Access of rural women to forest resources and its impact on rural household welfare in North Central Nigeria

This study examined access of rural women to forest resources and its impact on rural household welfare in North Central Nigeria. Three states out of 6 states in the study area were purposively selected to cover 3 ethnic groups. A state was selected to cover at least one ethnic group. 4 villages were randomly selected in each state to make a total of 12 sample villages. Primary data were collected through structured questionnaire from 20 randomly selected rural women in each sample village to make a total of 240 respondents. Interview schedule was used to get information from 3 key informants in each sample village. The results of the study showed that rural women have restricted access to the exploitation of firewood and forest fruits on communal and family lands in the study area. They however have free and independent access to exploit fodder among the 3 ethnic groups while rural women have free access to exploit snails and mushrooms among the Yoruba ethnic groups in the study area. Chi-square test (p < 0.05) shows that a significant association exists between total income earned by rural women and the income they earned from the exploitation of forest resources in the study area. This means that if the access of rural women to the exploitation of forest resources in the study area is improved, income earned by rural women will also increase. The results further showed that the impacts of the access of rural women to the exploitation of forest resources on rural household welfare include provisions of income, food and medicinal materials as well as money rural women spent on their children's education, health care and household feeding.