The use of myths in forest conservation: Lessons from the Bini experience in Nigeria

Abstract

Combinations of social surveys and direct field observations were used to study the potentials of using myths in forest conservation in five rural communities in Benin kingdom of Nigeria. In each village, twenty-five rural dwellers that had maintained continuous domicile in the villages for the past ten years were selected and interviewed with the aid of a semi-structured matrix. The acceptability of the myths was determined against several socio-economic indices, which include age, sex, religion belief, education and economic status. Also, the relative abundance of the botanicals identified in the myths was determined within 2-Kilometer radius of each community. Eight myths, which were capable of serving as disincentives to deforestation, were found to be in existence and commonly revered in the study area. Further classification of the myth adherent respondents along different socio-economic features revealed that sex, religious belief, level of education and economic status of the respondents could not be regarded as pre-requisites to the myths mindedness as the observed results differ significantly from the expected results (X2-test) at 5% level. Most of the botanicals identified in the myths are now rare on the abundance scale and could be described as being endangered; hence efforts are now required to conserve them in the study area