International Journal of Mol. Ecol. and Conserv 2015, Vol.5, No.4, 1-7
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The Vegetation of the area is of the Lowland
Rainforest with a strong seasonal climate. It is
characterized by two distinct tropical moist climates,
which are the rainy and dry seasons. The rainy season
begins from April – November with a double peak
regime in June – July and September – October.
Annual rainfall decreases from North - South across
the Park. Average daily temperature ranges from 14
o
C
-
23
o
C. The dry season starts from November – March
or early April, with the driest and hottest period in
March. The area also experiences the harmattan
weather from December – February during which
night temperatures are low (CRNP Tourist Guide
Handbook, 2001).
The geology of the CRNP consists of old sedimentary
rocks, as well as some granite intrusions which are
exposed at the surface (WWF, 1989b). The soils
which are from old metamorphic rocks are sandy,
infertile and rocky, shallow and erodible on steeper
slopes (WWF, 1989b). The terrain of the Oban
Division indicates that the southern part of the area
ranges from gently undulating to rolling plane with
occasional isolated hills. The area is drained by Kwa
and Ikpan Rivers on the South, on the North, and by
the tributaries of the Cross River (WWF, 1989b).
Occupation of the people in the study area is
predominantly farming and trading in forest resource,
which serves as their basic earning activity. The
people belong predominantly to the Ejaham tribe.
Most of them are Christians, while some believe in
traditional worship.
1.2 Method of Data Collection
The data for this study was derived from Primary and
Secondary sources. The Primary data were 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
strategy of the park to combat poaching in the area.
The secondary data was collected from related
literatures, journals and bulletin.
1.3 Methods of data analysis
The analytical design that was used in achieving the
objectives of this study was a Descriptive statistics
such as percentages, pie chart, bar chart and frequency.
2 Results
2.1 Demographic characteristics of respondents
The result obtained in Figure 2 indicates that all of the
respondents were males (100%), majority belonged to
the age class of 31-35yerars (28.89%) and 46.67% of
the respondents were married. Also, 45.56% had
primary education and only 12.22% of respondents
had obtained a tertiary education. Occupationally,
45.56% of the respondents were full time hunters,
others also combined farming (26.67%) and trading
(17.78%), while 10.00% of the respondents were also
engaged in other activities for their livelihood.
Moreover, the result revealed that 23.33% of the
sampled population had a monthly income of above
₦10,000, 32.22% earn between ₦8000 and ₦10000,
37.78% earn between ₦4000 and ₦7000, while only
6.67% earn less than ₦3000 from the sale of wildlife
products in the study areas (Figure 2).
Figure 2 Demographic characteristics of the respondents
