Abstract:
Currently, the Kabakaba West Reserve is managed by the Municipal Forestry Department with little or no involvement of the surrounding communities. The non-participation of the adjoining communities in the management of the reserve has led to encroachment on the reserve by these communities leading to the degradation of the forest. The main purpose of this study was to assess the extent to which the communities surrounding the reserve have been involved in the management of the reserve. The survey design was adopted for the study. The study population comprised of heads of households and opinion leaders of the forest fringe communities. The simple random and purposive sampling techniques were respectively used to select 180 heads of households and 6 opinion leaders who participated in the study. Structured and semi-structured interview guides were used to collect the data. The study established that participation of the local communities in the management of the reserve is generally low. Whereas institutional failure was identified as a major cause for the low level of participation observed in the study, the locus of the reserve on the livelihoods of the local people also came into question. It was noticed that the reserve was too small; hence did not affect the livelihoods of the people in significant ways. The limited participation of the local people in the management of the reserve is likely to affect the communities and the reserve negatively. It will be beneficial if the bottlenecks to participation that were identified in this study are addressed based on the recommendations made.
