Intl. J. of Mol. Evol. and Biodivers. 2013, Vol. 3, No.3, 11-14
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12
gambianus
) (
Soaga et al., 2012).
However, one can not underestimate the role of
attitudinal change in the effort of biodiversity
conservation. In fact attitude towards the
indiscriminate harvesting and gathering of the earth
animal, fish stock and flora, including medicinal
plants should change or they go extinct with
implication for the survival of humanity since they are
the life supporting systems of the planet.
1
Methodology
1.1
Study Site
The study was conducted in Obafemi Owode Local
Government Area of Ogun State of Nigeria, located
between longitudes 3
°
45
’
East of the Greenwich
meridian and latitude 6
°
45
’
North of the equator
(
Figure 1). The headquarters is at Owode town about
60
km along Lagos Abeokuta express way. The local
government has tropical climate. The people are
predominantly of Egba ethnic stock that have their
homestead and farms in the area and are mostly
farmers and hunters.
Figure 1 Map of Ogun State showing Obafemi-Owode local
government area
The study covered the hunters and farmers in 20
villages in the local government; well-structured
questionnaire was administered directly to the
respondents. Data collected was subjected to
descriptive statistical analysis.
2
Results and Discussion
Table 1 shows the animal species and the reasons for
their exploitation in the Obafemi zone of the study
area while that of Owode zone is displayed in Table 2.
Exploitation for food 34.5% is the major reason for
exploiting the animals in both zones while trophy
0.9%
is the least reason for exploiting the animals.
Tables 3 and Table 4 showed the animals that have
disappeared or are now more difficult to come across
in both zones respectively.
Most hunters accepted that the disappearance of the
animals were due to a combination of hunting and
habitat destruction, however some believed that the
animals have only migrated deep into the forest as a
response to human settlement (Table 5).
Table 5 Reason for wild animal exploitation
Reason for exploitation
Percentage
Food
34.5
Sale
31.3
Protection
5.8
Medicinal
15.6
Culture
12.0
Trophy
0.9
Indiscriminate killing of wild animal for bush meat,
sale, culture or tradition cannot be ruled out (Onadeko
et al., 1989) because the people in these area depends
almost totally on this form of animal protein. This
study shows that the area previously had variety of
wild animals such as
Loxodonta cyclotis
,
Panthera
pardus
and
Syncerus caffer
which appears to have
been hunted out of the area.
3
Conclusions and Recommendation
Obafemi Owode Local Government area is rich in
wildlife resources both in diversity and abundance,
however many of the animals are facing high hunting
pressure through killing for food, sale, medicine or
culture. The level of poverty in the area like most rural
communities in Nigeria encourages indiscriminate killing
of wild animals to meet the people’s daily requirement.
Inadequate wildlife conservation activities in Ogun
State result in the people’s ignorance of “national law”
Decree No. 11 of April 1985 called the endangered
species Decree coupled with lack of wildlife law
enforcement encourages indiscriminate exploitation of
animals over the years.
The following recommendation will ameliorate the
problem of over exploitation of wild animals in the area.