Monity, Flora Michael & Igwebuike, Osedumme
Abstract
The main purpose of this research was to establish the influence of Mass media, environmental workshops on forest resources utilization in Cross River State. Given the present threats posed by several old and emerging factors such as logging, this paper is meant to evaluate the influence of both formal and informal environmental education (EE) in enhancing sustainable utilization of forest resources in Cross River State. This paper reviews EE’s development in Cross River State and, examines the characteristics and conceptual difficulties of EE, including the low-level of motivation to incorporate EE in different learning curriculum, the lack of environmental awareness, and contradiction between economic growth and environmental protection and sustainable development. Two research hypotheses were formulated for the study using variables of seminars/workshops and mass media. A research Questionnaire termed “Environmental Education, a Precursor for Sustainable Utilization of Forest Resources Questionnaire” (EEPSUFRQ) was used to collect data from 120 respondents in Oban, a rural Community in Akamkpa L.G.A of CRS. The data collected were analyzed using One-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), and the result showed that there is indeed a significant relationship between environmental education and sustainable utilization of forest resources in Cross River State. Recommendations were made among others that the fundamental framework of EE should gear towards providing adequate awareness, knowledge, attitude, skills, evaluation ability, and participation for EE and education for sustainable utilization of forest resources in Cross River State.