Pendjari National Park Case Study

Host communities’ perception of the availability of forest resources and products over time
The study revealed that the response ratio and the total forest product availability index of each host community had been on a downward trend in the availability of forest resources and products over time in Pendjari National Park. Resource scarcity due to over-utilization of forest resources could be responsible for the downward trend. Thus, the benefits accrued to a host community and their level of involvement in conserving the resource-base could positively influence their perception on the availability of forest resources and products, as evident in some communities with higher response ratio. Various authors had confirmed the correlation between
It is believed that the host communities of Pendjari National Park were most active and productive with greater tendency to exert their energy into natural resources exploitation or conservation in the protected area. Contrary, the result revealed that the age class had no statistical significance on the host communities’ socio-economic dependence on forest resources and product despite its dominance. The exerted pressure on natural resources of the park emanated from the age classes 5 – 14years and above 60years. This can be attributed to the rural-urban migration-drift by the age category of 15 – 60 years for education and business purposes, which reflected the inadequacy of basic educational and social amenities towards improving the social and economic wellbeing of the communities. Although, the drift is usually temporary and short-stay in nature because most age group members unite with their households daily or weekend. The International Organization for Migration (2011, 2012) and Blum (2014) corroborated the existence of the rural-urban migration attitude in Benin among the age group of 15 – 60 years from rural areas in order to meet their daily needs. There reports revealed an increased number of Beninese nationals migrating to other West African countries due to demographic growth, poverty, unemployment, increased living costs, difficult
The participatory management strategy allowed the host communities to harvest medicinal plants and tangible fruits from the controlled access and hunting zones, once they received authorization from Village Associations for the Management of Wildlife Reserves (Vodouhê et al., 2010). According to (IUCN, 2002) & Vodouhê et al. (2010), most of the villages adjacent to the park formed “Village Associations for the Management of Wildlife Reserves” (AVIGREF), which enabled villagers to participate in decision-making process about the park and to share the benefits from park entry fees for tourism, hunting licenses and fines imposed for illegal activities. Much more, some communities had benefitted from other various initiatives of AVIGREF such as the provision of Donkey’s cart/trolley, skills training on compost production, repair of boreholes, repair and supply of chairs/tables, and employment of teachers to