Abstract

An empirical investigation was carried out to understand the impact of micro-level determinants of woodland conversion on arable cropping in the Sub-Sahara region of Africa because of the increasing rate of land conversion to agricultural use in the recent time. The study was based on a sample size of 291 farmers from Enugu State, Nigeria. Three sets of micro-level factors were examined and they are: farmer’s background and preference (decision parameters) representing their inherent behavior and practices regarding woodland conversion to other use, farmers’ characteristics and institutional factors.  The study used simple statistics to analyze the effect of farmers’ behaviors and their local practices on woodland conversion to other uses while ordinary least square regression model was used to capture the role of decision parameters on woodland conversion to arable cropping. The study noted that arable cropping, plantation agriculture, timber exploitation and house development were the major conversion options or alternative uses of woodlands in Enugu State.  The results of the analysis indicated that arable agriculture was the most important (24%) form of human economic activity to the respondents in which they converted woodland. This was followed by cash crops/plantation agriculture (18.3%), fuel wood exploitation (15%) and timber and non-timber exploitation (14.3%) in that order. Regression analysis indicated that up to 78% of woodland conversion was attributed to farmers’ characteristics and decision parameters. Econometric estimation indicated that land per capita, leadership status, poverty level, land tenure, dependency on woodland resources for fuel wood and income were negative but statistically significant at 5% probability. A test of significance of the parameter estimates of the variables indicated that 15 out of 17 woodland factors under study were statistically significant in their deterministic role to woodland conversion behavior of the rural farmers. Sign-wise, 8 determinants showed direct relationship with the conversion process. These were land per capital, leadership status, market access, age, land tenure regime, economic orientation/poverty level, dependency on woodland for income and dependency on fuel wood for domestic energy. The remaining determinants have indirect (that is, positive) relationship with the conversion phenomenon and therefore positively related to woodland retention.

Key words: Woodland conversion, farmer’s characteristics, farmer’s decision parameters, fuel wood, forestland, forest dependency, technology access, market Access, woodland conversion and policy Implication.