Abstract
As global populations become increasingly urban, public participation has emerged as a new and more direct initiative for the conservation of urban trees and ecosystem services (ES). However, little effort has been made to understand the willingness of residents to participate in conservation programs for trees and ES in Benin City, Nigeria. To fill this gap, a survey to understand residents’ knowledge of ES and their perceptions around ES conservation, i.e., personal willingness to participate in voluntary conservation initiatives (VCIs), was conducted. Unlike the general misconception that trees are not appreciated in African cities, this study showed that most residents had a positive appreciation for the ES provided by urban trees in Benin City. Additionally, irrespective of respondents’ demographics, the findings from this study indicated a growing importance of the ES that trees provide, such as regulation of excess heat, scenic beauty, flooding and erosion control, and provision of shade. Hence, willingness to participate in VCIs was related to the growing importance of ES in the study area. Respondents’ knowledge of ES, education, and years of residency increased the probability of an individual’s participation in VCIs in the city. Other sociodemographic factors commonly related to urban forest participation (e.g., gender, marital status, income, profession, and residential location) did not significantly influence the willingness to participate in the conservation programs. Findings from this seminal study could assist future planning and emphasize to city developers, government (at all levels), resource managers, and decision makers the need to consider public values and perceptions towards enhancing conservation initiatives for urban trees in Benin City.
- Ecosystem Services
- Indigenous Knowledge
- Socio Survey
- Urban Forests
- Urban Residents
- Voluntary Conservation Initiatives
INTRODUCTION
Urban trees, referring to all trees found in public and private urban areas, including roadsides, avenues or streets, institutions, residences, commercial areas, religious centers, graveyards, and other open spaces, are green infrastructures that provide services like other infrastructures in cities (McPherson et al. 2004; Zhang et al. 2007; Baur et al. 2016). The Sustainable Development Goals, also known as the Global Goals, are a universal call to action to protect the earth for present and future generations. Urban forests have a crucial role to play in the success of Agenda 2030, notably in terms of biodiversity and ecosystem services (ES) conservation (Goal 15), climate change mitigation (Goal 13), and ensuring safe, resilient, and sustainable cities and human settlements (Goal 11). Thus, the network of clustered and individual trees in a city and on its fringes provides services upon which human existence depends and is connected. For instance, mature trees contribute to climate change mitigation by capturing and storing carbon dioxide, providing noise reduction and climate modification (i.e., shading and cooling of the environment), reducing wind speed, and reducing flooding and erosion during rain and/or wind events (McPherson and Simpson 1999; Konijnendijk et al. 2004; McPherson et al. 2004; Nowak et al. 2010; Arabomen et al. 2016; Coder and Kim 2016; Food and Agricultural Organization 2018). Other services provided by trees include improving aesthetics, cleaning the air, enhancing the physical and mental health of urbanites, improving water quality, promoting wildlife and biodiversity, assisting in energy savings, and providing economic, social, and recreational opportunities (Dwyer 2002b; Zhang et al. 2007; Baur et al. 2016). The New Urban Agenda (NUA) calls for sustainable management of trees in cities and human settlements in a manner that protects and improves their numerous services (Food and Agricultural Organization 2018).
Urban trees are important in cities, where more than 65% of the world’s population is projected to live by 2050 (United Nations 2014, 2016; Food and Agricultural Organization 2018). In addition, Africa had the highest urbanization rate between 1995 and 2015, and Asia has about 53% of the entire world’s population living in urban areas (United Nations 2014). Projections suggest that the total population in the urban centers of Nigeria will reach over 100 million by 2020 (Onokerhoraye and Omuta 1994; Agbola 2004). The growing population in major cities of Nigeria is rapidly extending from the core into the fringe interface in search of land areas and social amenities such as health centers and schools, amongst others. Therefore, with proper planning and management strategies, trees can play a crucial role in making cities more liveable. However, an upsurge in human population has led to the loss of trees due to urbanization in many urban development projects. The result has had a negative effect on tree abundance, its ES, and overall environmental conservation (Raji and Babalola 2018). In addition, the effect of urban sprawl and development puts pressure on existing trees, hindering their capacity to sustain ecological functions and ultimately leading to environmental havoc such as urban “heat islands,” flooding, erosion, and air pollution (Balogun and Onokerhoraye 2017). The cost is borne in the deteriorating well-being of the urban populace; and for the earth, increased greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants and the degradation of soil and waterways (Dwyer et al. 2002a). Hence, communal involvement in planning and land development decisions is crucial to sustain the vitality and conservation of the trees in urban areas.
Public participation has emerged over the past decade as a new and more direct mechanism to enhance sustainable management of trees in cities (Simpson and Sedjo 2006). It provides a clearer understanding of how residents think and relate with trees, including the services people recognize and consider important, as well as those they are either not aware of or do not rate as important (Baur et al. 2016). Understanding the relationship between public perception and support for conservation of trees has been reported in many studies. For example, Westphal (1993) reported that urban dwellers are motivated towards conservation of trees by the social benefits, i.e., being closer to nature, more than by economic benefit, i.e., increasing property value. Austin (2002) and Sommer et al. (1994) corroborate that community participation in management programs for trees in the United States of America is motivated by social services, such as encouraging community interaction and empowering residents to improve their environment. In addition, Moskell and Allred (2013) opined that an understanding of public cognition about urban trees can assist policy makers and resource managers to effectively improve urban forestry programs. Zhang et al. (2007) reiterated that taking cognizance of people’s attitudes and perceptions towards trees can significantly influence the allocation of funds to encourage community involvement in tree conservation programs. Evidently, the importance of residents’ participation in decision making continues to be reported by researchers (Wolf 2003; Zhang et al. 2007; Wolf and Kruger 2010; Clement and Cheng 2011; Wolf et al. 2013; Young and McPherson 2013; Baur et al. 2016).
Although several studies on urban forestry have examined the perception of people about trees and their associated services, a more crucial issue is developing a suitable and sustainable community conservation program for the urban trees (Lorenzo et al. 2000; Tyrvainen 2001; Gorman 2004). Moreover, such studies are useful for addressing issues relating to changes, such as changes in land areas and green spaces that have occurred in a place, drivers of the changes, and possible ways to mitigate such changes where they are negative. The conceptual framework for this study operates on the premise that the association of the socio demographic variables and indigenous knowledge of the people and/or community would contribute towards providing knowledge for appropriate local conservation initiatives for urban trees in Benin City, Nigeria. This study was designed, therefore, to use local knowledge obtained through a questionnaire survey and interviews to analyze people’s willingness to participate in conservation programs. By answering three interrelated research questions, the study was aimed at developing a strategy that could sustain urban trees and ES in Benin City. The questions include: What ecosystem services (i.e., recognized provision of services or benefits that do not have monetary or economic value) provided by urban trees are people aware of? What ecosystem services do Benin residents rate as important? Does the indigenous knowledge on the importance of ES have impact on their willingness to participate in voluntary conservation initiatives to sustain urban trees? It is envisaged that the findings from this study will assist future planning and emphasize to city developers, government (at all levels), resource managers, and decision makers the need to consider community perceptions of trees and the benefits they associate with trees towards enhancing or promoting appropriate conservation programs to sustain urban trees in Benin City.
METHODS
Study Area
Benin City is in the southern region of Nigeria. It is the fourth-largest city in the country, with an estimated 1,500,800 inhabitants and a land area of 1204 km2 (NPC 2016). Administratively, the city has 3 Local Government Areas (LGAs) and 39 districts (Egor – 10, Ikpoba-Okha – 11, Oredo – 18). The city is located between latitudes 6°10′ and 6°30′ N and longitudes 5°30′ and 5°45′ E. The average daily temperature is about 25 °C. The city has two seasons: a rainy period from March to October, and a dry (harmattan) season from November to February (Eseigbe and Ojeifo 2012). The predominant vegetation is moist deciduous forest that is composed of indigenous and exotic trees. The city is recognized for its biological importance owing to diverse and rich flora in areas such as botanical gardens, streets or avenues, public open spaces, roadsides, institutions, and residences (Eseigbe and Ojeifo 2012). The boundary for this study was extracted from satellite imagery of Benin City for 2016 (Figure 1). This was digitized in the Quantum Geographic Information System (QGIS 2.18) to produce the shape files and composite image of the LGAs (Nowak et al. 2014; Aladesanmi et al. 2017; Balogun and Onokerhoraye 2017).
Schematic of the Local Government Areas of Benin City.
Socio Survey
Requisite data used for this study were collected from a socio survey in 27 sites representing the core (16) and fringe (11) areas, respectively (Table 1). This represented 70% of the total number of districts, with 9 in each Local Government Area (LGA) in Benin City in 2017. A simple random sampling technique was used to survey 350 residents in the core (n = 208) and fringe (n = 142) of the LGAs. Structured questionnaires were administered in the form of a face-to-face interview, such that respondents were requested to complete and return the questionnaire immediately. Overall, 325 valid questionnaires (93% response rate) were coded for the analysis. This is high for residents of large cities and qualifies to derive some general information (Groves and Couper 1998). Twenty-five questionnaires with missing or inconsistent information (i.e., incomplete or inconsistent information on demographics, knowledge of ES, and choice of VCIs) were excluded (Table 1). The questionnaire was made up of two parts. The first part of the survey obtained information about the sociodemographic data of the respondents. Relationships exist among sociodemographic characteristics, ES, and opinions related to the conservation of trees (Morzillo and Mertig 2011; Carter 2014). Thus, 7 socioeconomic variables (gender, marital status, years of residency, education, employment, household size, and income) were included to describe respondents from the sample in the study area. The second part consisted of questions relating to (a) the respondents’ knowledge on ES provided by urban trees; and (b) the ES residents rate as important. In this second part, the statement “Are you aware of the ES of urban trees?” assumes a value of “0” if no and “1” if yes. Additionally, the ES were rated on a Likert-point scale of 1 (Unimportant) to 3 (Very Important). The final part addressed the willingness of respondents to participate in local conservation initiatives of urban trees. The statement “Are you willing to participate in conservation initiatives of urban trees?” assumes a value of “0” if no and “1” if yes. In addition, 5 VCIs were included in the survey (modified from Almas and Conway 2018). These conservation initiatives included questions on individual willingness to: give time to plant trees; encourage close relatives to plant trees within the environment; discourage the removal of trees in urban areas; participate and/or support sensitization/education programs on tree planting and conservation; and accept formal trainings on the management practices of urban trees. These VCIs were rated on a Likertpoint scale of 1 (Unlikely) to 3 (Most Likely). The use of a 3-ranking scale is not uncommon in this type of study (see Zhang et al. 2007; Lohr et al. 2015).
Information defining the distribution of questionnaires.
Analytical Procedure
Categorical, discrete, and numeric data were analyzed considering individual responses and the frequencies in the questionnaire. Descriptive statistics, i.e., frequencies, were performed on categorical variables, and summary statistics were done on continuous variables to describe respondents’ knowledge on urban trees and ecosystem services. To explain this, a Pearson chi-square test was used to explore the relationship between the respondents’ sociodemographics and their knowledge on trees and ES. Where there was a statistically significant relationship, the Cramer’s V effect size statistics was used to calculate the magnitude of the relationship. A value of < 0.1 represents no effect, 0.1 to 0.3 represents a small effect, 0.3 to 0.5 represents a medium effect, and 0.5 represents a large effect (Cohen 1988). A Bonferroni post hoc test was also used to determine significant differences between groups when a significant relationship existed. In the Bonferroni method, a two-sample, two-tailed t-test was done between each LGA and a P-value for each of the comparisons was found. A corrected α′ value was then calculated for each P-value from the t-test. Therefore, if the corrected α′ value was greater than the set threshold of α = 0.05, there was a 95% chance that the two groups in the t-test were different from one another (Keppel and Wickens 2004). Additionally, a mean rating was calculated for the ES respondents rated as important. The means of the ES were separated at 95% confidence interval to compare their importance. The means were then arranged in order of magnitude to determine the rankings. Furthermore, consistent with previous research (see Yen et al. 1997; Saz-Salazar and Garcia-Menendez 2001), the study hypothesized that a person’s willingness to participate in voluntary conservation practices (dependent variable) is related to information of the respondent including: (a) resident’s LGA, location (i.e., core or fringe), gender, marital status, household size, education, length of residency; (b) characteristics of the household livelihood like income and profession; and (c) attitudes like affinity for trees and indigenous knowledge of ES. To explore this, cross-tabulations and Pearson’s correlation analysis were used. A binary logistic regression was used to determine which explanatory variables (Table 2) influenced people’s willingness to participate in conservation programs of urban trees.
Descriptive measures in the logit model.
RESULTS
Demographic Profile of the Respondent
Overall, respondents living in Egor, Ikpoba-Okha, and Oredo accounted for 31%, 33%, and 36% of the sample, respectively (Table 3). Most (60%) of these were living in core areas. There were mostly men (56%) and few (33%) unmarried people (Table 3). Most of these had spent a minimum of 21 and a maximum of 40 years in the city. In this survey, 67% had 5 or more household members. The education level was relatively high, with only few respondents having no formal education; 34% had a high school education level, while 56% had a 4-year degree or above education level. Most (76%) of the respondents had a profession defined as paid jobs or trading. Additionally, 67% of the residents indicated that their monthly income was N50,000 (USD $140) or more.
Summary statistics of respondents’ demographic variables.
Perceptions of Respondents on Urban Trees and Ecosystem Services
Overall, most residents (73%) in Egor, Oredo, and Ikpoba-Okha LGAs had a positive appreciation for the ecosystem services provided by urban trees in the environment. Most respondents (80%, n = 261), irrespective of their demographic profile in the core and fringe of the LGAs, were aware that trees provide ES in urban areas, as opposed to the 20% (n = 64) who were not aware. As shown in Table 4, people who had no knowledge of ES were, in decreasing order, located more in Egor (22%), followed by Ikpoba-Okha (20%), and Oredo (17%). Most of these were also living in core areas (20%). Although there was no significant difference in knowledge of ES in the core (χ2 = 2.41, P = 0.300) and fringe (χ2 = 1.72, P = 0.422) areas, a significant difference (P = 0.031) in knowledge of ES was observed between Egor and Oredo LGAs. In this study, those without prior knowledge of ES had no formal education (33%). It was observed that education had a statistically significant (χ2 = 7.79, P = 0.050) large effect (Cramer’s V = 0.50) on individual knowledge of ES. Additionally, those without prior knowledge of ES would have lived in the city for less than 10 years (34%) with an average income of N74,000 (USD $200).
Demographic measures of respondents based on knowledge of ecosystem services.
Furthermore, ranking the ES people rated as important showed that the most frequently cited were flooding and erosion control (mean = 2.83 ± 0.04), provision of shade (mean = 2.74 ± 0.05), control of local temperature (mean = 2.33 ± 0.05), and provision of scenic beauty (mean = 2.42 ± 0.04)(Figure 2). However, the standard errors of these ES were not statistically different, suggesting that the importance of these services was widespread in the study area. Provisioning services such as firewood, medicine and herbs, spiritual value, and provision of fruits and/or food, though cited, were considered least important.
Ranking of ecosystem services provided by trees based on respondents’ agreement with each statement.
Willingness to Participate in Voluntary Conservation Initiatives (VCIs)
Owing to the widespread recognition of the ecosystem services provided by trees in urban areas, an important aspect of this study was to investigate the willingness of respondents toward participating in voluntary conservation initiatives from a variety of perspectives. Most respondents (88%) expressed willingness to participate in the VCIs to sustain urban trees (Table 5). Most residents in Ikpoba-Okha (99%), Egor (91%), and Oredo (96%) were willing to participate in the conservation initiatives. Most of these were unemployed and either living in core (85%) or fringe (85%) areas. In relation to gender and marital status, men (171) and married people (192) were more willing to participate in the conservation program than their female and unmarried counterparts. The willingness of respondents was related to their educational level (r = 0.527, P = 0.031), with few respondents having no formal education (18%). Additionally, willingness to participate was related to years of residency (r = 0.111, P = 0.045), with residents who had lived in the area longer (above 10 years) more willing to participate in the VCIs and/or urban tree care programs.
Cross-tabulation results of willingness to participate in conservation programs across sociodemographic variables.
Furthermore, results corresponding to the willingness to participate in voluntary conservation initiatives (Table 6) showed that respondents’ knowledge of ES, having a formal education (at least a high school education), and years of residency increased the probability of participating in VCIs to sustain urban trees. Other sociodemographic factors commonly related to urban forest participation (e.g., gender, marital status, income, profession, and residential location) were consistently not significant on an individual’s decision to participate or not in the conservation programs. However, the Nagelkerke R2 value (0.108) was small, indicating a considerable number of variables on the willingness to participate that is not captured by the explanatory and/or sociodemographic variables.
Binary logit result for factors influencing willingness to participate in conservation programs.
Additionally, most respondents were willing to embrace several types of voluntary conservation initiatives to sustain urban trees in Benin City (Table 7). The most frequently cited VCIs were planting more trees (mean = 2.98) and encouraging family and friends to plant trees (mean = 2.96). The willingness of respondents to participate in planting more trees and encouraging family and friends to plant trees differed significantly across the LGAs. In addition, very few respondents were willing to engage in public sensitization campaigns and accept trainings on management practices, as evidenced in the low scores (32% to 49%). However, people expressed positive willingness to support all five VCI programs, each recording a mean that was greater than neutral (1.5).
Summary of voluntary conservation initiatives of urban trees.
DISCUSSION
Perceptions of Respondents on Urban Trees and Ecosystem Services
Urban trees are important features of the environment and part of a city’s green infrastructure that provides multiple ecosystem services to society (Nowak et al. 2010; Nielsen et al. 2012). In this study, the widespread appreciation for urban trees was related to the awareness of ES that trees provide in urban areas. A survey conducted on acceptance of and preference for trees in urban environments in the United States showed that opinions are generally positive, and that people preferred and consider areas with trees as beneficial for both the people and for the city (Schroeder et al. 2006). Although ES are often overlooked or not recognized in cities (McPherson and Simpson 1999; Wolf and Kruger 2010), most (80%) residents in this study were aware and appreciative of the ES of urban trees. This result corroborates the findings of Oladele et al. (2018) in their study on willingness to participate in urban forestry development in Port Harcourt Metropolis, Nigeria, where 86% of the residents were aware of and had benefited from the services provided by urban trees. However, several studies have shown that public decisions are shaped by a range of factors such as age, social and economic status, ethnic origin, familiarity, place of upbringing and residence (particularly whether urban or rural), environmental value orientations (i.e., awareness of green issues), as well as attitudes (Swanwick 2009; Oladele et al. 2018). In this study, despite the widespread awareness of ES, a comparison of people who agreed with the statement “I am aware of the ES of urban trees” with people who did not agree showed that there was a relationship between the awareness of ES across individual socioeconomic characteristics, including gender, education, income, years of residency, residential location, and employment status, among others.
Conversely, social research reiterates that there is a large body of evidence on the benefits of urban trees that are most valued by people in urban environments (see Camacho-Cervantes et al. 2014; Coder and Kim 2016). Therefore, consistent with previous studies (Brack 2002; Escobedo et al. 2011; McPherson et al. 2011; Livesley et al. 2014; Lohr et al. 2015; Baur et al. 2016) and the result from this study, there is a growing importance of the ES that trees provide. Some of these ES include regulation of harsh weather conditions, like excess heat, beautifying the landscape, mitigating flooding and erosion, and provision of shade. Empirical studies in the United States, China, and United Kingdom found that urbanites attributed great importance to trees for aesthetic pleasure, shading the surrounding area, reducing thermal heat around buildings, flooding abatement, and several other environmental benefits (Lorenzo et al. 2000; Jim and Chen 2006; Lohr et al. 2015; Sanusi et al. 2016).
In addition, urban trees provide fruits and vegetables to enhance food security and supply of herbal medicine in Nigeria. However, it is noteworthy that the ES mentioned by respondents in this study skewed towards regulating services rather than provisioning or cultural services. Provisioning services were considered least important partly because the basic needs and livelihood activities of residents in cities are not directly linked to “forests and trees,” as is the case in rural areas (Dumenu 2013). Furthermore, this study revealed that the ES of urban trees are highly regarded, thus suggesting that residents in the city appreciate the distinctive physiognomies of urban trees (Chen 2015) and treasure them as contributors to in situ biodiversity continuity (Oladele et al. 2018).
Willingness to Participate in Voluntary Conservation Initiatives (VCIs)
Urban trees, when properly managed, can provide continuous ecosystem services in growing cities. In addition, concern about the effects of urban sprawl on trees and the ES they provide is more likely to encourage the public to actively participate in voluntary conservation initiatives to sustain urban trees. The findings from this study showed that most respondents (88%) were willing to be physically involved in conservation programs to sustain urban trees in Benin City. This was different from the report of Ajewole (2011), where the majority (84%) of the urban residents were willing to contribute money rather than participate in urban forestry programs in Lagos, Nigeria. In this study, the results for locational variables showed that most residents in the core and fringe of Egor, Ikpoba-Okha, and Oredo were willing to participate in sustaining trees and greening of the city. Moreover, there were more male than female respondents who were willing to participate in the conservation program. This may be due to the common perception that forestry related activities, especially the physically exerting ones, have traditionally been done by men (Ajewole 2015). Additionally, residents who are unemployed were willing to commit to the conservation initiatives. This agrees with a priori expectation, since people without jobs (i.e., retirees, senior citizens) are probably less busy and as such may be more willing to spare time to be physically involved in VCIs. However, several studies have reported mixed results on the effect of sociodemographic characteristics on public participation decisions. For instance, while the results from previous studies (Zhang et al. 2011; Oyebade et al. 2013) and those of this study showed that gender had no statistically significant influence on urban forest restoration decisions, Petrolia and Kim (2011) found a positive influence. Additionally, the findings of previous studies (see Zhang et al. 2011; Ghosh and Mondal 2013; Oladele et al. 2018) and those from this study indicated that individual profession had no significant effect on the willingness of residents to participate in conservation programs.
Conversely, findings from this study showed that the importance of urban trees to people and knowledge of ES had a positive influence on willingness to participate in conservation initiatives for urban trees. This corroborates the findings of Ajewole (2015) who showed that respondents who claimed to be aware of the benefits of trees in working and living environments expressed willingness to be physically involved in urban forestry programs in Lagos, Nigeria. Ajzen (2011) observed that people’s intentions towards tree management plans could be inspired by their knowledge and understanding of environmental issues. Although Wall et al. (2006) reported that education has no significant influence on willingness to participate in urban forestry programs, other literature suggests that education is positively related to participation decisions (see Verba et al. 1995). Similarly, in this study, education played an important role in people’s willingness to participate or not in conservation programs. The survey data showed that 96% of the respondents with a formal education expressed willingness to participate in the conservation program, whereas only 45% of illiterate people are willing to participate in conservation initiatives to sustain urban trees. In the logit analysis, the education coefficient was positive and statistically significant at the 1% level. The Beta effect demonstrated that an individual’s willingness to participate in conservation programs would increase by 10% as their education attainment moves up by one level. This relationship between education level and participation in urban forest activities has been noted by others (Zhang et al. 2007; Tooke et al. 2010; Zhang and Zheng 2011; Pham et al. 2012; Conway 2016). One explanation for the significance of education is that people with a formal education are possibly more exposed to information and/or understand the broader implications of the subject. This is probably because literate people would increase their ability to access information on trees from the media sources in their area. Additionally, people with education may have stronger environmental protection awareness and are also more receptive to new ideas. Thus, these people may be inclined and willing to participate in conservation programs to sustain urban trees in the study area.
Previous results on the association between length of residency and willingness to participate are also mixed. For instance, Kong et al. (2014) reported a positive association, while no significant influence was reported by Zhang et al. (2011). However, the results from other studies (Chaudhry and Tewari 2006; Amponin et al. 2007; Chen 2015) and findings from this study confirm that length of residency has a significant positive influence (β = 1.298, P = 0.021) on willingness to participate in conservation programs. This relates to Almas and Conway’s (2018) findings that residents who had lived in Canada for over 15 years were more supportive towards participation in conservation programs of urban trees. Although these characteristics may not be used to make inferences for the entirety of Benin City, the results suggest some specific ways in which people’s demographic profiles may contribute to variation in attitude toward conservation measures to sustain urban trees. Thus, concerted efforts to promote the acceptance and development of conservation programs for urban trees would be more effective if communication on management is designed to suit relevant demographic status of residents in the city. Simultaneously, such conservation programs could be more sensitively designed when based on a better understanding of the ways in which the public values trees.
Furthermore, ranking the VCIs showed that most respondents were willing to plant more trees and to encourage family and friends to plant trees in Benin City. This is quite informative and encouraging, especially if cognizance is taken of the total residents (88%) in the city who expressed willingness to be physically involved in the conservation programs. This commitment to participate in conservation programs can be further appreciated from the fact that 80% of the respondents were aware of ES provided by trees in an urban environment. Thus, if all residents in Benin City are more enlightened on the numerous ES provided by urban trees, it will enhance tree importance and public participation in conservation measures designed to protect trees in the city. Carter (2014) reported ways by which city dwellers in Bangalore have been practically involved in urban forestry programs to include similar schemes. For instance, individuals volunteer to take responsibility for the planting and care of the trees in their area; in addition, the “godparents of trees” program, in which people voluntarily plant and care for trees, was reported to be popular in Guatemala City. Fraser and Kenney (2000), who conducted a similar study in Canadian cities, reported that residents in British Columbia (Vancouver) reacted in mostly positive terms and expressed more willingness to plant trees in their properties and surroundings.
CONCLUSION
This study demonstrated that the importance of urban trees in Benin City increased when people were more aware of the ecosystem services they provide. Urban trees were rated important for the regulating services (i.e., flooding and erosion control, scenic beauty, temperature regulation, and provision of shade) they provide in cities. This implies that there is a need to enhance sustainable conservation of urban trees. To achieve this, it is important that conservation measures for urban trees reflect indigenous knowledge of urban society, which basically strike at the core of “what people want,” “what people think,” and/or “what people believe” (Ordonez and Duinker 2010). Additionally, it is imperative that awareness programs emphasize the numerous ES provided by urban trees to promote public willingness to participate in conservation measures designed to protect trees in the city.
Nevertheless, the results from this study indicated that most residents were willing to participate in conservation programs towards the continued existence of urban trees and sustenance of ES in Benin City. People’s willingness to participate in the conservation program was influenced by a range of socio variables such as residents’ awareness of ES, educational status, and years of residency. Knowing the factors that influence public participation in urban forestry programs is important for the success of the program and can assist local decision makers in planning efforts. Thus, it is stressed that concerted efforts to improve conservation programs for urban trees would be more effective if communication on management is designed to suit the demographic and socioeconomic profile of the residents in Benin City and elsewhere. This would encourage meaningful dialogue with urban residents to understand their perception towards urban trees and ES in the city.
Although people’s awareness and their perceived importance of environmental issues do not always translate into actions (Lorenzo et al. 2000), evidence from this study shows a general positive will to voluntarily participate in favor of conservation efforts for urban trees in Benin City. The respondents were favorably inclined to tree planting as a way of participating in collective efforts to enhance the conservation of urban trees and ES in Benin City. Thus, translating the residents’ willingness to voluntarily participate in local initiatives into action would be essential for creating more awareness towards the conservation of trees in the city. Additionally, working with nurseries to ensure a diverse supply of suitable tree species could encourage pragmatic participation in the conservation programs. Finally, it is imperative to say that effective management of trees is a wholesome affair, such that a combination of two or more initiatives (i.e., “tree planting” and “sensitization campaigns”) would complement each other towards achieving the goal of conserving trees in Benin City.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The research in this study was funded by the National Research Foundation (NRF)-Innovation Doctoral Program of South Africa (Grant UID: 102432). The views and conclusions expressed are those of the authors. Special gratitude goes to the residents of Benin City.
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