Forest Policy and Medicinal Plants in Revenue Generation in Ogun State, Nigeria.

Abstract

Policy is a law, regulation, procedure, administrative action, incentive, or voluntary practice of governments and other institutions providing guidance and a sense of direction over a certain period. This study examined the impact of forest policy on medicinal plants in relation to revenue generation in Ogun State, Nigeria. Multistage sampling procedure was used for
sampling 700 respondents across the study area. Respondents were government officials, traditional medical practitioners, herb sellers and commercial medicinal plant vendors. Data collected were analysed with descriptive statistics such as mean, frequency and Likert scale rating. Chi-square inferential statistics was used to evaluate the policy and regulatory framework for conservation and revenue generation. Participatory index was used to determine stakeholders’ participation in medicinal plants collection, conservation, and revenue generation. Results show that forestry officials were14.3%, Traditional Medical Practitioners (TMP) were 34.3%, Herb Sellers were 30.0% and commercial harvesters of medicinal plants were 21.4% across the study area. Forest operational policy elements had ten items with implementation level ranging from 1% to 27%. However, non- implementation ranged from
73% to 99%. This is a revelation of policy drift and failure in Ogun State. A comparison of the implementation level between 5- and 15-years using Chi square tools indicated that implementation decreased gradually till it reaches zero level (policy failure) in 5 years (χ2= 0.070, p>0.05) but in the last 15 years, (χ2= 5.789, p<0.05) it shows low implementation indicating policy drift towards failure. The non-implementation accounted for medicinal plants not captured in revenue generation by government of Ogun State. Participatory index revealed low participation (0.4) for forestry officials and vendors but there was high participation (0.8) for TMP and medium (0.7) for herb sellers. Thus, it is concluded that forest policy elements implementation on medicinal plants can increase revenue and promote conservation of natural resources in Ogun State under Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFPs). Therefore, regular review of forest policy and retraining of forestry officials for proper capturing of NTFPs revenue in Ogun State and Nigeria is needed in general.