| Summary: | A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Education, The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Philosophiæ Doctor
29 July 2009 === Several recent studies have recognised the importance of forests in sub-Saharan Africa because these forests, with varying levels of degradation, form a significant proportion of global forests. Equally acknowledged and well documented are the levels of dependency on these resources by rural people, who constitute the majority of the continent’s population. Various policies and legal responses have been established and implemented at international, regional and national levels but these have failed to reduce the dependence on and degradation of forest resources. However, relatively few studies and environmental education programmes have been directed at understanding the social and cultural dimensions of forest resource use and conservation across African countries. There is a significant gap in the understanding of the socio-economic issues in forest resource conservation and environmental education among rural people, especially from cross-country perspectives. Thus, the purpose of this study has been to undertake a comparative analysis of knowledge, attitudes and practices towards forest resource conservation and environmental education between the rural inhabitants of Ijebu in Ogun State, Nigeria and the rural people of Bushbuckridge in Mpumalanga Province, South Africa. This comparison was done to develop a conceptual framework which could guide policy recommendations and intervention programmes in the study areas. The study explored the differences and commonalities in the socio-economic activities of the targeted rural communities with respect to their knowledge, attitudes and practices toward forest resource conservation. The central question addressed was: How do socio-demographic variables in the two countries (such as gender, education, occupation and livelihood) relate to forest resource conservation relative to the local knowledge, interest, awareness, attitudes and practices of the people? In addition, this study interrogated the attitudes and understanding of rural people regarding government forest policies and environmental education initiatives.
As an inter-disciplinary study, both political ecology and planned behaviour theories were used as the basis of the theoretical framework. Because of the nature of the study and gaps identified in previous studies, a combination of both qualitative and quantitative techniques were employed (such as in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, document analysis, participant observation, informal conversations and questionnaires). Using a questionnaire, 600 randomly selected households (from six rural communities in the two countries) were surveyed. Participants’ responses were subjected to analysiss using descriptive and inferential statistics. Content analyses of recorded in-depth-interviews, focus group discussion and documented forest policies were carried out, and related to the survey results.
Notwithstanding regional differences, and contrary to expectation, the study found a greater range of convergence (rather than divergence) between the communities in the two areas. Even though statistical differences were observed in the areas of knowledge, interest, awareness, importance, and practices of forest resource conservation among the people, there were surprising similarities in their attitudes and understanding – and low support for government forest policies. There was an overwhelming dependency on forest resources at household and national economy
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levels in both study areas and specifically in the two target groups. It was discovered that socio-demographic variables (gender, education, and age) interacted with knowledge, interest, awareness, importance, attitudes and practices of forest resource conservation. The results indicated that the correlations found between the genders, and their attitudes and practices, are common in both countries.
This research is the first cross-cultural and national environmental survey to be undertaken between these two countries and regions. The study contributes towards a greater understanding of both the potential impacts and limitations of forest conservation policies (as instruments to achieve sustainable development in the forest resource-rich areas of developing countries) and the currently under-utilised role of community based environmental education in promoting forest conservation. This study suggests various policy and environmental educational options to minimise the trade-off between forest conservation and human livelihood by addressing the fundamental socio-economic, cultural and political constraints that affect the design and implementation of forest conservation initiatives. In addition, this research has demonstrated that understanding the ways in which meaning is socially constructed and contested in relation to forest resources is important for effective forest protection, management and conservation.
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