Evaluating rule breaking behavior in a Nigerian protected forest reserve area

Abstract

This paper investigated the rule breaking conduct in a Nigerian protected forest reserve area in order to exploit natural resources using Randomized Response Technique (RRT) for data collection. Evident from this study show a higher proportion of the residents surrounding Oba Hills Forest Reserve, Nigeria illegally poach, encroach to farm, extract timber, gather firewood and graze their domestic animals in the conservation area. With the high level of noncompliance to the conservation rules in this study, there is a need for the government and conservation managers to identify and harness social norms that encourage compliance, as well as increasing probabilities of detection and stricter law enforcement on those that flout the conservation rules. Keywords: biodiversity conservation, sensitive behaviors, compliance, randomized response technique