AWARENESS AND OCCUPATIONAL DIVERGENCE ON THE EFFECT OF BUSH BURNING ON THE ENVIRONMENT IN SOUTH WEST, NIGERIA

Abstract

Bush burning is the most significant anthropogenic activity that contributes to climate change in Nigeria. This study therefore seeks to unravel the awareness of people of different occupation of the effect of bush burning on various component of the environment. A multi stage sampling technique that resulted in the selection of one hundred and eighty-six respondents drawn across different occupational background was employed. This includes the farmers, sand miners, others, artisans and fishermen with 0.4846, 0.4653, 0.4551, 0.4333 and 0.4253 awareness score in a decreasing order. This implies that the respondents are unaware of the effect of bush burning on the environment. The Least Square Difference (LSD) post hoc test however confirmed significant differences between the level of awareness of the farmers and the fishermen as well as the farmers and the artisans. The Implication is that the farmers, sand miners and other occupational group are better aware of the effects of bush burning when compared with the fishermen and the artisans. Although public awareness programmes should be intensified about the effect of bush burning, developing such to suit different occupational categories will achieve better result with the fishermen and artisans being more targeted than others.