ABSTRACT
This study examined the rural-urban interdependence on fuel wood in Anambra State, Nigeria using cross-sectional data. The study used purposive and random sampling techniques for the selection of 120 gatherers that constituted respondents for the study. The study employed descriptive and relevant inferential statistics for data analysis. The findings of the study revealed that out of the 14 indicators of the importance of forest examined in the study, the respondents were aware of 11 as importance of forest to people in the study area. The linear regression analysis with an R2 of 0.702 showed that about 70% of the total variations in the income from fuel wood were caused by the specified independent variables in the model. On rural-urban interdependence on forest, (79%) of money and income related benefits flow from urban to rural areas; (88%) of benefits relating to innovative ideas on forestry management and conservation flow from urban to rural areas, about (68%) of forest related market information spread from urban areas to the people in rural areas while about (55%) of awareness of the importance of forest and its related products flow from the urban to rural. About (78%) of benefits in the form of forest related job opportunities spread from rural to urban areas. Using a factor loading of 0.30, the factors that constrain rural-urban flow of fuel wood in the area were: socio-financial; infrastructural/institutional; and distributive factors. The result of the probit model with an R2 of 0.892 indicated that about (89%) of the total variations in the decision of the respondents to either invest in forest development or not were caused by the specified independent variables in the model. Based on the above findings, it was recommended that government should ensure the provision of good feeder and major road network between rural and urban areas in the state, that for smooth flow of fuel wood, marketing channels should be encouraged in order to hasten distribution of the fuel wood among others.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background Information
Majority of Nigeria’s poor live in the rural areas and depend directly or indirectly on agriculture and its related activities while owning or controlling few physical productive assets (Amaechina and Eboh, 2006). In other words, the above statement shows that Agriculture (farming, forestry, fishing etc), in Nigeria, is practiced mostly by the poor in the rural areas. Consequently, it is from the rural areas that the products of forest such as fuel wood are shifted to the urban areas, where they are highly demanded. In return, the urban areas, offer some developmental services to the rural areas, and this cooperation creates multipronged linkages between the two areas. For instance, Garrett (2005), stated that rural and urban areas share many degrees of interactions; rural areas provide critical consumption goods for urban consumers, such as food, energy, low-cost land and labour, and unique experiences. Urban areas constitute the end market for rural production; provide professional services; offer diverse job opportunities; and generate resources for public and private investment in rural areas.
It is now widely recognized that there exists various forms of complementarities between the urban and the rural areas in every country. The various ways these two areas complement each other’s activities have created several linkages between them and these linkages have now been known as the rural-urban interdependence (Okpala, 2003).
The rural-urban interdependence especially on fuel wood portrays the linkages that exist between the two areas by critically considering the importance of fuel wood and the roles they play in supporting lives as well as regional development. Fuel wood, otherwise called firewood is simply wood cut for fuel. It is renewable energy source usually obtained from forest (FAO, 2010). According to World Energy Council (1999) fuel wood is primarily for cooking which accounts for about 60 percent of endorsed energy consumption of households in developing countries. For instance, in low income countries, the consumption of fuel wood energy by households is typically ten times the total consumption of commercial energies for other purposes (Denis, 1987).
Arnold (1998), noted that fuel wood is gotten from the forest. Forest includes all resources that can produce forest products. Products like timber, fuel wood, charcoal, food, fruits, nuts, pharmaceutics, etc; and forest products services like watershed, erosion control and prevention, soil stabilization etc. Forest, which include all resources that can produce forest products, namely, woodland, scrubland, bush fallow, farm-bush, and trees on farms, as well as ecosystem dominated by trees, provide household with income, ensure food security, reduce the vulnerability of shocks and adversities and increase their well being (Arnold, 1998).
Heltberg and Bacon (2003) noted that fetching fuel wood from forest for sales provide considerable amount of employment to people to meet both economic and energy needs of households in rural and urban areas. It allows...
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