Abstract

Forest policy is a direction for forestry development in any state or country. Such forestry developments are state and country specific and may be short-lived if forest policy implementation cannot be guaranteed. Information on forest policy implementation is very crucial to sustainable forest management. However, this information has not been properly documented in Taraba State. Therefore, evaluation of forest policy implementation in Taraba State was investigated. A four stage sampling procedure was used in this study. Three Local Government Areas (LGAs) were randomly selected from each of the existing Agro-ecological zones in Taraba State. Five wards and 30 respondents from each LGA were randomly selected to give a total of 1,350 respondents for this study. A total of 1,350 semi-structured questionnaires were developed, validated and administered with only 1,300 retrieved due to re-location of some respondents. Data generated were analyzed using simple percentages and logistic regression at α0.05 the result of the study indicated that, most of the respondents are males, married and are elderly with large household size (Table 1.1). The result on existing forest policy indicated that, there are eleven forest policies in Taraba State (Table 1.2). The result on rating the level of forest policy implementation indicated that it is very low (Table 1.3). The result of logistic analysis showed that, there are five constraints to forest policy implementation in Taraba State (Table 1.4). Based on the major findings above, the followings are recommended; adequate funding, strict forest policy implementation and compliance, recruitment of qualified skilled personnel and staff, effective supervision, co-ordination and control, continuity in policies, provision of functional equipments and patrol vehicles respectively.