Forest Protection and Conservation Skills Required by Secondary School Graduates in the Niger Delta Region for Securing Sustainable Employment in Forestry Occupation

Abstract

The study examined the forest protection and conservation skills required by secondary school graduates in the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria for securing sustainable employment in forestry occupation. Three research questions and three null hypotheses guided the study. The descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. The target population for the study comprised 238 agricultural graduates, 48 agricultural teachers and 62 extension agents; totaling 348 respondents. Due to manageable size of the population, the entire 348 respondents were used for the study, hence the study adopted the census sampling technique. The instrument for data collection was a 40-item structured questionnaire on a 4-point rating scale. The Cronbach Alpha reliability test was used to test the instrument which yielded a reliability coefficient of 0.78. The data collected were analyzed using weighted mean while Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used in testing the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The study identified ten (10) causes of forest damage, twelve (12) measures for protecting forest from human encroachment and eighteen (18) methods of controlling forest insect pests, parasites, predators and diseases. There was no significant difference in the mean ratings of agricultural graduates, teachers of agriculture and extension agents on forest protection and conservation skills required by secondary school graduates in the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria for securing sustainable employment in forestry occupation. Based on the findings, the study recommends among others, that teachers of agriculture should re-double their efforts in equipping students with forest protection and conservation skills.