Perception of People Towards Urban Forestry: A Survey in Kano Metropolis, Kano State Nigeria

Abstract:

This study was designed to assess Perception of People towards Urban Forestry in Kano Metropolis. This involved the examination of demographic nature of urban dwellers, assessing their level of awareness with regards to urban forestry as well as perceived benefits of urban forestry. Four (4) out of eight (8) Local Governments were randomly selected, proportional allocation was used in distribution of questionnaire based on the number of wards, 180 respondents were chosen at random. Descriptive statistics was used to present demographic information and Chi-Square test of association was used to test whether relationship exist between socioeconomic characteristics of the respondents and urban forestry awareness as well as the sources of information. From the results obtained on demography of the respondents, it shows more young people in the study area between (20-30yrs) at 55.5%, more males were interviewed (64%), most are single (65%), 65% of the population are graduates (HND/BSc), 75% of the population have 0-3 children, 77% are typically urban and 39% engage in business, 15% farmers, 15%civil servants and 31%others.  Level of awareness shows that most people up to 81% are aware of urban forestry and the most common source of information is Radio (43%) followed by Internet (37%). Majority of the people (60%) believe that Government is responsible for indiscriminate cutting of trees. 47% of the individuals are of the opinion that government should impose tree planting among the urban dwellers, 64% suggested road plantations as a necessary means to ameliorating micro-climate and 46% strongly believed on punishment for those cutting trees illegally. Chi-square results revealed that, demography has no significant association with the level of awareness (P>0.05) while Age, Education and Residence shows significant association (P<0.05). demographic information has no significant association with source of information (P>0.05) with the exception of marital status which portray significant association (P<0.05).