Jacob D.E.¹ , Nelson I.U.² , Udoakpan U.I.¹ , Etuk U.B.¹

1. Forestry and Wildlife Department, University of Uyo, Nigeria
2. Biodiversity Preservation Center, Uyo, Nigeria
Author    Correspondence author
International Journal of Molecular Ecology and Conservation, 2015, Vol. 5, No. 4   doi: 10.5376/ijmec.2015.05.0004
Received: 24 Feb., 2015    Accepted: 28 Mar., 2015    Published: 22 Apr., 2015

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Jacob et al., 2015, Wildlife Poaching in Nigerian National Parks: A Case Study of Cross River National Park, International Journal of Mol. Ecol. and Conserv, Vol.5, No.4 1-7 (doi: 10.5376/ijmec.2015.05.0004)

This study examined the rate of wildlife poaching in Cross River National Park (CRNP) and the park’s management strategies in combating it. The primary data was collected using structured questionnaires and Semi-Structured Interviews (SSI). A total of 90 enumerator–administered questionnaires were randomly administered to 15 hunters in 6 support zone communities namely; Aking, Osomba, Akor, Obung, Ifumkpa and Owai. The randomly selected communities represent 20% of the 30 communities which were easily accessed by road. Also, ten (10) management staff of CRNP was sampled to elicit information on the management strategies of the park to combat poaching in the support zone communities. The secondary data was collected from related literatures, journals and bulletin. Data obtained were analyzed using descriptive statistical technique. The result indicated that majority of the respondents were married (46.67%), literate (85.57%), within the age class of 24-59 years (86.67%), mostly full time hunters (45.56%) and 37.78% earned between ₦4,000 and ₦7,000 weekly. Also, majority of the respondents were aware of the park existence (68.69%), park legislation (71.55%) and the reason for its creation to include conservation (70.48%). Moreover, 74.4% of the respondents in the support zone communities hunt with their guns, 70.00% hunted in group preferring a group size of 3-4 people and elephant was the least preferred animal to hunt (7.3%). However, 64.44% of the respondents hunted on a daily basis, 33.33% killed 3-4 animals/day and 43% of the respondents trek 10km and above during their hunting expedition. Furthermore, 70% of the interviewed park staff agreed that the rate of poaching in the area was high and 50% of them identified Anti-poaching patrols as the most effective way to check poaching in the area. Involvement of the support zone communities in the management of the park is recommended to ensure the goal of establishing the park.

Cross River National Park; Nigeria; Wildlife poaching; Conservation