were purposively selected from the study area with structured questionnaire. Results revealed that 90.2% of the respondents has preference for trees and 85.4% will be willing to participate in a project to plant trees. More than 50% of the respondents would like to contribute 1-2 hours per week to the project while 31.7% would like to contribute #500-1000 annually for tree planting and maintenance. Most of the respondents love to live and work in a green environment and would like to pay extra cost to rent property located in it. Most of the respondents planted trees around their houses for purpose of providing fruits, nuts and vegetable. 50% indicated that it is for the purpose of making their environment to be more beautiful, attractive and for the provision of medicinal plants. There are no statistically significant differences (p>0.05) of opinions in the respondents’ education, age, family size and type of employer and participation in urban forestry project. There should be frequent inventory and survey of trees to note the distribution and density as well as structural and physical changes necessary for management practices. Also a survey of tree preference when planning for a tree planting programme should be carried out.